May 30, 2020. Madison, Mississippi. Andrea and the Riots.

In 1968, Andrea and her daughter lived in an apartment on 14tth Street NW, in Washington, DC. They had lived there for several years and they liked it. Her daughter walked to school and public transportation allowed Andrea get to work. They lived over a store. Then Martin Luther King was killed shortly after lunch. Riots broke out in DC. Andrea was afraid because her daughter was home by herself. Andrea immediately took a Taxi and had the driver get her as close as possible to her place. Then she walked through the mobs to get home. Andrea is a little lady, not ever five foot tall but she was feisty. Her daughter was in grade school. She found her daughter, Mary Beth, was safe at home but scared. They took only a backpack each and they left the apartment and walked until they could get public transportation and they stayed that night with a friend. Remember this was pre cell phone so they arrived at the friends house unannounced. And they watched the riot on TV. Fortunately, they got out because the whole block where they lived was burned. Businesses were looted and cars set on fire. By the time Andrea told me that story she was still frightened. The area before the riot was a pleasant, vibrant community but after the riot was over, the whole place was boarded up and stayed boarded up for over two decades. Andrea never went back to that apartment. A friend with a car removed anything of value. She worked cleaning my house for several years and I enjoyed her company. But since her experience with the riot, she will not go into crowds of people. And she lived in Bethesda. It was not as convenient but it was safer. And that is the true story of the 1968 DC riot as told to me by Andrea..