What a month of April 1968

What a month of April 1968: Maybe it’s me, but certain events are frozen in my memory. Back in 1968, I was at home reading my brand new The Sporting News, the weekly sports newspaper that we used to read before ESPN or the internet. My parents had given me a…

What a month of April 1968 – American Thinker https://t.co/rNMHUQbDbv

— Silvio Canto. Jr. (@silvio_canto) April 5, 2025

Maybe it’s me, but certain events are frozen in my memory.

Back in 1968, I was at home reading my brand new The Sporting News, the weekly sports newspaper that we used to read before ESPN or the internet. My parents had given me a subscription for Christmas, and I loved rushing to the mailbox to consume every bit of information. It was “box score” heaven for baseball fans like me. Who knew back then that someday I’d be getting all of that on my phone? I didn’t, but that’s where we are today.

And then the phone rang. It was my late school buddy Harvey with the news that Dr. Martin Luther King had been shot in Memphis. Then President Johnson spoke to the nation! By a crazy coincidence, he had just announced days before that he would not be running for re-election in 1968.

Then all hell broke loose. Cities were burning from coast to coast. I shared the frustration about Dr. King’s assassination but did not understand what looting businesses had to do with the shooting. My guess is that all of the chaos boosted Governor George Wallace’s campaign, the “law and order” man that election.

In later years, we created a national holiday to remember Dr. King, and his words are heard over and over again.

Nevertheless, I’ve asked myself a simple question: what would Dr. King say of the state of black America today? the collapse of the black family? the black on-black crime? the terrible black Democrat leadership that runs cities like Baltimore and Chicago? The dependence on government programs?

We will never know, but I’ll submit that Dr. King would have mixed emotions. Yes, lots of progress here and there, but too many problems everywhere.

I can’t believe Dr. King would be very happy looking at the state of black America today. I’m sure he’d be reminding the “identity politics” Democrats to judge people by their character, not the color of their skin.

Well, it was one heck of an April day to remember. It may have been the first time that I stayed up all night watching a developing story on television.

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