This week marks the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., so naturally, Atlanta is awash in events honoring its famous, crusading son.
A recent story in the AJC told how the Atlanta police carefully controlled the tense atmosphere in Atlanta in 1968, so as not to let the King shooting be a catalyst for fires and riots in King’s hometown.
Contrast that with the inept performance of Los Angeles police in the events following the videotaped beating of Rodney King by Los Angeles police, which led to the vicious, destructive riots in 1992.
I feel a bit of kinship with both areas. I was a high schooler in Atlanta when King was gunned down, and I remember how tense the area was. Also, I was a Southern California resident in the 1990s, and the King beating took place just a few miles away from where I was preparing to run the 1991 Los Angeles Marathon. And I can remember in my youth in Birmingham, Ala., in the 1950s the “white” and “colored” signs over drinking fountains in department stores.
The acquittal of the L.A. police officers in state Superior Court a year later touched off the ‘92 riots, and L.A. police where all but invisible during the unbelievable melee that resulted in widespread injury and destruction.
So King’s legacy is not just the societal changes that we see every day. It’s how those around him handled other events. Atlanta can still be proud.
