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

FILE PHOTO: A customer in a mask departs Ben's Chili Bowl, whose founders Ben and Virginia Ali famously kept the restaurant running through very difficult times in the past, as the eatery navigates the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak with no seating, limited hours and help from a federal Payroll Protection Program Loan in Washington, U.S. April 30, 2020. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - 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.

Rioting that erupted in April 1968 in Washington and many other U.S. cities after the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King inflicted scars on the neighborhood that lasted decades.