Atlantic podcast explores the week following the MLK assassination

1968 is a pivotal year in American history. The assassinations of both Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr., combined with the passage of the Fair Housing Act, marked a change in momentum for the Civil Rights Movement.

This month, The Atlantic released a new podcast called Holy Week, exploring the week following King’s assassination. The podcast’s host, Vann Newkirk II, joined Stephen Henderson on Detroit Today to discuss how the event diverted the course of a social revolution.

“King himself believed that non-violence was the last best hope for reconciliation without blood in America.” — Vann Newkirk II, The Atlantic

Listen: How MLK’s assassination disrupted a social revolution in America.

Guest

Vann Newkirk II is a senior editor for The Atlantic. He recently produced the 8-episode podcast, Holy Week, covering the uprisings that occurred after Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination in Memphis. He says when King was killed, for many, the sense of hope that non-violent change was possible died with him.

“What you have left is you have people who are frustrated who have been told, often by the Civil Rights leadership, that things will be better — that we will overcome,” says Newkirk. “And now they’re saying, ‘Okay, what happens if we don’t?'”