Hard Hat riot
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The Hard Hat Riot on Wall Street and Broadway on Friday, May 8th, 1970 occurred in New York City when about 1,000 Vietnam anti-war protesters and over two hundred construction workers from the World Trade Center site and other construction sites in the Wall Street area of the city clashed. While it was one event in a tumultuous domestic month during the Vietnam War, the local media used it as a symbol of the extreme conditions to which the domestic situation had expanded.
This disturbance occurred four days after the Kent State shootings in Ohio. The anti-war protesters had set up, symbolically along the statue of George Washington on Wall Street and were reportedly waving Viet Cong flags and defiling American flags in a protest against the Kent State shootings and the expansion into Cambodia of the war in Vietnam. The "Hard Hats" proceeded to storm the statue's base in anger and set up American flags, then pursued the fleeing protesters. The resulting chaos then spilled out onto the Pace University campus and New York City Hall. This was understandably one of the slowest days on New York Stock Exchange in months, as the construction workers were unexpectedly joined by white collar office workers from the exchange.
New York City Mayor, John V. Lindsay had ordered that all flags on City buildings be lowered to half staff in recognition of the Kent State shootings, which the construction workers overwhelmingly opposed. They threatened to overwhelm City Hall unless the flag was raised to full mast, which it was. Lindsay also took the blame for the lack of action by the New York City Police Department, who made little attempt to stop the construction workers from rioting. Reportedly as the American flag was raised to full staff over City Hall, the construction workers demanded that the fifteen officers remove their riot helmets in respect. Seven did. While 150 NYPD officers protected City Hall from the rampaging construction workers, the police seemed to just stand by while the Hard Hats beat up the anti-war protesters.
At Pace University, construction workers, attracted by the peace flag hanging outside the building, first burned the flag and then started beating students up. They hit students with construction boots, fists, lead pipes, and wire cutters. The workers broke into the university and vandalized it, breaking windows and throwing trash cans around.
Seventy anti-war demonstrators were injured in the confrontation. There is inconclusive evidence Hard Hat attack on the protesters was organized.
The Hard Hat Riots were followed by a series of peaceful, police-guarded pro-war rallies in New York almost every day during May. These rallies culminated in a large Wednesday, May 20, 1970, rally. Over 100,000 construction and other workers peacefully marched through the streets of downtown New York City. The rally was organized by the local New York City construction workers union to show support for President Nixon and the Vietnam war and also to offset the bad image the construction workers had created for themselves after they had attacked the anti-war protesters on Wall Street, on May 8. Workers in the surrounding buildings showed their support by showering the marchers with ticker tape. There is some debate as to how spontaneous these pro-war rallies were, as most laborers could not afford to miss work for weeks on end. The May 20 rally organizers (mainly the AFL-CIO) debateably forced many workers to attend in order to receive their pay for the day.
The May 20 rally was followed by a smaller, 50,000-strong antiwar rally. It was a joint effort between the antiwar working-class and middle-class. This, compared to the May 21 rally, received hardly any press coverage.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- The New York Times, various news articles, May 9 & May 21, 1970.
- The Washington Post, news article, May 10, 1970.
- Philip Foner's "U.S. Labor and the Vietnam War."
- Peter Levy's "The New Left and Labor in the 1960s."
[edit] External links
- George Mason University: Center for History & New Media site dealing with Hard Hat riot. [1]
