Black People : Remembering the 1968 King Riots That Set DC On Fire (Footage in True HD)

It's beginning to sound a little like you want to find a reason to say you're older and knew something I didn't. You can add to what I said, but you're not going to take away from anything I said about the impact Michael Jackson and the Jackson Five had on the Afro in this country. His impact sent the afro coast to coast. I already gave credit to the Panthers and Angela Davis as the originators of the afro, and I tried to agree with most of what you said as far as females (and I guess males too) wearing the hairstyle in the midwest or your part of the country. However the video I posted of the 1968 Dr. King Riots in the middle of my old neighborhood indicates that the Afro didn't reach D.C. (Chocolate City) because I saw neither male or female sporting one in that video, just like I remembered when I was living there, therefore it hadn't yet went coast to coast in 1968...and most of the people in that video were probably either your age or older. I hope you're not trying to say that every Black city in the U.S., and including the South, was already wearing the afro during this time except D.C. Why you're trying to argue this I don't know, but perhaps we should just agree to disagree on this one too.

By the way, the reason I made that thread on the Afro in the first place was to reminisce with some of the old timers about the extremes we use to go through to keep the Afro, not for a shootout on who knew most about the hairstyle, like that former member tried to turn that thread in to.

The intent or purpose of the young black activists of the sixties/seventies/etc. was to do far more than make noise, and it is how they made a difference, which is why so either emulated their examples or others just mimicked their rhetoric etc.

The questions to be answered in 2015: Will folks do more than just front and truly represent the change themselves our folk need and some want too?

Time will tell...

FYI
 
It's beginning to sound a little like you want to find a reason to say you're older and knew something I didn't. You can add to what I said, but you're not going to take away from anything I said about the impact Michael Jackson and the Jackson Five had on the Afro in this country. His impact sent the afro coast to coast. I already gave credit to the Panthers and Angela Davis as the originators of the afro, and I tried to agree with most of what you said as far as females (and I guess males too) wearing the hairstyle in the midwest or your part of the country. However the video I posted of the 1968 Dr. King Riots in the middle of my old neighborhood indicates that the Afro didn't reach D.C. (Chocolate City) because I saw neither male or female sporting one in that video, just like I remembered when I was living there, therefore it hadn't yet went coast to coast in 1968...and most of the people in that video were probably either your age or older. I hope you're not trying to say that every Black city in the U.S., and including the South, was already wearing the afro during this time except D.C. Why you're trying to argue this I don't know, but perhaps we should just agree to disagree on this one too.

By the way, the reason I made that thread on the Afro in the first place was to reminisce with some of the old timers about the extremes we use to go through to keep the Afro, not for a shootout on who knew most about the hairstyle, like that former member tried to turn that thread in to.

OK. Over and out.
 
The intent or purpose of the young black activists of the sixties/seventies/etc. was to do far more than make noise, and it is how they made a difference, which is why so either emulated their examples or others just mimicked their rhetoric etc.

The questions to be answered in 2015: Will folks do more than just front and truly represent the change themselves our folk need and some want too?

Time will tell...

FYI
Do you consider separation from the U.S. an option?
 
After watching news coverage of the Ferguson Riots resulting from the shooting death of Michael Brown, and after watching a scene from James Browns movie, "Get On Up" not too long before, where they showed television news footage of the historical 1968 14th Street King Riots in DC, I searched some youtube videos on the King Riots and found this particular peace of footage very moving. It's in HD format showing the aftermath of the riots. It gives a much clearer and more colorful image of how things looked during that time, more than I've seen since it happened.

As some here may have already guessed by now, I was raised on 14th Street NW during my early childhood, and my old neighborhood got caught in the middle of all of this. Until I saw this youtube video the other day, I didn't think I would ever again see another image of that area the way it was when I was growing up. They made it look so live and colorful as if I was there yesterday. Over the years, when they use to show news coverage of the riots every anniversary, the footage would be in black and white, just like the images they showed in the James Brown movie. What's kind of strange is, I will probably never see an HD quality video of the suburban neighborhood we moved to, the newer neighborhood where I spent the other part of my childhood. Unfortunately, the only reason I can see my older neighborhood in HD is because Dr King was killed, and it made a time in history, and the riots happened in my old neighborhood.

But on the other hand, a lot of the scenery in my old DC neighborhood is gone as the result of the riots. However I do have a chance now to see HD images of stores and some buildings I considered landmarks in my childhood, that are gone now as I said. On that note, there are two scenes in this video I will probably cherish. The first scene is our old Safeway grocery store on 14th Street. We lived directly across the street from it. Although it got ruined, this youtube video is the first time I've seen that grocery store since we moved, and it's in color and in HD. It moved me so much I had to call my older sister this morning and tell her about this video, since this was the Safeway she got caught stealing raisins from when we were kids...lol. The other scene is at the 10:33 seconds mark. You'll see a tall dark brown brick building on the corner with a steeple on top. This building was located at the bottom of the street of where we lived. Whenever we were driving down 14th Street and I saw that building, I new we were near home. It used to have this big colorful clock not far below the steeple that used to light up at night. My sister told me that building was a flower shop, but I'm not sure about that. Unfortunately, the other tall building across from it, which was the white tall building with a steeple, was where I saw my first dead body. He was laying not too far from the corner of the street. They say he had been shot. Really all I heard was, "Dead man down the street". I assumed he was shot because he had his hand on his heart. It took me years to realize he wasn't really wearing a maroon shirt. It was a shirt covered in blood. Both of these buildings are gone now. To me, tearing down the tall dark brown building with the clock below the steeple, was almost like taking away the Statue of Liberty from a New Yorker. Just looking at some of the scenes from I guess the helicopters looking over the city, remind me very much of the view I used to see when I would sometimes go to our 6th floor hallway window and stare out of it. After all these years, it almost felt like I was looking out that same window again when I viewed that part of the video.

Anyway, here's the 18:34 seconds video. By the way the video doesn't have any sound, which takes away even more from the feeling of being there. However the HD images of these older personal cars, police-cars, patty-wagons, and fire-trucks will take you back. These colorful images are rarely scene, not only from the King Riots, but from the 60's period.

I would turn my old buddy on to this youtube video, but I'm scared he may tell me again that I need too prove to myself I can live around all black people. Okay, I'll leave him alone.



Your comments on what took place when King Junior got robbed of his life and/or past generations one of their most beloved leaders etc. reflects how personal it the lost was to you and/or also how subjective your overall take on what went on/down/etc. at the time...

I. e., how we felt or feel about such things is one thing, what we didn't or don't know what else took place, is why we at best have to agree and/or disagree, about such things too....

I accept the impact on you as an individual, but I also think you need to get your mind around the big picture, as in how the response of our people forced the white powers that be to actually enforce the laws the congress had just passed, aka the Civil Rights Acts of the sixties etc.

Again I urge you and others to actually read my late mentor's RACISM AND THE CLASS STRUGGLE, and what he also claimed about the impact of the movements of the sixities, here and elsewhere....

FYI
 

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