Last summer, the nearly successful attempt to assassinate Donald Trump took my mind back to April 1968. Today, when I heard the terrible news that Charlie Kirk had been shot and killed, I thought again of Martin Luther King Jr.
Don’t get me wrong. King and Kirk lived in different times and held very different beliefs. My point is this: Both men represented movements that were upending the status quo.
The civil rights movement triggered a revolution in American public life. It overturned a longstanding consensus about race, and thankfully so. However, the movement’s success led to disbelief, anger, and bitterness among many whites. I was a child in those years. But I was aware enough to sense the resentment, and on more than one occasion, I heard adults utter ugly sentiments that amounted to verbal violence.
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