The Rochester 1964 riot was a riot that occurred in 1964 in Rochester, New York, in the United States. In the early evening of Friday, July 24, 1964, the Rochester Police Department attempted to arrest a 19 year-old intoxicated black male at a street block party and dance.[1] A member of the group "Mothers Improvement Association of the Eighth Ward" concerned with the male's behavior was the first to contact the Rochester Police Department.[2]
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The police response to the call included a K-9 Corps dog. Rumors alleging police brutality action against African-Americans spread quickly, and an angry crowd formed on Joseph Avenue and became violent. The riot broke out in two of Rochester's predominantly African-American wards, near the location of the intersection of Nassau Street and Joseph Avenue, as well as downtown.
Peace was not restored after three days, but only after Governor Nelson Rockefeller called out the New York National Guard, the first such use of troops in a northern city. By the time the disturbance was over, four were dead (three in a helicopter crash) and 350 injured. Almost a thousand people were arrested and 204 stores were either looted or damaged.
Although the riot was initially blamed on "outside agitators", almost all the rioters arrested were from the local area, with only 14 people arrested who resided outside of Monroe County. Third Ward Supervisor Constance Mitchell, stated, “I know the kids here. I know the hard ones and the good kids. And it was the good kids in my ward who first threw the bricks through the windows. Then the adults stepped in. This community just went insane.”[3] This led to a reappraisal of policies and practices which had not changed in face of a tripling of the African-American population in the previous 10 years.
At that time, most African-Americans held low-pay and low-skill jobs and lived in substandard housing, and Rochester was the last city in the State of New York to implement a public housing program.
Throughout the decade following the riot, the City of Rochester acquired the land blighted by the riot, leveled remaining buildings, and removed or repositioned many of the streets. One of the first housing projects built after the riots was the Chatham Gardens Apartments, which opened in 1965.