<em>Holy Week</em>: Inferno

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Reporter: You don’t think the death of Martin Luther King had anything to do with the rioting?

Young man: Some of them, they did it because of Martin Luther King, and some of them didn’t. Some of them did it because they just needed clothes for Easter and they didn’t have money to get it.

Reporter: Paul, you participated in the riots. Can you tell us why they—why you—had a part in them?

Paul: I had a part in it because where I live at is five stories high. And I can see my cleaners. And I saw them burning down my cleaners. So I say, Why shouldn’t I get something? And everybody burn down my clothes, take my clothes out, and do what they want to do? So I’m gonna go in the store and get what I want.

Reporter: You got any feeling about it at all, David?

David: No, I don’t.

Reporter: Why not?

David: It’s kind of fun to me, see, burning up property and stuff like that.

Reporter: You thought that was just fun?

David: Yes I did.

***

Vann R. Newkirk II: A riot is a collective. When people start to act together, the crowd can seem to have a mind of its own. It can move like an organic entity, with a will and a drive. By the time it reaches a critical mass, people, individuals, can be swallowed up into it.

But every person who decides to go out has a reason. Frustrations, rage, passions, setbacks, or even boredom all can play a role. Years of history and upbringing and feeling all come into play in the decision to throw just one brick. And you have to consider all that to understand any riot, uprising, or rebellion. Vanessa Dixon was just 12 years old when King was killed. She was Vanessa Lawson back then.

Newkirk: Did you ever watch any of the news when they were reporting on the looting and the rioting?

Vanessa Dixon: Yes, it was unbelievable. It was unbelievable to me, for one, for myself and my friends, that we participated at the beginning of what turned out to be so, so bad.

Newkirk: How do you feel about that?

Dixon: I can say I’m sorry for the things I did. I didn’t know better. But then the flip side of me says, I’m glad for the experience.

I went to see Vanessa in her house to understand. Vanessa Dixon lives just outside D.C. She’s something of a family historian.