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Take a Trip Through the Past: Shaw 1968 Riots Walking Tour, 08/08/18

Photo: Warren K. Leffler, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division

 

Wednesday, August  8, 2018, 6:00 PM. Meet at pocket park at southeast corner of 7th Street and New York Avenue, NW. Free. No tickets or reservations required. Happy Hour at Shaw's Tavern to follow. Part of Ward 6 Week.

 

 Seventh Street in Shaw was devastated during the riots following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr in April 1968 The neighborhood was changed forever, as blocks that were formerly filled with independent businesses were looted and burned  and homes were lost. Decisions to demolish remaining buildings and implement the Shaw School Urban Renewal Area plan resulted in new high rise and garden apartment development and vacant lots that remain to this day. Join Shaw Main Streets Executive Director Alexander M. Padro for a guided tour of 7th Street, bringing the uprising to life with archival photographs and oral histories, seeing the scars on the neighborhood that still await healing, and learning how the neighborhood has been transformed in recent decades into a model for inclusive urban revitalization. Sponsored by Ward 6 Councilmember Charles Allen and Shaw Main Streets.