AHC: Avert the Long Hot Summer of 1967

OTL, in 1964, there were three well known riots -- in Harlem, Rochester, and Philadelphia -- that saw roughly 1,000 injuries combined. The next year, there was just one major riot of note -- but it was Watts, and it alone saw injuries of about 1,000. The year after saw a few riots, but not at nearly the same level as the previous two summers.

Then came 1967. 159 race riots across the US. In Detroit alone there were 2,000 riot related injuries. In Newark, there was 1500. And the numbers piled up in the many more. This was followed next year by another series of riots affecting at least 110 cities -- only these triggered by a single event, the assassination of Martin Luther King. Over a thousand were injured in DC alone.

My challenge -- with the latest PoD possible, prevent the escalation that took place in 1967. No more than 1,000 riot injuries for that summer, and preferably no more than five memorable ones. Same deal for 1968. PoD can be as early as necessary, but I don't want it achieved by worse rioting earlier on.

What are the wider effects of the PoD? Of this "slow burn" lasting longer? How does the election in 1968 play out differently? Any other effects?

We can quiet down 1968 by preventing the assassination of Martin Luther King and at the same time let the Civil Rights Act of 1968 go through as it did. As for 1967, it would be difficult because there was no single trigger event, only the collective impatience to enforce equality under the law. Maybe pass the 1968 law sooner? But calming down 1968 might enough to impact the election that year.

Thinking it over, in terms of political effect, didn't the Detroit Riots have the harshest effect on liberalism? I mean, here's a city at the time with a large black middle class, major participant in the Great Society, a progressive, engaged political class, all that -- but sees the worst riot violence since the NY Draft Riots.

Maybe if just they were averted...