The episode was produced in remembrance of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., which occurred 12 years earlier on April 4, 1968.
While looking through a series of old photographs, Louise (Isabel Sanford) and George (Sherman Hemsley) recall the opening of the first Jefferson Cleaners store in Harlem.
Meanwhile, Lionel (who is approximately eighteen years old) is becoming increasingly militant, and Louise and George worry that his future is headed in the wrong direction.
However, the man shows little empathy for the grief accompanying Dr. King's death, and George throws him out after he refers to the people in the neighborhood as "animals".
A frustrated Lionel (Mike Evans) starts to head outside to join the rioters, but George and Louise convince him to stay, reminding him that Dr. King would not approve.