With all the unrest and civil rights & race riots issues going on today in America, I began to wonder what happened on the day that MLK was assassinated in 1968. Did black and other communities started riots or protests in the aftermath of his untimely death? How did people react across the country, both supporters and detractors of Rev. Martin Luther King?
Yes, absolutely. After Dr. King's assassination major riots broke out across the US. I'm sure someone else can provide a more comprehensive overview, but Washington D.C. was one of the worst affected cities - the U Street and Shaw neighborhoods, once the heart of DC's Black community, were absolutely decimated by the rioting in 1968, and took decades to recover (and some would say they never truly did recover). Over 13,000 federal troops were mobilized to DC to control the riots, the largest military deployment to a domestic city since the civil war. A couple years ago, on the 50th anniversary of the riots, the Washington Post published a great recap with tons of data and photos: https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/local/dc-riots-1968/