September 5, 1966. The march on Cicero, Illinois, proceeds
despite Dr. King’s withdrawal. This eight-minute video from the
Chicago Film Archives shows the 250 marchers, including many
white supporters, flanked by several thousand members of the
National Guard and Cook County police. Around the 5:20 mark, the
tensions between the marchers and angry protesters flare up:
this rage is what city and state officials were afraid of—and
the reason Cook County Sheriff Ogilvie called marching in Cicero
“awfully close to a suicidal act.” The tenor of the marchers, as
well, some of whom can be seen to be gesturing to and
interacting with the crowd, indicates the shift from Dr. King’s
vision of nonviolence. August 26, 1966. Martin Luther King and
members of the SCLC meet with Chicago officials, including Mayor
Daley, to finalize a program to end segregated housing there.
The Open Housing Summit Agreement, available in full here,
included promises by the Chicago Housing Authority to build more
public housing, and by the Mo