On August 5, 1966, during the Chicago Freedom Movement (also known as the Chicago Open Housing Movement), Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was pelted with stones while marching in the city. This event occurred as part of King’s efforts to address racial inequality in housing, education, and employment in Chicago.

The march was organized in response to discriminatory housing practices and the poor living conditions faced by Black residents in Chicago. King and other civil rights activists were seeking to draw attention to racial segregation and to advocate for better housing policies.

While King was marching in the Gage Park neighborhood, which was predominantly white, a group of white opponents of the march began throwing rocks and bottles at the protesters. Despite this hostile response, King and other marchers remained committed to their nonviolent principles. Dr. King, in fact, was not injured by the stones, but the event underscored the deep resistance to racial integration in northern cities like Chicago, as opposed to the southern states where the Civil Rights Movement had previously focused its efforts.

The stoning also highlighted the increasing challenges faced by King and other activists, as they extended their fight for civil rights into northern urban areas, encountering different but still intense forms of racial prejudice and violence.