0:02 today dr king is one of the most admired
0:04 men of the 20th century but according to
0:05 the last gallup poll performed in his
0:08 lifetime dr king had a 32 positive and a
0:12 63 negative rating amongst the american
0:14 people in 1965. now to put that in
0:16 perspective when media organizations
0:18 polled americans in the fall of 2017
0:20 about nfl player colin kaepernick's
0:22 kneeling protests over police brutality
0:25 during the national anthem cbs found
0:27 only 38 percent approved and half po
0:31 ugov found 36 approved while cnn found
0:34 43 percent of americans approved and 49 disagreed
0:35 disagreed
0:37 in other words colin kaepernick and the
0:39 nfl police brutality protests during the
0:43 anthem were more popular in 2017 than dr
0:45 king was in the final years of his life
0:48 although i know dr king had a 95
0:49 approval rating from african americans
0:52 in a 1965 harris poll
0:54 in that same poll 54 of white americans
0:56 said that they would not march or
0:58 protest if they were quote in the same
1:01 position as black people and two months
1:03 later 85 of white americans said that
1:05 civil rights demonstrations hurt black
1:07 americans more than they helped
1:10 in december of 1965 50 of americans said
1:12 that dr king hurt the cause of civil rights
1:14 rights
1:17 most americans liked the status quo they
1:20 did not like even non-violent protests
1:22 and while dr king is nearly universally
1:24 praised today most americans today had
1:25 they lived in the 60s would probably
1:27 think of king roughly the way they think
1:28 of kaepernick
1:30 nevertheless the nation responded with
1:33 anger and sadness at king's murder
1:36 in 1967 the year before dr king had said
1:38 quote certain conditions continue to
1:40 exist in our society which must be
1:42 condemned as vigorously as we condemn
1:46 riots but in the final analysis a riot
1:49 is the language of the unheard and what
1:51 is it that america has failed to hear it
1:52 has failed to hear that the plight of
1:54 the negro poor has worsened over the
1:56 last few years it has failed to hear
1:58 that the promises of freedom and justice
2:00 have not been met and it has failed to
2:02 hear that large segments of white
2:03 society are more concerned about
2:06 tranquility and the status quo than
2:09 about justice equality and humanity
2:11 and so in a real sense our nation's
2:13 summers of riots are caused by our
2:16 nation's winters of delay and as long as
2:19 america postpones justice we stand in
2:20 the position of having these recurrences
2:23 of violence and riots over and over again
2:24 again
2:25 social justice and progress are the
2:29 absolute guarantors of riot prevention
2:30 end quote
2:32 many americans took to the streets to
2:34 express their rage at the murder of dr king
2:35 king
2:38 riots erupted in 125 cities causing
2:40 dozens of deaths thousands of injuries
2:42 tens of thousands of arrests and an
2:45 estimated 65 million dollars in property damage
2:46 damage
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