s, California, pillaged, burned and killed, while 500 policemen and 5000 nationalguardsmen struggled in vain to contain their fury. Hour after hour, the death tollmounted: 27 dead at the weeks end, nearly 600 injured, 1700 arrested, and propertydamage well over $100 million King 105).The good that resulted from this, was that thousands of Negroes were flocking toregister in the nine counties in Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi where thegovernment post federal examiners to uphold the voting law In four days, 6,998 NegroVoters were added to the rolls in counties where there had previously been only3,857(Funk&Wagnalls 428).In that time of sorrow and guilt when King was murdered, there was an openingfor peace between the races that might otherwise never have presented itself. PresidentJohnson pleaded, "I ask every citizen to reject the blind violence that has struck Dr.King." he went on to say that to bring meaning to his death, we must be determined tostrike forcefully at the consciences of all Americans in order to wrest from tragedy andtrauma, the will to make a better society (King 113)Straughn 5Americans who were young in the 1960s influenced the course of the decade asno group had before. The motto of the time was "don't trust anyone over 30." Another,"tell it like it is," conveyed a real mistrust of what they considered adult deviousness.Youthful Americans were outraged by the intolerance of their universities, racialinequality, social injustice, the Vietnam war, and the economic and political constraintsof everyday life and work. One group that formed during this time was S.D.S. (Studentsfor a Democratic Society).(Ascher 74) Opposed to "imperialism," racism, and oppression,the S.D.S. found the American university guilty of all three. They did do some good atthe beginning like organizing northern ghetto dwellers in projects such as Chicago's jobsor Income now. But the Vietnam War led to a change in their tactics. They became a...
