Steve Burns
WMAL.com
WASHINGTON – (WMAL) 1968 was a tumultuous year across the country, but the District of Columbia had a front seat to the volatility.
Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination spawned four days of rioting that left 12 dead, over 1,000 injured, and neighborhoods in ruins. Along with Vietnam protests and the beginnings of home rule, the year proved to be transformative for the city in more ways than one. 50 years later, D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson is looking to start a process to figure out how best to remember, commemorate, and examine the events.
“It was a significant year,” Mendelson told WMAL. “I think it’s appropriate that we look at constructing an event or series of events to reflect back on 1968 and what progress we’ve made since then.”
He said he is starting the process early so others can have a voice in what kind of events take place.
“It could be something as academic as a series of lectures, or it could be that we have one or more receptions at City Hall,” Mendelson said. “It’s too early to say.”
On top of King’s assassination, historians have cited a multitude of factors that contributed to the 1968 riots, including race relations, policing, and unemployment. Mendelson suggested the commemorations would examine those factors, looking at progress made and work still to be done.
The riots lasted five days, and left entire neighborhoods burned out. It would take decades for some areas to bounce back. Some of the affected areas are now known as active, vibrant parts of the city, including the U Street Corridor and H Street Northeast, but the development often came at a cost to longtime residents of those areas, often African-American, who were forced out.
Anti-Vietnam protests also rippled across the city, even leading to a strike in the public school system. 1968 was also the first full year of governance under a council, rather than congressionally-appointed commissioners. Those councilmembers were appointed by the President, but it still provided the framework for locally-elected representatives to come later.
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