7. Meanwhile blood was being spilled all over the country. In 1963 a Birmingham church was bombed, killing four African-American girls. Three civil rights advocates were murdered in Mississippi in 1964.
During the summer of 1965 in Watts, an all-black, run-down neighborhood in Los Angeles, a white police
officer pulled over a young black driver to check him for drunk driving. The officer arrested the young
man, but a crowd had gathered to witness the brutality. By the time the officer called for backup, the
crowd had grown larger and angrier. They began hurtling rocks and bottles at the officers. The next day,
the protest had grown into a full-scale riot with thousands of angry African Americans marching through
the streets with guns and Molotov cocktails. They set Watts on fire.
Thousands of national guardsmen were called in, and a battle raged for six days. The riot killed 34
people, injured more than 1,000 and caused $50 to $100 million in damage. The following hot summers
brought more race riots, most notably in Detroit, Michigan and Newark, New Jersey.
The Watts riots began when
A. a white police officer pulled over a young
black man in Los Angeles in 1965.
C. four African-American girls were killed in a
Birmingham church in 1963.
B. three civil rights advocates were murdered
in Mississippi in 1964.
D. police raided a bar in Detroit in 1967.