In his book titled American Babylon: Race and Struggle for Postwar Oakland, Historian Robert Self places the actions of two groups together in Post-World War II, Oakland, California: a movement centered on black power that stressed community defense and empowerment in ending Jim Crow laws, which notably included the group known as the Black Panthers, and another movement that was primarily white property owners intent on creating a secure economic environment. Both of these two groups, with their own political agendas, argues Self, were instrumental in the development and growth of the political culture not just in the postwar suburbs of Oakland, but in the entire state of California. Charting the rise of these two groups as well as how their
Whites took “the wretched conditions” of Paradise Valley as “the fault of irresponsible blacks, not greedy landlords or neglectful city officials,” and because housing was a “powerful symbol of ‘making it’”, whites in Detroit saw this plight as “personal failure and family breakdown,” (Sugrue, 216-217). As a result of the social changes which emerged during the postwar period, Sugrue explains that “Detroit was… torn by cataclysmic violence…” (Sugrue, 260). Sugrue’s claim that, rather than taking the riot of 1967 as the catalyst for urban crisis in Detroit, one must understand a number of factors which preceded the riot in order to understand this issue, is well-defended by numerous anecdotes detailing the the history of Detroit since the postwar period.
Racial tensions in Los Angeles came into the public eye when a gang of sailors beat up a group of Mexican-Americans wearing “zoot suits” in June of 1943. This led to the mass incarceration of these individuals known as “pachucos”. This initial incident was followed by days of violence in which servicemen roamed the Los Angeles area and physically assaulted any Mexican American they found in zoot suit apparel. The following two nights, the attacks progressed and though a few sailors were arrested while others were warned not to proceed in further assaults, word of the rioting spread and more military personnel from other areas of the city joined in as well. These events were preceded by increased racial tension between Mexican-Americans and Anglo Saxons.
The Detroit Race Riot of June-July 1943 always had the question mark as to what the cause was for the riots. It has also been known as the “biggest and bloodiest race riots in the history of the United States” of America. A review that was completed by Welfred Holmes reveals some information from the book with the title: The Detroit Race Riot: A Study in Violence by Robert Shogan, and Tom Craig. The information that came to the fore was that the book explained the build-up to the riots as it occurred at least one year before the event. It was revealed that the morale of the Black people (Negroes as the book calls them) was very low.
Steve Sheinkin's "The Port Chicago 50" exposes harsh stories of segregation and racism in America back in the 1940's. Racism took place in a time when the U.S. already had abolished slavery, but there was still that feeling that African Americans were subordinate compared to the whites. In this book he is principally talking about the explosion of The Port of Chicago 50 that completely obliterated the port killing many black sailors. This was caused by mishandling of ammo and explosives by the African-American sailors. This was a great illustration of racism and how blacks were inferior to the whites.
Scott Kurashige’s The Shifting Grounds of Race: Black and Japanese Americans in the Making of Multiethnic Los Angeles exposes its’ readers to the history of race and politics in the city of Los Angeles, California. In his research, the author describes the political history of Japanese and Black Americans in LA by discussing the interethnic cooperation and competition each group faced while dealing with bigoted and racist beliefs and challenges that white people threw their way. Kurashige’s research focuses most on how these two racial groups at Little Tokyo/Bronzeville produce entirely different responses to the political sphere around them after World War II. The author shows how the African Americans in this city were trapped in the lower
The Mini-Riot of 1966 In the summer of 1966 there was a mini-riot on the east side of Detroit on one of the main thoroughfares, Kercheval Avenue at Pennsylvania (Elkins qtd. in Stone 113-114; Fine 135-143; Horner qtd. in Stone 92). Intervention by the police in a violent arrest led to masses of people coming into the street to protest against police brutality, Businesses were vandalized and additional police were called in and eventually the disturbance was quelled (Elkins qtd.
The Rodney King riots impacted many people in the United States in many ways, and Matheson and Baade explain one large impact that they
His can-do attitude is shown after the riot when African Americans begin to arm themselves and fight back. The author focuses on these two to prove the point that the African American people, while able to make decisions for themselves, were heavily influenced by the media, fear, and black leaders of their
“During the war years, the LAPD routinely pulled over cars driven by Mexican-Americans to conduct ‘field interrogations.’ In 1942 they began making mass arrests, blockading streets in the barrios and detaining teenagers and young adults on vague charges, such as vagrancy or unlawful assembly.” (WOLCOTT). The police department in Los Angeles specifically targeted Mexican-Americans for years, blatantly showing their racism. Even the theme of unfair arrests had started a year before the actual riots.
To some people, the riots of 1967 were the falling point of Detroit; however, to others, the rebellion was a result of years of racism, and the dehumanization of black people and “It has been said that the cities downhill trajectory began way before the event of that week and for many Detroiters, by 1967 hopeless and despair has replaced the cities sense of promise. “according to "Summer of Rebellion: 1967 in Context.”. It’s not only what happened, but why it happened that matters. In the context of a storyline, the rebellion was the climax; and here are some of the many rising actions that resulted in it.
The terrible race riot that occurred in Springfield in 1908 sparked many people’s attention that racism is still very much alive and rampant everywhere. As in wars, political downfalls, and other events as such, the Springfield race riot of 1908 had a few major causes. On July 4, 1908, Joe James, a black man, was accused of “killing a white mining engineer, Clergy Ballard. ”1
Thesis From the mid 1910s to the early 1960s there were many riots that occured, because of racial tensions built up between the the whites and the blacks world wide. Coming from Will Brown being accused of rapping a young white girl, and to Eugene Williams having rocks thrown at him causing him to drown. Segregation at this time was unjustified due to racism still being heavily considered as the right thing to do. These riots caused the United States to be even more segregated, due to unequal rights and no laws being created at the time to help and protect African Americans. During these riots there were cases of police brutality and whites being able to do whatever they choose to do, because they felt as if it was a justified reason to stop the African Americans from rioting.
The Impact of the Detroit Race Riot on Society Just imagine you are in the streets of Detroit in 1967. There are fires blazing all around you, people are being shot ruthlessly and police are using heavy force to stop the rioters. That is how the people of Detroit felt during one of the most deadly events in Detroit history. Some people even thought it was the start of a second revolution, This is a quote from Jeffrey Eugenides. “ In Detroit, in July of 1967,what happened was no less than a guerrilla uprising.
The Tulsa Race Riot was the destruction of Black Wall Street in 1921, which was caused by an allegation of a white woman accusing a black man of rape. It lasted from May 31st to June 1st. The Tulsa Race Riot caused plenty of damage from “dozens of deaths [and] hundreds of injuries” to the destruction of Black Wall Street leading to unemployment of the black community (Hoberock n. pag.). An estimated property loss was over $2.3 million. This was an important event in our Nation’s history because “it teaches how far hatred [and violence] can go” (Hoberock n. pag.).
