Mass racial violence in the United States

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Mass racial violence in the United States, often described using the term "race riots," includes such disparate events as:

  • attacks on Irish Catholics and other early immigrants in the 19th century
  • massacres of black people in the period after Reconstruction.
  • frequent fighting among various ethnic groups in major cities, specifically in the northeast United States throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
  • uprisings in African-American communities such as the 1968 riots following the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Contents

[edit] Anti-immigrant and anti-Catholic violence

Riots, as defined by "race", have taken place between ethnic groups in the United States as early as the pre-Revolution era of the eighteenth century. During the early to mid nineteenth centuries, violent rioting occurred between Protestant "Nativists" and recently arriving Irish-Catholic immigrants, reaching its height during the 1840s and 1850s in cities including New York, Philadelphia, and Boston.

The San Francisco Vigilance Movements of 1851 and 1856 are often described by sympathetic historians as responses to rampant crime and government corruption, but in addition to lynching accused criminals (specifically the former Australian penal convicts of the Sydney Ducks), the vigilantes also systematically attacked Irish immigrants, and this anti-immigrant violence later focused on the Spanish and Chinese. Later riots against Italian immigrants in the late 1800s, as seen during the New Orleans riot of 1891, continued into the twentieth century as seen between Jewish and Italian (and to a certain extent Irish) immigrants in New York City, New York in the late 1890s, French-Canadian and Irish immigrants in Providence, Rhode Island during the early 1900s and Irish and Italian immigrants in Chicago, specifically during the Aldermen's Wars from 1916 until 1921.

[edit] Post-Reconstruction massacres of black Americans

Well-known white-on-Black race riots include the Atlanta Riots (1906), the Omaha and Chicago Riots (1919), and the Tulsa Riots (1921).

Political cartoon about the East St. Louis massacres of 1917. The caption reads, "Mr. President, why not make America safe for democracy?"
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Political cartoon about the East St. Louis massacres of 1917. The caption reads, "Mr. President, why not make America safe for democracy?"

In many cases, these massacres were essentially lynchings on a larger scale, and, like lynchings, they often had their roots in economic tensions or white defense of the color line. In 1887, for example, ten thousand workers at sugar plantations in Louisiana, organized by the Knights of Labor, went on strike for an increase in their pay to $1.25 a day. Most of the workers were black, but some were white, infuriating Governor Samuel Douglas McEnery, who declared that "God Almighty has himself drawn the color line." The militia was called in, but then withdrawn to give free rein to a lynch mob in Thibodaux, which killed somewhere between 20 and 300 people. A black newspaper described the scene:[1]

"Six killed and five wounded" is that the daily papers here say, but from an eye witness to the whole transaction we learn that no less than thirty-five Negroes were killed outright. Lame men and blind women shot; children and hoary-headed grandsires ruthlessly swept down! The Negroes offered no resistance; the could not, as the killing was unexpected. Those of them not killed took to the woods, a majority of them finding refuge in this city.

Labor conflict was also used to justify the racially motivated 1917 massacre of hundreds of black residents of East St. Louis - many of whom were women and children, at the hands of white workers who resented living amongst and competing for jobs with black people.

A white gang looking for blacks during the Chicago race riots of 1919.

The Chicago Race Riot of 1919 was essentially a lynching that grew into a race war when blacks fought back. A young black Chicagoan, Eugene Williams, paddled a raft near a Lake Michigan beach into "white territory", and drowned after being hit by a rock thrown by a young white man. Witnesses pointed out the killer to a policeman, who refused to make an arrest, and an indignant black mob attacked the officer.[2] Violence broke out across the city, and while the police stood by, white mobs, many of them organized around Irish clubs, began pulling black people at random off of trolley cars, attacking black businesses, and beating victims with baseball bats and iron bars. Black people began to fight back, and eventually 23 blacks and 15 whites were killed.[3] Irish violence against blacks had also occurred during the New York Draft Riots of 1863.

Buildings burning during the Tulsa race riot of 1921.
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Buildings burning during the Tulsa race riot of 1921.

The 1921 Tulsa Race Riot also grew out of black resistance to the attempted lynching of 19-year old shoe-shiner Dick Rowland. 39 people (26 black, 13 white) were confirmed killed, but recent investigations suggest that the actual number of casualties could be much higher. White mobs set fire to the black Greenwood district, destroying 1,256 homes and as many as 200 businesses-- literally leveling 35 blocks of residential and commercial neighborhood. Black people were rounded up by the Oklahoma National Guard and put into several internment centers, including a baseball stadium. White rioters in airplanes shot at black refugees and dropped improvised kerosene bombs and dynamite on them.[4]

[edit] Nativist Period 1700's-1860

  • 1829: Cincinnati, Ohio Riots begun by Whites to terrorize the Black community resulted in thousands of Blacks leaving for Canada.
  • 1829: Charlestown Anti-Catholic Riots
  • 1834: Massachusetts Convent Burning
  • 1835: Five Points Riot
  • 1836: Cincinnati, Ohio A pro-slavery riot took place
  • 1841: Cincinnati, Ohio White Irish-descendant and Irish immigrant dock workers rioted against Black dock workers. When the Black dock workers banded together to defend their community from the approaching Whites, the White rioters retreated and then commandeered a 6-pound cannon and shot it through the streets of Cincinnati.
  • 1844: Philadelphia Nativist Riots (May 6-8/July 5-8)
  • 1849: Astor Place Riot
  • 1851: Hoboken Anti-German Riot
  • 1855: Louisville Anti-German Riots

[edit] Civil War Period 1861-1865

[edit] Reconstruction Period: 1865 - 1877

  • 1866: New Orleans, Louisiana
  • 1866: Memphis, Tennessee
  • 1868: Pulaski, Tennessee
  • 1868: Opelousas, Louisiana
  • 1868: Camilla, Georgia
  • 1870: Meridian, Mississippi
  • 1870: Eutaw, Alabama
  • 1870: Laurens, South Carolina
  • 1870: New York City Orange Riot
  • 1871: Second New York City Orange Riot
  • 1871: Los Angeles Anti-Chinese Riot
  • 1891: New Orleans Anti-Italian Riot
  • 1873: Colfax, Louisiana
  • 1874: Vicksburg, Mississippi
  • 1874: New Orleans, Louisiana
  • 1874: Coushatta, Louisiana
  • 1875: Yazoo City, Mississippi
  • 1875: Clinton, Mississippi
  • 1876: Statewide violence in South Carolina
  • 1876: Hamburg, South Carolina
  • 1876: Ellenton, South Carolina

[edit] Jim Crow Period: 1890 - 1914

[edit] War and Inter-War Period: 1914 - 1945

[edit] Civil Rights and Black Power Movements Period: 1955 - 1977

[edit] Modern

And, for information about riots worldwide, see List of riots.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Zinn, 2004; http://www.dougriddle.com/essays/sk20021220.html, retrieved July 21, 2005.
  2. ^ Chicago Daily Tribune, http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/4975/
  3. ^ Dray, 2002.
  4. ^ http://www.tulsareparations.org/TulsaRiot2Of3.htm, retrieved July 23, 2005.

[edit] References

The references in this article would be clearer with a different and/or consistent style of citation, footnoting or external linking. Please see the relevant discussion on the talk page for further details.
  • Dray, Philip. At the Hands of Persons Unknown: The Lynching of Black America, New York: Random House, 2002.
  • Zinn, Howard. Voices of a People's History of the United States. New York: Seven Stories Press, 2004.

[edit] See also

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