Black business owners on Washington's historic U Street see echoes of 1968

WASHINGTON - For the owners of some of the venerable black-owned businesses on U Street in Washington’s Northwest section, the protests against racism and police brutality that have flared on the streets of the U.S. capital seem like an echo of the past.

“It’s saddened me to realize that our sons and daughters are fighting today for the same rights that we fought for back then, 52 years ago,” said Virginia Ali, 86, the co-founder of Ben’s Chili Bowl. “They’re fighting for the same basic human rights that we were fighting for.” Hundreds of buildings in Washington were burned. Some neighborhoods were pushed into an economic tailspin that took decades to recover from, according to historian Jane Levey of the Historical Society of Washington, D.C.

Several businesses, including Lee’s, placed “Soul Brothers” signs on their windows to make clear they were owned by black entrepreneurs. Those businesses were largely untouched in the 1968 unrest, Levey recalled.Ali recalled that Ben’s Chili Bowl, located three blocks away, was the only business allowed to stay open during the curfew imposed to try to quell the 1968 rioting.

The protests in the past two weeks in Washington and other cities in the United States and abroad were sparked by the death of a black man named George Floyd in Minneapolis after a police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes.

it should be AllLivesMatter more than BlackLivesMatter

'It's saddened me to realize that our sons and daughters are fighting today for the same rights that we fought for back then, 52 years ago,' said Virginia Ali, 86 Time elapsed with no real intention whatsoever to resolve the burning issue. It haunts now & ever, if not resolved.

Who cares, tired of all this BS.

Abolish the Democratic party! Home of the Confederacy and the KKK!

If 'Redskins' is not offensive, then why not start calling all Native Americans 'Redskins' from now on? Racism comes in different colors. NFL should stop all racism if it's serious.

compare and contrast

Who cares about black businesses? says the Black Lives Matter terrorists.

Except everything

because it is the same old racist learned as children from the racist parents from the past.

FAKE NEWS.

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Black Lives Matter DC street now visible in Apple Maps - Business InsiderBusiness Insider is a fast-growing business site with deep financial, media, tech, and other industry verticals. Launched in 2007, the site is now the largest business news site on the web. All Lives Matters. The main problem in USA is not race, the inequality is not related with race. Even white people, if they have low income, face discrimination. What about Latinos and other people who have low income? If you are rich in USA, your skin color is not important.
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