The Civil Rights Act wasn’t passed because civil rights activists were victimized until the oppressors felt bad for them and saw their humanity, it was passed after MLK got shot and every city burned for a week.

The Civil Rights Act was passed 4 years before MLK died.

And yet the whole world is still feeling bad for MLK getting murdered so many years later, he will stay in every American’s mind forever, his death a stain on this country because people saw his humanity, his death made them feel ashamed. Even you needed to mention him. He was working within the system, he won. His words are still present and an inspiration. He changed more than burning cities did. Without his work and dedication the burning cities would just have been meaningless violence easily dismissed as Black people being bad by the racists. Even the people who ignored racism and pretended everything was fine understood through him that there was something wrong, that change had to happen. Violence and destruction alone will always only spread fear and change who is the next oppressor, good people can change the world into a place where we all hinder oppression to happen, where we don’t need oppressors anymore.

And it was the system who brought the housing rights act. Boring, peaceful lawyers who were there waiting for their chance to make something good happen inside the system. Witout them the fires would have burned out and everything had stayed the same until the next violence.