Holy Week Uprising

Outcome

unknown

On April 4, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated by James Earl Ray at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. Within hours, grief and rage erupted in Black communities across the United States, igniting the most widespread wave of civil unrest since the Civil War. Over the next ten days, from April 4 through Easter Sunday on April 14, uprisings occurred in over 110 cities across 36 states and the District of Columbia. The violence was concentrated in Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Chicago, and Kansas City, but also devastated Detroit, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Trenton, Wilmington, Louisville, New York City, and dozens of other cities. By the time the uprisings ended, 43 people were dead (34 of them Black), approximately 3,500 were injured, and over 27,000 were arrested. The federal government responded with the largest domestic military deployment since the Civil War. President Lyndon B. Johnson mobilized approximately 58,000 troops, including 21,000 federal soldiers and 34,000 National Guardsmen, to assist local police in restoring order. In Washington, D.C. alone, 13,600 troops occupied the city, while Baltimore saw 11,570 troops at peak deployment. The uprising caused an estimated $65 million in property damage (over $550 million in 2024 dollars), with Washington, D.C. suffering approximately $27 million and Baltimore $13.5 million. Fifty-four cities experienced at least $100,000 in damage. Over 2,600 fires were set nationwide and thousands of businesses were destroyed, many of which never reopened. The assassination of King represented a turning point in the civil rights movement. King had been the most prominent advocate of nonviolent resistance, and his death left many feeling that peaceful protest had failed. Leaders like Stokely Carmichael of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, who had already been promoting "Black Power," urged more militant responses. On April 11, 1968, just one week after King's assassination, President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1968, which included the Fair Housing Act prohibiting discrimination in housing. The bill had been stalled in Congress, but the uprising accelerated its passage. However, the physical and economic devastation of the Holy Week Uprising would scar many Black neighborhoods for decades, accelerating white flight, disinvestment, and urban decline.