The uprising included crowds filling the streets, burning and looting local businesses, and confronting the police and national guard.

The immediate cause of the riot was the April 4 assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in Memphis, Tennessee, which triggered unrest in over 100 cities across the United States.

When it was determined that the state forces could not control the rebellion, Agnew requested Federal troops from President Lyndon B. Johnson.

[1] At one point, white counter-rioters assembled near Patterson Park; they dispersed after National Guard troops prevented them from entering a black neighborhood.

[1] When violent protest broke out in Baltimore on April 6, nearly the entire Maryland National Guard, both Army and Air, were called up to deal with the unrest.

Late that evening, elements of the XVIII Airborne Corps at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, began arriving on the scene, while several Marine units from Camp Lejeune were put on standby status.

[7] Task Force Baltimore peaked at 11,570 Army and National Guard troops on April 9, of which all but about 500 were committed to riot control duties.

Early on April 12, federal troops began to depart and by 6 p.m. that evening responsibility for riot control returned to the National Guard.

Maryland National Guard troops remained on duty in the city until April 14, when Agnew declared the emergency over and sent them home.

[9] These forces had received orders to avoid firing their weapons, as part of an intentional strategy to decrease fatalities.

[8] One of the major outcomes of the uprising was the attention Agnew received when he criticized local black leaders for not doing enough to help stop the disturbance.

[12] The uprising had broken out mainly in the black neighborhoods of East and West Baltimore[13] in which extensive property damage and looting occurred.

Many of the businesses destroyed in the uprising were located along the main commercial avenues of the neighborhoods and were often owned by Baltimore Jews.