Detroit Riots of 1943 Essay

Though sparked by the Rodney King verdict, there were many other causes of the riots that erupted on the streets of Los Angeles on April 29, 1992. The Los Angeles riots in 1992 were devastating. The obvious issue portrayed through the media was black versus white. If you did not live in Los Angeles or California chances are you did not hear full coverage of the story, you heard a simple cut and dry portrayal of the events in South Central. If you heard one thing about the riots, it was that there was a man named Rodney King and he was a black male beaten with excessive force by four white Los Angeles police officers on Los Angeles concrete. The media portrayed the riots as black rage on the streets due to the

In Harlem Runs Wild, Claude McKay depicts the Harlem Riot of 1935 as merely "…a gesture of despair of a bewildered, baffled, and disillusioned people." (McKay 224) The Harlem Riot of 1935 was spontaneous and unpremeditated. It was not a race riot in the sense of physical conflict between white and non-white groups as there was little direct violence to white persons. McKay states, "The mass riot in Harlem was not a race riot." (McKay 221) Its distinguishing feature was the persons' attack upon property rather than persons, and resentment against whites that, while exploiting Negroes, denied them an opportunity to work. Communists did not instigate the riot, though they

The Civil War was fought over the “race problem,” to determine the place of African-Americans in America. The Union won the war and freed the slaves. However, when President Lincoln declared the Emancipation Proclamation, a hopeful promise for freedom from oppression and slavery for African-Americans, he refrained from announcing the decades of hardship that would follow to obtaining the new won “freedom”. Over the course of nearly a century, African-Americans would be deprived and face adversity to their rights. They faced something perhaps worse than slavery; plagued with the threat of being lynched or beat for walking at the wrong place at the wrong time. Despite the addition of the 14th and

Have you ever said that you wanted to start a riot, and people have responded by saying that’s not funny? Well here’s why they say that. On May 31, 1921 a riot occurred in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It all happened when Dick Rowland (an African American) was accused of raping a white woman named Sarah Page in an elevator, when Rowland had tripped and grabbed her arm by accident. A salesclerk overheard the scream and called the police. Rowland was arrested. There were angry whites that were outside the courtroom protesting for Rowland to be lynched. The violence started for some people on May 31, 1921 and went on until June 1, 1921. 1265 homes, dozens of office buildings, restaurants, churches and schools had been destroyed during this

Before the race riots broke out in Chicago, tension between two communities were high and resulted 1919 Chicago Race Riot, which Black teenager called Eugene Williams swimming in Lake Michigan was stoned to death by White bystanders. His death caused one of the worst riots in American history because 37 people died, 500 injured and thousands left homeless. When the local police were called to the William’s death, they refused to arrest the man who initiated the

The Chicago Race Riots of 1919 helped to further show how African Americans are looked as inferior, not just within the citizens of the United States, but the Congress and criminal justice system. White and black beaches were separated by an invisible line; the black beach on 25th street and whites on 29th street. The story of Eugene Williams swimming on the beach worsened after a white police officer, Dan Callahan, refused to intervene or arrest the group of white men responsible for his death, in turn starting the deadliest racial violence in Chicago history. The riot lasted a week with protestors full of rage mostly on the South side with white gangs attacking isolated blacks and blacks attacking isolated whites.

The Tulsa Race Riot is considered to be the most deadly and violent race riot of all time. The period of the riot was a time of prosperity in America, not only among whites, but the black population in Tulsa were also living an upper middle class life. The oil boom gave Tulsa a quick boost in the economy and people had money, lots of money. With oil in the ground and money everywhere, it’s hard to imagine that the National Guard was about to be called on its own civilians for the first time and only time in history.

Pre-existing racism in Tulsa was the foundation on which all the other causes of the riot were built upon. Wide-spread segregation was still common in America at that time and it was accepted by many in the North and South that whites were inherently superior to blacks. These views were particularly strong in the South, where emancipated blacks were seen as a threat and scourge to white Southern culture, a culture which was utterly dominated by whites and where blacks were oppressed with no hope of equal protection under the law, equal representation, etc. This was also the case in Tulsa in the early 1900s. Blacks were segregated against by the white residents and as a consequence formed their own community, called Greenwood, on the north side of the Frisco Railroad tracks, which was heralded by

Another reason for the discontent and anger leading up to the Watts County riots was the competition between minority groups. Rather than pulling together and uniting in their battle for equality as one might expect, they instead formed strong rivalries that lead to fierce conflict for the limited resources not already taken by white people. Also many white people preferred to hire lighter-skinned minorities, most of whom were Chicanos. This caused unrest within the black community, who were angry and upset as this meant there were very few jobs left available.

This paper will cover the events that took place within the first five days in south central Los Angeles after the Rodney King verdict .

On 1 May 1866 in the city of Memphis, Tennessee, an altercation between black Union soldiers and Memphis police officers started a chain reaction that eventually brought about what has come to be known as the Memphis Riots of 1866. The group of amicably intoxicated soldiers reacted negatively when told by a small group of officers to break up their party, and although no one was seriously injured, the situation quickly escalated to the point where shots were fired on both sides (Carden 2). This incident, however, was not the cause of the Memphis Riots. Instead, I will argue that the altercation merely served as the spark to set a fire to a whole mess of kindling made of economic, political, and social twigs and branches, which was already in place long before the actual events of the Memphis Riots.

The Detroit riots occurred in the summer of 1967. The riot initially started because of race when poor African Americans got kicked out of their houses. They started living on 12th street in Detroit. The riot started there because African Americans were fed up with the way that they were being treated. Many years prior to the riot there were already racial issues. The government made it hard for African Americans to buy houses in the 1950s. During that time, white people were resisting African Americans from moving into Detroit. They were gathering outside of houses owned by African Americans until they would leave. According to Stanford, “I was blissfully unaware of the pervasive racism and resentment that was simmering in my city” (28).

To summarize the article “Rumor to Fact in Tales of Post-Katrina Violence”,  New Orleans was described as ruins damaged by floods during Hurricane Katrina, leaving the city drowned in it’s own ugly violence. The ugly consensus comes down to poor blacks and looters murdering innocents and terrorizing whoever crossed their path in the vulnerable city. Many civilians said that it looked like the city was under siege (Saunders 1). Now, an image of white violence intended for good, police killings, and cover-ups are being surfaced. On top of looters, police officers and white civilians have been accused of racially motivated violence (Saunders 1). Some say the flood produced an angry environment in which African-Americans were hated against in the

He and Evans related instances, during the early stages of the demonstrations, where police arrested white hecklers and "hoodlums" only after white passers-by, irked by cops 'over-looking' violence against the students, started to take matters into their own

The serious inequalities throughout our nation are being looked past by the media and falling short on “multilayered reporting.” Although the media covers and publishes topics that are of interests to the public, the agenda of the media is to display a much softer approach to prevent any type of backlash from external influences, influential individuals, and governmental officials. Therefore, the coverage does not typically include the controversial topics such as the serious discrimination issues that lie within these neighborhoods or the daily struggles they experience. In the case of Ferguson, the economic inequality and racial tensions Michael Brown faced are not addressed in the medias main story line. The media tends to run with the police brutality news frame instead of understanding the complexity behind the social unrest and intense discriminations. The media often lacks the coverage of contextual situations in these cases and can inaccurately portray representations of the larger picture, creating and imbalance within our