Kansas City riots, April 1968

I was in Chicago, not Kansas City, in the days following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King. All told, I think I'd rather have been here.
When I covered the Kansas City cops for this newspaper, the consensus among police veterans was that the level and extent of violence during the riots in this city were never reported.
Here's a chart that appeared in The Star on April 9, 1968 - early in five nights of rioting and unrest in the city.

Lead story that day:

• "Violence erupted for the second straight night on Kansas City's East Side last night, turning a large part of the area into a battleground where snipers dueled with police and national guardsmen in the glow of high-reaching flames from fire-bombed buildings."

Six days later, after things settled down, police Chief Clarence M. Kelley said he wanted to restore police-community relations. In what strikes me as a quaint touch, members of the "Negro community" asked that cops walk their beats, not drive. They were turned down.

Star story April 9, 1968, page 1 (jpeg)
Star story April 9, 1968, page 2 (jpeg)

Here's the federal government's Website for Martin Luther King Day. It stresses making today "a day on, not a day off." There are links to federal service and volunteer opportunities.

Comments

[Still bangin']

Yeah, well, the KCMO police AND the National Guard still couldn't take that part of town today...the KCPD don't even try.

[John]

Thats the attitude that should make everybody proud.

[Apocalypse Cops]

Well, in all fairness the National Guard is mostly in Iraq these days, and the guys on the Eastside have WAY better guns today than in the nineteen sixties, so it wouldn't be a fair fight.

But if the Guard used Shock and Awe, "precision airstrikes", DU and Wiley Pete, they might kill as many innocent civilians as they are in Iraq. Certainly wipe out as much property. Remember the Glover Plan? This old article about '68 KC sounds a lot like present day Baghdad.

Thus began the great white flight to Johnson County

If those dudes wearing the red hats got together with those dudes wearing the blue hats, they'd be a force to be reckoned with.

Right now it's a full scale war between 33rd and 55th street gangs. Shootings almost every night.

[Not Dick Berkley]

Hey, this is the KC Chamber of Commerce calling. Quit posting all this negativity about the City of Fountains. It's not like we're Detroit...

[wesley]

Why was white flight so prevalent in the kansascity area especally east of troost ave in the 1970's?

[wesley]

Why the white flight!

[wesley]

why the white flight!

[Shawn G, Grandview.MO.]

On the frist day of the riot my mother walked to the bus stop got on the bus to work.she got off on main an then walked threw the people to the federal building. went to the 32 floor,an she was met by her supperviser who was black who did state how did u get here my dear . my 19 year old white mother said the bus silly y. allmost fanting droping to her knees her supperviser stated u just walked threw a riot. It is all abought ur state of mind she said hello to all she passed and it was reciprocated. did not see all the pain in the peoples eyes just the good ...
if people could just change there state of mind then we ALL would have a little more of that dream that one man gave his life for in one single action instead of a hello,he chose to pulled a trigger WE NEED TO CHANGE OUR STATE OF MIND OR YET HE STILL HAVE DIED IN VAIN.. god bless Mr.King

[Craig]

I was working in City Hall the day of the riots. We'd already seen LA, Detroit and several other cities burning on our evening news. It was shocking to see the crowds and the police. (Getting a good whiff of the tear gas, even on the 11th floor, was quite a surprise, too.) I don't remember how long the riots lasted, but there were 8pm curfews for about a week, many structures were destroyed as the undercurrent of racial tension that had been churning for sometime surfaced with a vengeance.

I can't say that I (a white person) was surprised at the anger. I lived at 42nd and Campbell at the time and it was easy to see how bad living conditions were just a few blocks away, east of Troost. I still have family in KC and visit often. Despite what the Chamber of Commerce person says, I agree that conditions for many people haven't changed much in KC, or Detroit or LA. I don't know what the solution is, but I'm sure that expensive healthcare, white collar crime in our largest financial institutions and outsourcing manufacturing jobs to Asia aren't helping.

While it is great that downtown KC is coming back (we were dismayed at the deteriorating state of the downtown area way back in the early 70s), more needs to be done for those who live in desperate circumstances.

Thanks for listening...and keep in mind. When conditions become unbearable again (which may be soon) the crowds will form again, and the tear gas will fly again.

[air yeezy]

We serve our country, we can not all use the same way, each person should be in accordance with the intrinsic data, whatever.

[Diane Jones]

Thanks for the history. I grew up in KC, left in 68 (august).... 8yrs old and moved to Cali. I went to Mark Twain Ele and it's GONE! Imagine my surprise when I visited as an adult w/my own children. But we lived on Indiana, and since I was so young, I was so oblivious, but I could see the blight when I visited in 94(??) Thinkin about going back but Santa Barbara looks better for retirement now.

[Rex Porter]

My family lived in Overland Park, Kansas during this time. I ran a cable TV company with our headquarters in the Davidson Building at 1627 Main, in Kansas City, Missouri. Our corporate secretary and financial officer was worried about her daughter being at school when the marchers started up Main Street and found her transistor radio wouldn't work because the batteries were out. So I told her I would walk up town and get batteries and bring them back to the office. As I returned walking back to the Davidson Building, the protest marchers were coming north on Main Street. As they passed the stores, they continually broke out the plate glass windows (show-room windows) with rocks, sticks or whatever they could use. I was shocked when I saw CBS's channel 5 (they had a self-supporting tower with lights running all the way up the tower and they called it the Eye-Full Tower but the public called it the Eye-Sore Tower) report on the evening news that this was a peaceful march and the marchers were very well behaved. I tended not to trust television news programs after that.