 Just four months after D'Alesandro's inauguration, the Baltimore riot of 1968 erupted after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., and Maryland Governor Spiro Agnew called National Guard troops in to control the situation.D'Alesandro, who took office vowing to "root out every cause or vestige of discrimination", remained proud throughout his life of his progressive record on civil rights.As mayor, he appointed multiple African-Americans to his administration, some of them, such as George Russell Jr., the city solicitor and member of the Board of Estimates, the first African Americans to hold those positions.