A Usable Past

Greater Greater Washington posted a great (heh) article on the 1968 riots in D.C.

In some of the first incarnations of DC graffiti, black owned business owners painted “Soul Brother” and other tags on their doors letting looters know that their business identified with the rage felt in the city streets.

Check it out here.

These amazing pin-up and life model images are courtesy of Fuck Yeah Women’s History - a Tumblr worth checking out!

On April 4, 1968, after news of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination spread, residents of Washington, D.C. rioted, looted, and set fire to portions of the city. Large areas of the primarily-black Columbia Heights, U Street, and H Street neighborhoods were destroyed. The riots lasted for five days, and certain parts of the city have still not fully recovered.

I should be reading Glenda Gilmore’s Defying Dixie right now, but – ooh, look! pretty!