CAMBRIDGE, Md. - It's hard to believe Pine Street in Cambridge was once piled with burnt rock and debris.
The Cambridge Race Riots of 1967 left 17 buildings destroyed and a community - scarred. Herschel Johnson was in his late twenties at the time and lived down the street.
"I saw the fire and then I saw it go to the other side of the street and it was devastating to me," Johnson said. "You can imagine what it was to those people who lost their businesses."
Johnson says Pine Street hasn't been the same since.
"That fire - it just destroyed this block and the black community," Johnson said.
In the 60's, Cambridge already had it's fair share of racial tension. In 1964, the National Guard was called in to break up protests. But 1967 was different because of one man - H. Rap Brown.
Brown's fiery speech on the night of July 24th sparked riots, fires, and chaos.
Pine Street today looks plenty different from it's former self. There are apartments in the exact place a grocery store once stood. A police station now stands where the old Pine Street Elementary School was.
It's a street that's seen the best and worst of times.
