Harlem Riots Research Paper

Major race riots have occurred in the United States at least since the Harlem Riots of 1948. Although the race riots that took place in the United States during the 1960’s were the direct result of the serious grievances of a minority racial group. An already frustrated and angry black population in America's cities violently took that sense of unfairness to the streets in the form of demonstrations, looting, and the destruction of property. Riots continued to happen throughout history including the 1992 riot in Los Angeles, the most destructive United States civil disturbance of the 20th century. As riots still occur in the present they

Some riots during the 1960’s were located in Harlem 1964, Watts 1965, Newark 1967, and Detroit 1967. The six day Harlem riot in 1964 had 1 person dead, 500 injured 465 arrested, and property damage was estimated to be between 500,000 to 1 million dollars. The five day Watts riot in 1965 had 34 people dead, 1,032 injured, 3,438 arrested, and property damage of 40 million dollars. The six day Newark riot in 1967 had 26 people dead, hundreds injured, 811 arrested, and property damage exceeded 10 million dollars. The five day Detroit riot in 1967 had 43 dead, 1,189 injured, over 7,200 arrested, and property damage ranged from 40-45 million dollars. The riots began on July 16, 1964, when a police officer killed a young black boy in

All these riots are a cause of collective behavior through mass media that crowds, cities, and anyone else who heard about the riots through media began following others doing crimes, causing destruction, and looting. These riots are another cause of collective behavior by demonstrating generalized belief, precipitating factors, mobilization for action, and operation of social controls which are the preconditions in Neils Smelser’s theory of collective behavior. The type of crowds these riots demonstrate are acting crowds, then turn to mobs, following into a riot. The perspectives these riots follow are the interactionist perspective, the classical perspective, social contagion, collective excitement, emergent-norm perspective, and the game perspectives. The only contrast I can see between these riots are they years that they happened in. Another contrast between these riots are the difference in numbers of deaths, injuries, arrests, and property