It started at Marion Square, where a statue of John C. Calhoun, a former vice president and defender of slavery, loomed overhead.

Around 3 p.m., protesters marched past police officers toward the Battery. There, many gathered around White Point Garden's monument to the Confederate Defenders of Charleston.

At the southern tip of the Charleston peninsula, peaceful protestors gathered around the Confederate monument.

South Carolina State Representative Marvin Pendarvis addressed the crowd.

“The only way we’re going to see change in this country is from a structural change.”

The group at White Point Garden headed back up the peninsula to the City Market as a second group headed south from Marion Square.

The two groups merged at the Museum at Market Hall, and splintered again into smaller factions as protesters marched north later that afternoon.

As police officers worried the group was becoming impossible to control, the crowd headed up Meeting Street and onto I-26, shutting down both traffic lanes.

Before nightfall, protesters marched back down Meeting Street and returned to the City Market.

As protesters returned to the City Market, police debated how best to contain them.

Although the crowd had dwindled before protesters reached the interstate earlier in the evening, officers knew it wouldn't take much to set off those who remained.

As night fell, the tone of the radio calls began to change.

Rioters set a Charleston police car on fire as they moved up Meeting Street from the Market.

Later in the evening, police reported vehicles on fire on nearby Calhoun Street as well.

As the crowd drew closer to King Street, police were running out of options.

The riot spilled onto King Street around 9 p.m., and the bulk of the night's property damage began.

911 calls flooded in as rioters smashed windows, descended on restaurants and looted goods.

Police sought to secure King and Calhoun and push north from there.

Smoke filled the air on Upper King as police struggled to hold King and Calhoun.

A fire blazed inside the West Elm furniture store, one the 30 to 40 reported that night.

By 11 p.m., a curfew had kicked into effect.

Police marched up St. Phillip, King and Meeting streets and fired pepper spray canisters ahead of them.

Shattered glass, smoke and embers from fires showcased the end of the night.

By 3 a.m. — 13 hours after the protest at Marion Square began — police cleared the peninsula.

More than 150 businesses reported damages over the following days.

King Street has yet to fully recover more than two months after the riot.

Graphic by Bryan Brussee

Photography by Andrew J. Whitaker and Brad Nettles

Reporting by Thomas Novelly, Mikaela Porter and Gregory Yee

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