herbert hoover, MLK, and the legacy of race and partisanship in america

History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.
–Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Legally, the silence of the good people lasted from the start of Reconstruction to the enactment of the Civil Rights Act, a period which spanned 101 troubled years. In large part, the Reconstruction project to which Dr. King ultimately gave his life was irreparably damaged by the assassination of President Lincoln, but it was the legacy of another President–Herbert Hoover–that had enormous repercussions for the future of race and politics in America.