When the Smoke Cleared: The 1968 Rebellions and the Unfinished Battle for Civil Rights in the Nation’s Capital

In this granular and eye-opening history, American Oversight editor Sommers (contributor, Demand the Impossible) contends that the protests that engulfed Washington, D.C., after the 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. didn’t push “a city already in decline off the precipice,” but instead opened a brief window when local citizens and officials came together in an effort to “rebuild the capital as a more just society that would protect and foster Black political and economic power.” First, she details how young activists like Stokely Carmichael and future D.C. mayor Marion Barry joined forces with Mayor Walter E. Washington, the first Black man to hold the post, leaders of local civic associations, and small-business owners to defuse tensions and provide assistance to the hardest-hit neighborhoods while federal troops occupied the city. Residents and activists then petitioned the D.C. City Council to embark on an ambitious agenda for fostering “community participation and Black economic development” during the rebuilding process. As Sommers shows, however, Washingtonians’ pursuit of social justice met stiff resistance from “law-and-order” conservatives including President Richard Nixon, and the slow process of gentrification eventually pushed many working-class Black residents out of the city. Doggedly researched and lucidly presented, this is a valuable case study for activists and policymakers. (Apr.)