Baltimore Riots of 1968

I grew up during the 1960's; those years were a blur of unrest and ill ease. People, like my parents had considered building bomb shelters. We were reading survilialist books, they were on our coffee table in the den. We were stock piling canned goods and bottled water, batteries, portable radios, blankets, flash lights and extra clothing. In school there were drills when all the children were to go into the hall way and duck and cover, in case of a nuclear attack, like that would have done us any good. We had non electrical appliances ready to use if we needed them.

We lived and were just plain scared all the time. I lived through an assassination of a beloved president, took a train to Washington DC with my parents to pay our respects, stood in line for over ten hours just to walk past a flagged draped casket, I was there with over a 100,000 people, these events stay with you through the years and shape the type of person you are to become..

I had two older brothers, one was stationed in Guantanamo Bay Cuba during the missile crisis in October, and the other was on the Coral Sea in the Pacific Ocean. Eventually they were both on the same ship fighting in Vietnam, Russian Migs flying overhead; we didn't know if they were ever coming home. When my father passed in 1966, Steve my oldest brother was released from the Navy to come home and take care of our family. He told me one day that he was grateful for having served his nation and now it was time to serve his state, he joined the Baltimore City Police force. See, my family has only been in this country for 100 years and we are still grateful that we are here.

In 1968, I, as a sixteen year old watched the Peace Marchers, heard and read about the dead boys in Mississippi, watched a Black Man stand at a pulpit and proclaim to a crowd that "He had a Dream..." I listened to those words and they made sense. Then through a senseless act this man of peace was murdered. The events that followed the following two weeks would have made this man of peace quiver to think it was being done in his name.

Steve, my brother was a 26 year old Baltimore City Police Officer, he put on his uniform and gun belt every day during those weeks in April 1968 and went out into the streets to protect the citizens of this state. The rioters were nothing more than hoodlums. There were over 300 arson fires set during the two week period. These people were throwing rocks into the shops of their own neighborhoods, to those establishments that provided them their food. I remember one report on the evening news where the proprietor of one of the burnt out grocery stores told the reporter that he had always advanced milk, eggs, bread, and staples to some of his customers when they were short of funds and he was there holding a bloody handkerchief to his cut forehead, the strain and smudges on his face asking why?

Why would people do this? They were not honoring this man of peace; they were taking sniper shots from the roof tops of buildings. They were breaking into Montgomery Wards warehouse and stealing television sets; my brother caught a few of these criminals. And that is all they were, just plain no good criminals. They set fire to one grocery store on North Avenue, and during that fire an elderly man died in the upstairs apartment that he had rented. This was a senseless death, one that need not have happened, if not for the unlawful act of these rioters.

The National Guard was called in by then Governor Spiro Agnew; curfew was called and enforced throughout the area. Alcohol sales were banished, bars, restuarants, shopping centers,grocery stores were closed. Gasoline stations could not sell fuel in carry containers, and were closed in the evening. Everyone was terrified of what was going to happen next. Each day we heard reports on the news and first hand accounts because Steve still lived at home then and told us some of the things that he had seen. He said it was worse than war.

The memorial services that were conducted for Dr King throughout the City went off without incident, as they should have been, to honor a man of peace, not belittle his memory with violence.

At the end of the two weeks there were over 4400 arrests, hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of damage. Yes these people now had new stolen television sets, new stolen clothes and shoes, new stolen furniture, stolen money, burnt out grocery stores where they did their shopping, burnt cars that they used to use to go to work that were no longer of any use at all. But did they abide by the preaching's of the man that they were claiming to honor by committing acts of crimes? I wonder if when they look in a mirror today and remember the damage that they did are they happy with the reflection that is looking back at them. I wonder if they are proud of how they besmirched this man's good work for a stolen television set, what good did it do them?

I wonder......