The Fires of 1968

The Fires of 1968. Midcity at the Crossroads. , The assassination of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., on Thursday April 4, 1968, changed this neighborhood forever., When word of Dr. King's murder in Memphis spread that evening, Washingtonians gathered along busy 14th and U Streets NW, H Street NE, Eighth Street SE, Nichols Avenue SE, Benning Road NE, and here on Seventh. At first distraught residents simply demanded that businesses close to honor the life of Dr. King, but soon individuals angry over lifetimes of discrimination began smashing storefronts and taking merchandise. Fury over Dr. King's death, combined with local resentment of businesses that treated Black patrons as second-class citizens, fueled the rage and destruction., Stores were firebombed and looted. Firefighters could not do their jobs, because people cut their hoses. Police were outnumbered. On Friday National Guardsmen and U.S. Army troops arrived to restore order., When the smoke cleared, the city discovered that 13 people had died in fires. Many were elderly and disabled, living above the storefronts. Businesses were ruined, ever to reopen. The riots unfortunately succeeded where urban renewal planners had failed: demolishing many of the area's oldest buildings. Shaw would experience years of boarded-up windows and vacant lots. By the 1980s, thanks to local pressure, affordable housing stood where stores and taverns once did business., One building destroyed in the fires was a grand house built on this corner some time before 1874 for fruit grower William F. Thyson. Later it served as a hotel for farmers selling goods at the O Street Market, and from 1920 until 1950, the Salvation Army used it to provide housing and job training for African American men.