When racial conflict flared in Ferguson, Missouri, this summer it brought back terrible memories of what happened nearly 50 years ago, in the summer of 1965. 

Then, with a Democratic administration riding high on a string of major legislative victories, including landmark civil rights and voting rights legislation, six days of horrendous rioting broke out in Watts, Los Angeles following community frustration with police brutality.

As the nation celebrates the birthday of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., it is a good time to look back at some of his unfulfilled agenda from the late 1960s, when he had turned his attention to issues directly related to the riots, such as fair housing, unemployment and the infrastructure of the cities.

The rioting in Watts devastated the community. The conflict began on August 11 following a traffic stop in the African-American neighborhood. The police pulled over the car of 21-year-old Marquette Frye and his brother in the early evening. The police believed that Frye was intoxicated. Frye's mother arrived on the scene and started to yell at the police to leave her son alone.

In Watts, many community residents didn't trust the police. Charges of police brutality had been commonplace for decades. When the policeman arrested the brother and their mother, an angry crowd started to throw bottles and rocks at the police. Rumors circulated that the police had hit a pregnant woman.

The rioting quickly spread through a 25-block area. One five-year-old boy was killed by sniper fire....