On April 6, 1968 the Silent Vigil at Duke University, a week-long silent demonstration following the Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., kicked-off with 450 students marching three miles from campus to Knight House to deliver a list of demands to Douglas Knight for a restructuring of Duke University, so that the institution would be less threatening to African-American students and employees. The demands included that Knight publish an advertisement in the "Durham Morning Herald" calling for a day of mourning for Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., that he raise the minimum wage to $1.60 for university employees, and that he resign from the then-segregated Hope Valley Country Club. The students also demanded that Knight appoint a committee of students, faculty, and workers to make recommendations concerning collective bargaining and union recognition at Duke. Knight received the students during the protest, and invited them into the house, spending the entire night negotiating the terms of their demands.