The aftermath of the 1968 D.C. riots. Photo courtesy Library of Congress.

43 years ago today, the massive riots that had broken out in the streets of Washington after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. in Memphis on April 4, 1968 came to a halt. John Muller, marking the anniversary at Greater Greater Washington, takes stock of how far we’ve come:

With the romanticism that is sometimes expressed over the riots and the resulting demographic shift that branded DC “Chocolate City” in the 1970’s it is intellectually and sociologically dishonest to not connect the changes that DC is still undergoing today as a major metropolis with the devastation that the city inflicted upon itself in April of 1968.

In perpetual somnolence, the District rebuilds.