The Baltimore Riot of 1968 began two days after the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. After King was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968, rioting broke out in 125 cities across the United States. When rioting did break out on Saturday, April 6, the Governor of Maryland, Spiro T. Agnew, called out thousands of National Guard troops and 500 Maryland State Police to quell the disturbance. When it was determined that the state forces could not control the riot, Agnew requested Federal troops from President Lyndon B. Johnson. There is some debate within the black community about whether or not this riot should be called a "riot," a "civil disturbance," or a "rebellion." These events were indeed precipitated by the assassination of Dr. King, which, however, had nothing to do with Baltimore. Martin Luther King redirects here. ... For other uses, see Memphis (disambiguation). ... is the 94th day of the year (95th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1968 (MCMLXVIII) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 96th day of the year (97th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Thomas Johnson, the first Governor of Maryland after independence. ... Spiro Theodore Agnew, born Spiro Anagnostopoulos (November 9, 1918–September 17, 1996), was the thirty-ninth Vice President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1973 under President Richard M. Nixon. ... The United States National Guard is a reserve forces component of the United States Army (the Army National Guard) and the United States Air Force (the Air National Guard). ... LBJ redirects here. ...

By Sunday evening, 5000 paratroopers, combat engineers, and artillerymen from the XVIII Airborne Corps in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, specially trained in riot control tactics, including sniper school, were on the streets of Baltimore with fixed bayonets, and equipped with chemical (CS) disperser backpacks. Two days later, they were joined by a Light Infantry Brigade from Fort Benning, Georgia. With all the police and troops on the streets, things began to calm down. The Federal Bureau of Investigation reported that H. Rap Brown was in Baltimore driving a Ford Mustang with Broward County, Florida tags, and was assembling large groups of angry protesters and agitating them to escalate the rioting. In several instances, these disturbances were rapidly quelled through the use of bayonets and chemical dispersers by the XVIII Airborne units. That unit arrested more than 3,000 people, who were turned over to the Baltimore Police. A general curfew was set at 6pm in the city limits and martial law was enforced. As rioting continued, African American plainclothes police officers and community leaders were sent to the worst areas to prevent further violence. For the game, see Paratrooper (video game). ... A US army combat engineer setting up a communications cable. ... For other uses, see Artillery (disambiguation). ... Patch of the XVIII Airborne Corps. ... Troopers of the 82nd training on Fort Bragg Paratroopers in training at Fort Bragg Fort Bragg is a major United States Army installation, in Cumberland and Hoke Counties, North Carolina, USA, near Fayetteville. ... French mobile gendarmes doing riot control. ... For other uses, see Sniper (disambiguation). ... Fort Benning is a base facility of the United States military outside Columbus, Georgia. ... F.B.I. and FBI redirect here. ... H. Rap Brown in 1967 H. Rap Brown now known as Jamil Al-Amin (born October 4, 1943) came to prominence in the 1960s as a civil rights worker, black activist, chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the Justice Minister of the Black Panther Party. ... For other Ford Mustang mdels and concepts, see Ford Mustang Variants. ... An African American (also Afro-American, Black American, or simply black) is a member of an ethnic group in the United States whose ancestors, usually in predominant part, were indigenous to Africa. ...

By the time the riot was over, 6 people were dead, 700 injured, 4,500 arrested and over a thousand fires set. More than a thousand businesses had been looted or burned, many of which never reopened. Total property damage was estimated at $13.5 million (1968 dollars).

One of the major outcomes of the riot was the attention Spiro Agnew received when he criticized local black leaders for not doing enough to help stop the disturbance. These statements caught the attention of Richard Nixon who was looking for someone on his ticket who could counter George Wallace’s American Independent Party, third party campaign. Agnew became Nixon’s Vice Presidential running mate in 1968. Spiro Theodore Agnew (November 9, 1918 – September 17, 1996) was the thirty-ninth Vice President of the United States serving under President Richard M. Nixon, and the fifty-fifth Governor of Maryland. ... Nixon redirects here. ... This article is about the politician, former governor of Alabama and former presidential candidate. ... The American Independent Party is a California political party. ... The United States presidential election of 1968 was a wrenching national experience, and included the assassination of Democratic candidate Robert F. Kennedy, the violence at the 1968 Democratic National Convention, and widespread demonstrations against the Vietnam War across American university and college campuses. ...

References

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• University of Baltimore 1968 Riot site, Baltimore '68: Riots and Rebirth, "http://www.ubalt.edu/template.cfm?page=1634", includes extensive timeline of events.
• Maryland State Archives Document Packet, prepared by Dr. Edward C. Papenfuse and Dr. Mercer Neale, with the Assistance of the Staff of the Maryland State Archives, Is Baltimore Burning?, "http://www.msa.md.gov/msa/stagser/s1259/121/2395/html/0000.html". Includes original documents, news footage, and suggestions for further research.

Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ...

See also

• 1968 Washington, DC riots
• Louisville riots of 1968
• Protests of 1968