Interview

Forty-two years have passed since Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis with such violent consequences across America. The rioting in Washington was among the worst in the country. The city where I was living and working suddenly became a very frightening place. I'll try to give you some sense of what it was like always mindful, of course, of the fallibility of human memory.

 What was the media coverage like? Did you see it mostly on the news or hear it on the radio? In 1968 people did not have computers in their homes as they do now. Nor did they carry around talented telephones providing instant access to everything. At home there was television and radio to complement the daily newspaper, and someone on the street might carry a transistor radio.

What did you hear about the assassination during the event and what did you hear following it? Do you remember where you were? Since Dr. King was shot at around six in the evening, I suppose that I first heard about it on the nightly TV news although I don't recall exactly. At the time I was working for an organization called Urban America that was located on Massachusetts Avenue not far from where I lived, so I probably would have already walked home and been cooking dinner. By later that evening the rioters who had congregated around 14th and U Streets had started looting and setting buildings afire. I have no idea how many buildings burned although I recall seeing a figure of over 1,000. My apartment was on 19th Street, and from the front windows I could seek the smoke.

What was the mood like in the city following the assassination?

At the time I was a twenty-five-year-old woman raised in a white suburb who was living for the first time in a city that was well over 50% African American, or "Negro" as one said then. Washington had an established African American community including may professionals. However, there were also those, particularly among the younger activists, who were impatient with Dr. King's peaceful, non-violent approach to civil disobedience. When the word spread that he had been shot, there was great sadness but also great anger.

What else do you remember about the riots? The rioting started Thursday evening. It soon got so bad that Mayor-Commissioner Walter Washington imposed a curfew from 5:30 PM to 6:30 AM. The Metro had not yet been built, and I recall the sidewalk on Connecticut Avenue around the corner from my apartment being crowded with people trying to get home on foot before the curfew.

How did security change for you working in the city following the riots? Conditions were so alarming that President Lyndon Johnson called in troops including the National Guard. At first we stayed indoors. However, over the weekend things seemed calmer so my husband and I decided to drive through the commercial area to see for ourselves. People were still looting stores, carrying away TV's, clothes and all sorts of things. Curiously, it didn't seem dangerous but almost carnivalesque, and noone threatened us in any way.

How did the events impact your daily life? The worst of the trouble lasted about five days. Afterwards there was still racial tension in the city, but it was a time of racial tension around the country. We went back to work the following week just as people do after major events because, trite as it may be to say, life goes on. My grandparents were supposed to come for Easter dinner the next weekend, but they were afraid to be in the city. That's hard to imagine now when one sees the peaceful city Washington is today.

What was your role in the riots? Were you just an on-looker or did it impact you more