KPIX 5 Archive: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr's Words Still Ring True: 'Our Nation's Summer Riots Are Caused By Our Nation's Winters Of Delays'

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- Back in July 1966 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. sat down with KPIX 5 and reflected on the civil unrest during that summer.

National Guard troops were in the streets of American cities, anger over the lack of civil rights triggered race riots. There was also widespread dissatisfaction with the government in Washington.

More than 64 years later, the scene is much similar.

There are thousands of National Guard troops deployed in Washington, D.C. this week to insure a safe inauguration for President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, the first woman and Black American to hold the office. There was also widespread civil unrest in 2020 across the county as millions demanded police reform as part of the "Black Lives Matter" movement.

When asked about the unrest in 1966, Dr. King replied:

"Well we are all lost. I can't segmentize -- isolate the civil rights movement as something over here in America, something over there," he said. "If anything, the civil rights movement is the conscious of America and if we have had a summer of violence which we had this summer and other summers it is a reflection on the whole nation."

"We wouldn't have had that violence if the nation had moved forthrightly, progressively and honestly toward a resolution of the problem. And I still content that our nation's summer riots are caused by our nation's winters of delay. And as long as justice is postponed, as long as these problem are there, we are on the verge of social disruption and it's not only the Black man. It hurts our whole nation."