After reading a few Blogs this morning one struck me with talk of rioting and if Barack Obama doesn’t win blacks will undoubtedly start rioting in the streets. Now I personally don’t feel that this is anywhere near correct. Also, there have been fingers pointed at the Kenyan riots as showing rioting just may be a characteristic related only to blacks. Blacks albeit will lash out when the stress of life’s circumstances are too much to bear and things explode like a powder keg in a Bar B Q pit. The talk of blacks and our supposedly rioting as some sort of black trait or some kind of example of the lawless nature of blacks then we must look at the act of rioting as it applies to whites.
As riots go white riots have been around since they came to America. Black riots got a running start in the 60’s and have been on the radar ever since. As I did some research on riots it seems that white people in race related riots destroy the property of blacks etc. Yet, the majority of white riots destroy their own things since they usually happen around schools or major sports events. Blacks started off destroying the white owned businesses but then degraded into destroying their own homes, stores and general community. This is a direct result of having the police come down far harder on blacks than whites during a given riot. Since the black community felt so helpless and forgotten that when rioting breaks out the looting begins.
While doing a bit of research on riots and those that have been white or predominantly so I have come across a lot of riots where the idea of the riot was just to terrorize blacks and destroy what little they had. The riots were always after the gossip of some black man or men after their white woman whether it is for rape or just any type of relationship. The next reason was the fact that blacks had a nerve to actually get jobs to support their families. For people to make statements that rioting shows that blacks can’t control their angry violent nature and are prone to mass violent outbursts is totally irresponsible and an outright lie. Following is stories of a few violent white riots followed by a list of others, as H. Rap Brown said, violence is as American as apple pie.
The Springfield Race Riot of 1908 was a mass civil disturbance in Springfield, Illinois, USA sparked by the transfer of two African American prisoners out of the city jail by the county sheriff. This act enraged many white citizens, who responded by burning black-owned homes and businesses and killing black citizens. By the end of the riot, there were at least seven deaths and US$200,000 in property damage. The riot led to the formation of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, a civil rights organization.
The Atlanta Race Riot of 1906 was a mass civil disturbance in Atlanta, Georgia, USA which began the evening of September 22nd and lasted until September 25th. At least 27 people died and over seventy were injured. Atlanta newspapers reported that black men were assaulting white women. The charges were not true, but the reports set off the Atlanta race riot of 1906. The official death count was 12 black and two white, but it has been claimed the real death toll was much higher as Atlanta authorities did not want to further damage the reputation of the city. The riot was reported in newspapers around the world but has not been taught in schools in the United States, and those who died have not been officially commemorated.
East St. Louis, in 1917, the United States had a strong economy boosted by World War I. Because many workers were being recruited for the war, firms also had jobs for African Americans, who began to migrate in great number from the South to St. Louis, among other northern and midwestern cities. Three thousand white men gathered downtown, and started to attack African Americans. They destroyed buildings and beat people. On July 1, a black teen that shot his attackers was fired on by a white mob. The boy then shot and killed two cops.
The next morning, thousands of white spectators who saw the bloodstained automobile marched to the black section of town and started rioting. After cutting the hoses of the fire department, the rioters burned entire sections of the city and shot inhabitants as they escaped the flames. Claiming that “Southern niggers deserve a genuine lynching,” they lynched several blacks. Guardsmen were called in, but several accounts reported that they joined in the rioting rather than stopping it. Others joined in, including allegedly “ten or fifteen young girls about 18 years old, who chased a black woman at the Relay Depot at about 5 o’clock. The girls were brandishing clubs and calling upon the men to kill the woman.” The renowned journalist Ida B. Wells reported in The Chicago Defender that 150 black people were killed during July in the rioting in East St. Louis.
Red Summer which included riots against blacks: 1919 – Charleston Race Riot, May 10, Charleston, South Carolina, – Washington, D.C. Race Riot, July 19, Washington, D.C., – Chicago Race Riot, July 27 – Aug. 2, Chicago, Illinois, – Knoxville Race riot, Aug. 30, Knoxville, Tennessee, Longview Race Riot, Longview, Texas, Omaha Race Riot, Sept. 28, Omaha, Nebraska, Elaine Race Riot, Oct. 1, Elaine, Arkansas. Was called the red summer for all the blood of blacks that was spilled during this massive onslaught of race motivated riots that happened to take place in 1919 over one summer.
The Tulsa Race Riot, also known as the 1921 Race Riot, The Night That Tulsa Died, the Tulsa Race War, or the Greenwood Riot, was a large-scale civil disorder confined mainly to the racially segregated Greenwood neighborhood of Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA in 1921. During the 16 hours of rioting, over 800 people were admitted to local hospitals with injuries, an estimated 10,000 were left homeless, 35 city blocks composed of 1,256 residences were destroyed by fire, and $1.8 million (nearly $17 million after adjustment for inflation) in property damage. Officially, thirty-nine people were reported killed in the riot, of which 10 were white.
The actual number of black citizens killed as a result of the riot was estimated in the Red Cross report at around 300; making the Tulsa Race Riot the worst in US history. Other estimates range as high as 3,000, based on the number of grave diggers and other circumstances, although the archaeological and forensic work needed to confirm the number of dead has not been performed.
Rosewood was a small community of 25 to 30 mostly black families in Levy County in central Florida, USA. Today, it is best known for the racially driven attack on African Americans by whites in January 1923, known as the Rosewood massacre. The town was abandoned during the massacre. It had been a “whistle stop” on the Seaboard Air Line Railway, located on the north side of State Road 24 half a mile east of the intersection with Levy County Road 345.
May Day Riots of 1919
Boston Police Strike
Pennsylvania Steel Strike
The Bellingham riot
North Carolina Textile strike
Sherman race riots
Chicago eviction riots
Hawaii riots
Dearborn Massacre 1932
Bonus army riots
U.S. Nazi riot 1932
Memorial Day massacre
Detroit race riots
Zoot suit riots
Peekskill riot
Little Rock nine riots
Compton’s cafeteria riots
Sunset Strip curfew riots
Buffalo riots
Democratic National Convention
Stonewall riots
Zip to Zap riots
Days of Rage
Kent State shooting riots
Hard hat riots
May Day riots 1971
Disco Demolition night
White night gay riot
Greensboro massacre
Pioneer days riot
Tompkins Square Park police riot
Denver Super bowl riot
Washington State University student riot
Michigan State University riot
Woodstock 1999 concert riot
WTO conference riot
Los Angeles Lakers riot
Seattle Mardi Gras riot
Ohio State University post Michigan football game riot
VEISHEA Iowa State student riot
San Bernardino punk riot
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