Ilus W. Davis

University of Missouri-Kansas City. He was instrumental in founding the student newspaper the University News. He was to get a law degree from the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri, and served in the Army during World War II

1968 Kansas City Riot, five days after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Kansas City did not experience the immediate breakout of riots seen in other cities. On April 9, when the city did not close schools for King's funeral, a large group of inner city students started marching towards Kansas City City Hall.^[1][2] Davis went to the marchers, joining several leaders from the Black community in talking with the group, then joined the others to lead the march the remaining distance to City Hall. The crowd grew in size, slowly becoming more militant, more so when it arrived at City Hall to find a large contingent of KCPD officers. As tensions rose, with verbal and physical actions escalating on both sides, a volley of tear gas into the crowd would be the final moment when the full riot became inevitable. The students dispersed, but word of this spread through the city, a riot erupted, and five people would be killed by the time it finished.^[1][2]