The 1968 Washington, DC riots of April 5–8, 1968 devastated the City of Washington. Washington, Chicago, and Baltimore were the cities most impacted by civil unrest in over 110 U.S. cities in the aftermath of the April 4 assassination of American Civil Rights Movement leader Martin Luther King, Jr.

Couse of events

The ready availability of jobs in the growing federal government attracted many to Washington in the 1960s, and middle class African-American neighborhoods prospered. Despite the end of legally mandated racial segregation, the historic neighborhoods of Shaw, the H Street Northeast corridor, and Columbia Heights, centered at the intersection of 14th and U Streets Northwest, remained the centers of African-American commercial life in the city.

As word of King's murder by James Earl Ray in Memphis, Tennessee spread on the evening of Thursday, April 4, crowds began to gather at 14th and U. Stokely Carmichael, the Trinidad-born activist and Howard University graduate, had parted with King in 1966, but led members of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) to stores in the neighborhood demanding that they close out of respect. Although polite at first, the crowd fell out of control and began breaking windows. By 11pm, widespread looting had begun, as well as in over 30 other cities.

Mayor Walter Washington ordered the damage cleaned up immediately the next morning. Anger was still evident when Carmichael addressed a rally at Howard warning of violence on Friday morning, however, and after the close of the rally crowds walking down 7th Street NW came into violent confrontations with police, as well as in the H Street NE corridor. By midday numerous buildings were on fire, with firefighters attacked with bottles and rocks and unable to respond to them.

Crowds of as many as 20,000 overwhelmed the District's 2800-member police force, and President Lyndon B. Johnson dispatched some 14,000 National Guard troops to assist them. Mayor Washington imposed a curfew and banned the sale of alcohol and guns in the city. By the time the city was considered pacified on Sunday, April 8, twelve had been killed (mostly in burning homes), 1097 injured, and over 6100 arrested. Additionally, some 1200 buildings had been burned, including over 900 stores.

Impact

The riots utterly devastated Washington's inner city economy. With the destruction or closing of businesses, thousands of jobs were lost, and insurance rates soared. Made uneasy by the violence, city residents of all races accelerated their departure for suburban areas, depressing property values. Crime in the burned out neighborhoods rose sharply, further discouraging investment.

On some blocks, only rubble remained for decades. The Columbia Heights and U Street corridors did not begin to recover economically until the opening of the U St/Cardozo and Columbia Heights Washington Metro stations in 1991 and 1999 respectively, while the H Street NE corridor remained depressed for several years longer.

Walter Washington, who reportedly refused FBI director J. Edgar Hoover's suggestion to shoot the rioters, went on to become the city's first elected mayor.

References

• Bean, Jonathan. "'Burn, Baby, Burn': Small Business in the Urban Riots of the 1960s" (PDF), The Independent Review 5:2, Fall 2000, pp. 165-187
• CNN.com: "Nation's capital still recovering from 1968 riots," April 4, 1998
• New York Avenue Presbyterian Church: "DC Riots of 1968"
• Tucker, Neely. "The Wreckage of a Dream," Washington Post August 24, 2004, p. B01