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Harlem Riots Of The 1960s Essay

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Harlem Riot of 1964

The 1960’s are usually associated with Civil Rights and Woodstock. Well those are two of the key events that made the 1960’s as we know it today. The Harlem Riot of 1964 was only one of three riots that happened since the founding of Harlem, New York. The ironic thing about this one particular riot is that it occurred just two weeks after President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The situation behind the riot was all over “police brutality”. On July 16, Police Lt. Thomas G. Gilligan killed 15 year old James Powell. Supposedly, Powell and two other friends were involved in horseplay with a building superintendent, Patrick Lynch. Lynch supposedly sprayed the boys with his garden hose. The two …show more content…

When they walked out and told the 250 people standing in front, the crowd was not pleased at all. On the night of July 19, 1964, thousands of Negros (Reported by the New York Times) ran threw Harlem and began to riot. They pulled fire alarms, broke store windows, and enacted in felonious acts such as burglary, destruction of property, disturbing the peace, resisting arrest,

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