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After the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., there were race riots, fires and mass destruction throughout numerous large cities in the U.S. by civilians.

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Rioting Follows King's Assasination

On April 4, 1968, Dr. King, had returned to Memphis to lead a nonviolent march in support of the city's striking sanitation workers and was assassinated by a sniper's bullet while standing on the second-floor balcony of his room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. As news of King's death spread, violent riots broke out in African American neighborhoods in over one hundred cities across the United States.