City Cast
April 4, 2023

What D.C. Learned From the 1968 Uprisings

More than 900 D.C. businesses were damaged, and nearly 700 homes destroyed during the unrest in April 1968 after Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed. But what’s even more striking is to hear about that part of D.C.’s history through the words of its residents: how they processed the grief and anger for a fallen icon. Vann Newkirk, the host of the Atlantic’s podcast Holy Week, spoke to several Washingtonians who were there, and he relays those stories to us today, in part one of our 1968 series.

Be sure to tune in tomorrow, for our conversation with Virginia Ali, the founder of Ben’s Chili Bowl.


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