1968 riots: Four days that reshaped Washington, D.C. - Washington Post
▻https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/local/dc-riots-1968
On April 4, 1968, the country was still reeling from racial tensions that had sparked deadly riots the year before in Detroit and Newark. But the capital city was said to be special. Some whites called it “the colored man’s paradise.” For thousands of blacks, there was a darker side to paradise, one where humiliation, poverty, segregation and discrimination had accumulated for a century.
Then, shortly after 8 p.m., word reached the District that the Rev. #Martin_Luther_King Jr. had been slain in Memphis. His assassination ignited an explosion of rioting, looting and burning that stunned Washington and would leave many neighborhoods in ruins for 30 years.