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You have to read this!!!!! It's not long, but Wow!
25 June 2023
CBS Sunday Morning.
One of the segments this day was Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Wesley Lowery, author of "American Whitelash." What caught my attention was his opening words:
"Of all the newspapers I have come across, in newspapers and in vintage stores, one of my cherished is the a copy of the April 9th, 1968 edition of the now defunct Chicago Daily News. A 12-page edition they published after the death of Martin Luther King Jr. The second to last page is a searing column by Mike Royko, one of the city's and country's famed writers."
For those who never knew Royko in his prime, you really missed something. Get on the Google!
Lowrey then read a snip from Royko's column that day in 1968 that was so "searing" that it made me go and search to find Royko's complete column. The word "searing" barely touches what Royko wrote. Here is the full column. Please! Savor every word and phrase as if it is a fine wine you can't afford. Royko's last six sentences are gems. (Emphasis mine):
FBI agents are looking for the man who pulled the trigger and surely they will find him.
But it doesn’t matter if they do or they don’t. They can’t catch everybody, and Martin Luther King was executed by a firing squad that numbered in the millions.
They took part, from all over the country, pouring words of hate into the ear of the assassin.
The man with the gun did what he was told. Millions of bigots, subtle and obvious, put it in his hand and assured him he was doing the right thing.
It would be easy to point at the Southern redneck and say he did it. But what of the Northern disk-jockey-turned-commentator, with his slippery words of hate every morning?
What about the Northern mayor who steps all over every poverty program advancement, thinking only of political expediency, until riots fester, whites react with more hate and the gap between the races grows bigger?
Toss in the congressman with the stupid arguments against busing. And the pathetic women who turn out with eggs in their hands to throw at children.
Let us not forget the law-and-order type politicians who are in favor of arresting all Negro prostitutes in the vice districts. When you ask them to vote for laws that would eliminate some of the causes of prostitution, they babble like the boobs they are.
Throw in a Steve Telow* or two: the Eastern and Southern European immigrant or his kid who seems to be convinced that in 40 or 50 years he built this country. There was nothing here until he arrived, you see, so that gives him the right to pitch rocks when Martin Luther King walks down the street in his neighborhood.
They all took their place in King’s firing squad.
And behind them were the subtle ones, those who never say anything bad but just nod when the bigot throws out his strong opinions.
He is actually the worst, the nodder is, because sometimes he believes differently but he says nothing. He doesn’t want to cause trouble. For Pete’s sake, don’t cause trouble!
So when his brother-in-law or his card-playing buddy from across the alley spews out the racial filth, he nods.
Give some credit to the most subtle of the subtle. That distinction belongs to the FBI, now looking for King’s killer.
That agency took part in a mudslinging campaign against him that to this day demands an investigation.
The bullet that hit King came from all directions. Every two-bit politician or incompetent editorial writer found in him, not themselves, the cause of our racial problems.
It was almost ludicrous. The man came on the American scene preaching nonviolence from the first day he sat at the wrong end of a bus. He preached it in the North and was hit with rocks. He talked it the day he was murdered.
Hypocrites all over this country would kneel every Sunday morning and mouth messages to Jesus Christ. Then they would come out and tell each other, after reading the papers, that somebody should string up King, who was living Christianity like few Americans ever have.
Maybe it was the simplicity of his goal that confused people, or the way he dramatized it.
He wanted only that black Americans have their constitutional rights, that they get an equal shot at this country’s benefits, the same thing we give to the last guy who jumped off the boat.
So we killed him. Just as we killed Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy. No other country kills so many of its best people.
Last Sunday night the president said he was quitting after this term. He said this country is so filled with hate it might help if he got out. Four days later we killed a Nobel Peace Prize winner.
We have pointed a gun at our own head and we are squeezing the trigger. And nobody we elect is going to help us. It is our head and our finger.
Is Royko good or what???
* I didn't know who the Steve Telow Royko referred to was, so I looked him up.
Northwest Chicago Historical Society newsletter, July 2020, page 19:
The editor of the Northwest Times observed (1968):
“Anyone who doubts that the main busing opposition has its roots in racism need only have attended one of the citizens’ organizational meetings held on the Northwest Side during the past 10 days.
Steve Telow, president of the Kilbourn Organization, suggested that Catholic School students on the Northwest Side switch to public schools, thus overcrowding them and “sabotaging” the School Board’s plan to move children to less crowded schools. The Greater Northwest Civic Association, the Northwest Taxpayers Council, and the Concerned Catholic Parishioners supported this plan, along with succession. The associate superintendent for Catholic Schools, Rev. H. Robert Clark, disagreed with the plans and found them “scandalous.”
After King was assassinated, and after Royko wrote his column:
The coalition of Northwest Side community groups continued to meet to formulate a plan to end the busing. Later that March (1969), they held a “Grievance Parade,” driving through streets and shopping areas to promote their anti-busing message. The Polish Homeowners and Taxpayers Association started picketing at the schools where the bused children were attending. Some of the other groups joined in, but not all of them agreed that this method would be effective. While several people were arrested, the most notorious arrests happened at Bridge School in April of 1968 in the aftermath of Martin Luther King Jr.’s death. Two residents, including Steve Telow, president of the Polish Homeowners Association, repeatedly raised the flag from its half-staff position to honor the memory of Dr. King. Telow insisted that Bridge (School) is “..an American School. People have the right to raise the flag to full staff.”
Sound familiar?
83 replies
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Giving this post a huge kick and recommend. 
Not to hijack but how about a shout out to Sidney J Harris - long time Daily News and Sun-Times columnist. Every couple weeks he wrote a column called "Things I learned on the way to learning something else".
It was about stuff that he just stumbled upon as he was doing research for this or that column. A foreign concept in today's world of google where you can get any question answered - as long as it's the question you asked.
I like 
Delicious feast of searing words.
Many thanks for sharing this powerful piece, Grins.
This one’s left a mark, an impression I’ll be pondering for awhile.
🕊thatcrowwoman
I was a long-time fan of Royko's excellent writing, since his columns were syndicated and appeared in newspapers throughout the country. Local libraries will probably have some of Royko's many books on their shelves, and I'm hoping they're also available as ebooks. (Many were published before the digital age.)
I believe this column on the murder of Dr. King is one of Royko's very best. Thanks for posting!
Respect to Mike Royko and to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
I miss both of them so much. 
of a great witness to America's "troubles" and the cause of those troubles. And now those guns-weapons of mass destruction have in their sights, children, all men and women old and young. And don't misunderstand me all African-Americans and people of colour are specifically in those sights sometimes also. Whether in a grocery store or targets in a random shooting on the streets of America.
an amazing man 
what a pic
I remember Mr. Royko vividly when I was a teenager in Illinois, I just loved the guy, he was so cool. 
