#4 I lived in Arlington, VA in 1968, and we had a 13th floor apartment at the River House facing the entire DC skyline. I watched the smoke rise from the King assassination race riots and the burning of the Georgia Avenue corridor from my bedroom in disbelief. The Virginia State Police closed the 14th, Memorial and Key Bridge accesses with road-blocks and no vehicles with DC plates driven by black youth were permitted into Virginia. There was some local outcry at first but they simply didn't care! Oddly, not a single fire or commercial storefront was damaged as a result.
Johnson deployed federal troops rather quickly and that ended it: (Wike cite)- ..."On Friday, April 5, President Johnson invoked the Insurrection Act of 1807 and dispatched 11,850 federal troops along with 1,750 D.C. Army National Guardsmen to assist the overwhelmed D.C. police force.[16] Marines mounted machine guns on the steps of the Capitol and Army soldiers from the 3rd Infantry Regiment guarded the White House. The 2nd Brigade Combat Team of the 82nd Airborne Division from Fort Bragg, North Carolina and 6th Cavalry Regiment from Fort Meade, Maryland were among the principal federal forces sent to the city. At one point, on April 5, rioting reached within two blocks of the White House before rioters retreated. The occupation of Washington was the largest of any American city since the Civil War.
Federal troops and National Guardsmen imposed a strict curfew, worked riot control, patrolled the streets, guarded looted stores, and provided aid to those who were displaced by the rioting. They continued to remain after the rioting had officially ceased to protect against a second riot and further damage." |