Two Kansas City activists reflect on Dr. Martin Luther King's legacy

Musician Danny Cox faced discrimination while touring in Missouri in the 1960s, while public servant Al Brooks marched across the city during the 1968 riots. They've seen firsthand the long arc of the Civil Rights Movement, and how the work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is still ongoing in Kansas City.
Alvin Brooks — a former police officer, school board member, and author —was active in the Kansas City riots that took place on April 9, 1968, a week after Dr. Martin Luther's King Jr.'s assassination.

Even though the world is different now than it was in the late '60s, Brooks says there's still work left to be done.

"There was a report that came out by the mayor of Kansas City on August 15, 1968, to study why there was a riot in Kansas City? If you look at that, the same thing that they talk about in 1968 is the same thing in 2022 and 23 that we're talking about in Kansas City and other parts of America," Brooks said. "So progress, yes, but not enough that we find ourselves as a free nation."