Competing currents in the civil rights movement. On one hand, there was MLK with his non-violent approach. On the other hand, there were assorted militant black elements primarily following orders from Moscow.
One cannot help but notice that since the Soviet Union fell, there have been none of the periodic riots that characterized the 60's, 70's and 80's. One can safely throw in the LA riots into that group since it occurred so soon after the Soviet Union collapsed.
(BTW, I date 1965 as the start of the decline of the American culture.)
There were tons of activists (Black Panthers, Black Muslims, etc) that were whipping up the fever to get “our” fair share. Hot summers, a social match lit here or there and the riots would take off. And the community activists lighting the matches were most often self serving egoists (sound familiar with our POTUS?)
As some one said above, always in their own neighborhoods which set their cause back yet farther.
One of the more interesting books I read that discusses that era is David Horowitz’s biography “Radical Son: A Generational Odyssey”. Horowitz was raised by American Communists in the 1950’s on Long Island. Like a duck to water, he took to all the social movements of the 60’s - living in Oakland CA, until the hypocrisy woke him up.
When the Watts riots broke out, we were in Germany—and they made the headlines there. Outside the hotel where I was staying at the corner of Heidelberger and Moosberg in Darmstadt—halfway around the world from Watts—I heard someone out on the street shout, “burn, baby, burn”!
Look up the Algiers Motel incident in Detroit. Others were Sea Side, Ca., Watts in L.A. and other locales across the country, including Poughkeepsie, NY.
The first violent race riots occurred on a small scale in 1963-64 in southern and northern cities including New York and Chicago centered around police treatment of black people.
Grievances against the police for real or rumored wrongs could bring a crowd onto the streets leading to small scale disturbances.
Sometimes a peaceful racial protest would get out of hand.
The small riots of 63 and 64 were followed after a lull for the 1964 election campaign by the bigger riots punctuated by Watts (LA) in 1965 and Detroit and Newark, NJ in 1967.
Nationwide rioting followed the assassination of MLK in April 1968 with dozens killed and hundreds of millions in damage involving many cities including Baltimore, Washington DC and Chicago.
After the massive race riots energy moved to anti-war protests and riots for the next few years but racial rioting did spread to smaller cities like mine York, PA where two were killed and dozens injured in racial disturbances in July 1969.
My grandfather, uncle and their family (Americans of Japanese descent) ran and lived behind a small market right in the middle of the LA Watts riot in 1965. Even though we lived only 10 miles away there was nothing that could be done to help them.
Fortunately they had a great relationship with his neighborhood and suffered no harm or damage.
Not so good for others in the neighborhood, the main supermarket in the area burned down and they did not rebuild.
Philly was spared major damage but buy the 80’s the effect was the same. I worked with a woman who’s father had a sporting goods store somewhere around 50th and Baltimore or something like that. white business owners where the targets in LA, and other cities. after the riots they were gone. I drove thru in 1997 and the area looked like Dresden after the bombing. here is a local post now tho: I was trying to think of a bar when I thought of Dock Street on 50th St. I googled 50th and Baltimore and then I saw this post. It’s absolutely ridiculous! 50th and Baltimore is by no means a terrifying corner, ) a matter of fact, it’s one of the most improved in West Philly. With Elena’s Soul Cafe and the Gold Standard Cafe within two blocks, and Cedar Park having been so improved, with new trees, new turf, and new playground equipment, the claim that the corner is terrifying is almost laughable. The only exucse is that the post is outdated.
Read more: http://www.city-data.com/forum/philadelphia/739803-50th-baltimore-ave-high-crime-neighborhoods.html#ixzz2YEr2bNvc
) I think the effect was the lower class whites finally vacated. The area i live in now in philly was held together by the ethnics. Ukrane, German (hated the Ukranians) Spanish. etc. They would buy the abandoned houses and keep them up. i paid 45,000 for my shell now they are building and selling houses for $400,000+.
I tried to produce a before and after composite post but the laptop is putting me all over this post in edit mode.
Basically i think people survive in spite of governance and overthrow it when their patience is exhausted and they have enough tools to do so.
Hmmmm...What is your date of birth?
As has been said, back in the 60s the rioting was contained in the black neighborhoods. Same thing happened after the King verdict in the 90s. I don’t remember rioters heading into BelAir or Holmby Hills. Will that change? Not likely.
I was in DC the day MLK was killed, and the rioting started not too very far from where I worked, but far enough away. All the businesses closed down and the town was pretty much evacuated. At the time I lived in Arlington VA, across the bridge from DC. We watched the smoke rising throughout the city from my balcony.
The following Monday we returned to work and I cannot tell you how creepy it was. My bus went across Key Bridge into Georgetown; parked at the “T” at the end of the bridge was an Army bank. Walking M Street (Georgetown’s main drag) were pairs of fully armed soldiers. I’d never lived through anything like that before, even tho I remember seeing news clips of riots in Harlem when I lived in NY.
With the post-MLK assassination riots in DC, again, it was contained in the then-all black neighborhoods. The rioters didn’t get into Woodley Park or Kalorama or other upscale white neighborhoods that are geographically not far from black neighborhoods. However, in 2013, DC is far more white than it was in 1968. Neighborhoods that were black then are mixed now, with lots of young white professionals coming and gentrifying them.
I DO have concerns about a son who lives in Richmond in a mixed neighborhood. I don’t like the thought that he could be a victim by being in the wrong place at the wrong time when SHTF.
I was 11 years old living in a small town about 150 miles from Detroit and remember all the men cleaning and loading their long guns.
It was reassuring to a youngster.
This was in the days when our news was sporadic and subject to the rumor mill.
I do remember marveling at the fact that the rioters burned down their own neighborhoods.
Seemed kinda stupid to me.
I wonder if history will repeat itself if George Zimmerman is acquitted?
There was a book written (This will get you started.)
The Kerner Commission Report detailed not only how severe some of the more significant riots were, but what it took to restore order.
No race riots in the Mississippi town I grew up in during the ‘60’s. People just lived, pretty much respected each other, all races.
I was about 14 during the first rioting that I remember anything about. It was 1967. The leaders of these protests/riots were communists - guys like H Rap Brown and Elderidge Cleaver. They made no bones about that they were going for revolution.
They used the racial unrest hoping to turn it into a full blown race war and a communist revolution.
I gotta laugh, remembering this one incident. There was this National Guard roadeblock set up when this . . . oh wait, I can’t tell anybody about that.
Never mind.
All I remember is that our tough ex cop mayor Rizzo refused to let the National Guard in to patrol the streets, because he said they would shoot back if they were pelted with stones, whereas our cops were used to it.
Essentially he he hinted to the thugs they could steal anything they wanted, but don’t hurt anyone or he’d lower the boom on them.
One result is that only one person was killed, in contrast to a dozen (?I’m not sure of the number) killed in Detroit.
Of course, the thugs were afraid of being too violent:they knew that Rizzo’s cops would shoot them or beat them up if caught hurting someone...(I had to sew up one when I worked the emergency room).
As a young teenager in Detroit, the summer of 1967 was memorable at best. A good friend had just moved to the Newark, NJ area. Rioting broke out in Newark and Detroit boiled over a few weeks later. All gas stations in the city were ordered to close by 6 pm as (Don Henley put it) Molotov Cocktails were the local drink and everyone was beginning to firebomb. The sky had an eerie orange glow, smoke was thick and my next door neighbor spent the nights on his front porch with his M-14. The sixties were an innocent time, today not so much. Domestic disturbances today will be dealt with quickly and decisively.