BALTIMORE — Shaken by riot and riven by strife, this city struggled to regain its feet Wednesday as schools again opened their doors, people returned to work and drivers passed without fear through streets that had been treacherous during Monday’s unrest.

The aura of things back to normal was undone by things out of place: The courts rushed to process – and release – more than 100 people arrested during and after the looting, the Baltimore Orioles played a home game absent any fans, and the Baltimore Symphony played a free outdoor BSOPeace Concert blocks from a neighborhood that had gone up in smoke 40 hours earlier.

Protesters demonstrate outside the state attorney’s office Wednesday calling for the continued investigation into the death of Freddie Gray. Activists stressed that they will continue to press for answers in the case. The Associated Press

Meanwhile, thousands of police and National Guard continued to patrol the streets, particularly those areas, as a police spokesman said, “where people are known to gather.” And hundreds of Baltimore high school and college students led a protest march from Penn Station to City Hall to bring attention to the issues surrounding the death of Freddie Gray, the 25-year-old man who suffered severe spinal injuries while in police custody.

SOLIDARITY MARCHES ELSEWHERE

Solidarity marches also were held in Washington, New York and Boston.

Earlier in the day, many people gathered outdoors in the Sandtown neighborhood were Monday’s violence took place. Unemployment in the blighted community is a staggering 50 percent, and the spectacle of politicians and reporters milling about brought out residents unaccustomed to their neighborhood receiving attention from anyone but the police.

“Trying to get some normalcy back,” Brian Smallwood, 55, said as he tossed a load into the back of a green garbage truck near where the violence took place.

Smallwood remembers the violence in Baltimore after the 1968 assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

“I was 8,” he said. “They burned the same place. Pennsylvania Avenue.”

Smallwood seethed at Monday’s destruction and the national embarrassment.

“It really hurt me to see this,” he said. “To see my city on fire.”

The downtown area that fans out from the Inner Harbor, insulated by distance from what happened Monday, appeared back to normal by Wednesday.

“What happened Tuesday night was totally different from what happened Monday night,” Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan said, calling the 10 p.m. city-wide curfew a success.

Hogan said the National Guard is likely to remain in the city until at least Monday. A curfew also will continue until early next week.

CITY DECLARED SAFE

“The city is now safe,” he said.

U.S Attorney General Loretta Lynch said she hoped the tension that arose from the April 19 death of Gray would subside.

I am heartened that the unrest seemed to ease Tuesday night and that members of the community are trying to come together to clean up their city,” Lynch said. “The Civil Rights Division and the FBI are already conducting a full and independent investigation into the tragic death of Mr. Gray.”

There was some concern among officials that the relative calm would be short-lived after it was announced that the police report on Gray’s death slated to be turned over to the state’s attorney on Friday would not be made public.

“There has been a lot of conversation about a report,” said Baltimore police Capt. Eric Kowalczyk. “There is not a report that is going to be issued. What we are going to do is turn over our findings, all of our investigative efforts, to the state’s attorney’s office.”

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