Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968. His death sparked riots in cities nationwide and led Lyndon B. Johnson to urge Congress to pass the stalled Federal Fair Housing Act.
cities — ended after Johnson deployed 58,000 National Guardsmen and Army troops to join state and local law enforcement., also known as the Civil Rights Act of 1968.majority of AmericansJohnson proposed legislation to ban segregation for renters and prospective home buyers in 1966. It passed the House in August 1967 and made it through the Senate with amendments in March 1968, the same month that Johnson announced he would not seek re-election.
"With people angry in the streets, it made sense for Congress to pass legislation aimed at showing continued progress on the racial front," said Lopez D. Matthews Jr., digital librarian at Howard University. While Johnson already supported the housing law, the explosion of anger following King’s assassination had an impact on him, said Robert Dallek, a historian and author of the book ""Johnson was sensitive to that. I think it helped him get the Fair Housing Law of 1968 passed through Congress," Dallek said.
Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, author of "Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream," said Johnson wrote in his memoir about meeting with civil rights leaders the morning after King’s death and spoke about seizing the opportunity to pass a housing law. While advisers suggested an executive order, Johnson wanted the force of congressional approval.
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