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Indeed, most white Americans were moved by conscience and events to seek means of cementing racial amity rather than further polarize black and white animosities. Some proposed "neighbor-to-neighbor" visiting programs to ease psychological prejudices. Universities and colleges from Massachusetts to Oregon instituted Martin Luther King scholarships for black students; Berkeley and Stanford pledged to double their minority-group enrollment by 1969, and more than 30 Stanford professors agreed to donate 10% of their salaries to a King fund. A group of San Franciscans moved to rename the Bay Bridge for King, reasoning that "he himself spanned the gap between black and white."
A more meaningful offer was made by the nation's largest housebuilding contractor, Levitt & Sons, which pledged to end racial discrimination in its 80,000 dwelling units from coast to coast and in all its new projects in the U.S. and abroad. Whatever the ultimate effect of these and a score of other proposals made in Martin Luther King's name, the unexpected restraint shown by black and white together last week may prove a worthy memorial to King's cause and, just possibly, a harbinger of greater interracial cooperation and understanding in the future.
*Insurance companies estimated the damage at $45 million, but their totals invariably shrink once investigators make their surveys. Damages during last summer's riots, originally estimated at $664.5 million, were finally computed at $200 million.
*In which a Negro maid, when asked to guess who, says, "The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr."—a line that has been removed from the film since the murder.