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When the West Side Burned
The tragic assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in April 1968 triggered unrest across the country, but in Chicago, the rage and grief that erupted in the city’s Black community led to an unprecedented period of public mourning, looting, and destruction on the city’s West Side. Examine King’s close ties to Chicago and the hope he brought to residents, how his murder brought long-simmering resentment over segregation and discrimination to a boiling point, and how this still-recovering neighborhood struggles to move forward. Audio-narrated descriptions of key visual elements are available.
