Martin Luther King at a Civil Rights demonstration, Birmingham, Alabama, 1963.
Peter Newark
On 4 April 1968, Martin Luther King was assassinated. His strategy of direct action and non-violent peaceful protest was part of the process that led to the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which ended legal segregation in the USA. After 1965, King began to focus on removing the high levels of poverty facing African Americans across the USA.
At the same time, black campaigners began to turn to new leaders and new ideas associated with Black Power. However, by 1968, little had been achieved in improving the living standards of African Americans. Why did the successes of the early 1960s turn so quickly to failure?
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