A city destroyed by riots, then and now

In 1968, when riots erupted in Washington neighborhoods after the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, The Washington Post sent photographers into the mayhem. In images, they captured a city angry and burning.

What unfolded fundamentally transformed the Washington we know today. Neighborhoods that once thrived were crippled. Some recovered quicker than others. Some still haven’t.

For the riot’s 50th anniversary, current Post photographers revisited the sites their colleagues documented decades ago. This is what they found.

It took decades for Washington’s recovery to begin. Not until about 20 years ago, when the city committed to investing in revitalization, did the riot corridors most devastated half a century ago start to come alive again.

Luxury condos now stand where black-owned businesses once flourished. Expensive restaurants and bars draw people to streets that many once feared after dark. Newcomers to the city have trouble imagining Shaw, Columbia Heights and the H Street corridor as crime-plagued and abandoned. But those who lived through the riots haven't forgotten. Those wounds are still healing.