New York City Draft Riots

Topics of Inquiry: The Chicago bombing during the Haymarket Riot caused uproar throughout the crowd. It was supposed to be a peaceful protest, but turned out to be an unplanned event. Many argue that the bombing itself did not help the cause, but I will be arguing that the bombing helped the eight hour movement.

This logic led many to flee to Canada or simply resist the draft. Protesters felt that the United States should not be involved in another nation’s civil war especially a war that uses tactics such as saturation bombing, the killing of civilians, and the use of toxic chemicals. David Harris, a draft resister, wrote, “The war was an extraordinarily obvious violation of everything that I had been led to expect from the country I was a part of….when my generation’s war showed up it turned to out to be a propping up of petty dictators so they could keep a good portion of their population in servitude” (Handout page 9). Mass protests occurred all around America. The New York Times wrote about just one protest that had occurred, “A vast throng of Americans, predominantly youthful and constituting the largest mass march in the nation’s capital, demonstrated peaceably in the heart of the city today, demanding a rapid withdrawal of United States troops from Vietnam….There were a number of arrests and minor injuries, mostly the result of tear gas” (Handout page 10). These protesters understood what the war was really doing to America and how immoral our actions truly were, but many others were in support of the war, thus causing a division in the United States.

Urban Blacks were also encounter with extreme racial violence in neighborhoods and at work. Different ethnic groups of new immigrants obtained power and used conflict as a strategy of diminishing urban Blacks power level. They began blocking Urban Black workers going to work throughout new immigrant’s neighborhoods. Race riots have played a crucial role in the social establishment of race, prejudice, and discrimination across the United States. Race riots uncovered fundamental tensions in societies experiencing swift technological and economic changes. In 1920, there were many race riots and other violence in many places, such as Red Summer Race Riots of 1919 and the St. Louis Riot of 1917 that took place during the segregation in the South and the Black urban migration to the North. These race riots were response to the reality that Urban Blacks were carrying on a powerful struggle against White supremacy. During race riots, Urban Blacks lived through a renewed flow of riots, massacres, and racial terrorism.

The draft started on April 16, 1862 for the Confederate States during the Civil War. The Union then conducted their own draft on March 3, 1863. The Northern 1862 draft was an attempt to let states handle their own conscriptions, instead of the old volunteer militia. The next draft took place on September 16, 1940 for World War I and remained in effect continuously until 1973. The president, Woodrow Wilson, decided that “A draft was needed and nearly 3,000,000 soldiers were drafted following the Service Act of 1917.” (Understanding the U.S. Military Draft History 1). The reasoning behind President Wilson calling for the draft is because “Before the draft only 73,000 soldiers volunteered during the first 6 weeks of World War I” (Understanding the U.S. Military Draft History 1). Before July of 1973 “The draft was in effect continuously from 1940 to 1973” (Smith 1). This means that more than 10,000,000 men were drafted and sent off into battle throughout the past wars.

People watched as “Men, both colored and white, were murdered within two blocks of us, some being hung to the nearest lamp post, and others shot”. This carnage was predominantly sparked by the ratification of the Conscription Act and the mobility of freed slaves due to the Emancipation Proclamation. The Irish-Americans and African-Americans were competing for jobs; resulting in the biggest civil protest during war times in American history. The New York City Draft Riots of 1863, as stated by Albon P. Man Jr’s journal article, “Labor Competition and the New York Draft Riots of 1863”, left 1,200 to 1,500 dead from white rioters, though the number of victims by the lynch mobs that were taken away by the water onto either side of Manhattan are

The Chicago race riots of 1919 were one of the darkest moments in our nations history. But something so terrible does not just happen over night, in fact the reason for this riot began with the Great Migration around 1910. The Great Migration was the relocation of more than 6 million African-Americans from the rural south into the urban north. Of those 6 million African-Americans traveling to the north 500,000 of them went to Chicago 's South Side. The African-American population thought they were going to a better situation by escaping the apartheid practices of Jim Crow. However they were taken advantage of and seen as new competition to the northern white population. Nine years later during the summer of 1919, two years after World War I ended, the American society suffered from a racial tension that it has never seen before. The racial tension brewed from the demobilization of black and white

The Harlem Riots had a definitive start, but the build up to rioting varied among the sources used. According to an article in the NY Times on August 5, 1943, ?The City Council who charged on Tuesday that Harlem had been starved of park and playground facilities?The City Council denied the charge that inadequate policing was responsible for the disorder.? This article stated that Harlem lacked the parks and recreation needs of its people and therefore caused the riot, along with the fact that police did not handle the situation correctly. Another article in the NY Times quoted Rev. Dr. Samuel Henry about the rioting in Harlem, ?Heightened suggestibility due to mass living

Since the Civil War the United States has been using the military draft to defend the country. The draft is the reason why the U.S. is the powerhouse it is today. The military draft has been successful for all the wars we fought, so why stop it now? The Unites States gives its citizens freedom that most countries don’t allow. To ensure the citizens’ natural rights the United States citizens should show loyalty and be willing to fight when called for duty. An all-volunteer army is filled with citizens from low income households. The minorities in the country fill these positions. The all-volunteer army is an unfair method of distributing the responsibly and risking the United States defense system.

The draft selection began on Saturday July 11 1863. But it wasn’t till Monday July 13 that people started rioting. The riots lasted for 5 days, at first they only attacked government buildings. The Civil War Draft Riots took place in 1863, the U.S needed people to fight in the War so they did a draft. The rich could buy their way out with $300(around $5,500 in modern day money). People were enraged and chaos broke out threw the city, for a few days they destroyed New York, people were killed, and people used African Americans as a scape goat.

Since the late 1800s, Vietnam has struggled with maintaining independence. Vietnam was under the French control but the Vietnamese wanted to break free of the harsh rules put in place by the French, so Ho Chi Minh created the Indochinese Communist Party in 1940. After the Japanese conquered Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh created the Vietminh in order to gain independence from all foreign rule. Although the Vietnamese defeated the Japanese in 1945, the French had no thoughts of pulling out of Vietnam. By the end of 1945 the French had already reentered into Vietnam and conquered the southern cities.

On July 13, the government attempted to enforce the draft in New York City and ignited the most destructive civil disturbance in the city’s history. Rioters torched government buildings and, on July 15, fought pitched battles with troops. In fact, there were no more than 119 fatalities, most of them rioters. About 300 more were injured, over half of them being policemen and soldiers. Most of the rioters were Irish, living in infectious misery and bad parts of town. The outbreak by these working men and women was sparked by the fact that that enrollment could be avoided by paying three hundred dollars which only the rich could afford. Many African-Americans from New York were chosen as scapegoats for many injustices. Many innocent African-Americans were killed and their homes sacked. A Colored Orphan Asylum was razed. this was the origin of the draft

The anti-war protests of the 1960s was a response of resentment by minorities and young educated college students against the nation’s desire to participate in war against Communism in Vietnam and conduct a military draft. The protests, originally began with peaceful public demonstrations by activists, who were nonviolent; however, the peaceful demonstrators were frequently attacked and victimized by the police and other citizens, who did not share their same opinion. Throughout the peaceful protests the activists suffered many beatings in the hands of the police and as a result, many of the activists claimed the right of self-defense and turned to taking offensive actions against their oppressors including the police and other citizens. Later, the scene of violence and mayhem quickly shifted to college campuses, to which college students began protesting the draft (Gurr, 1989, pp. 183-185). At the time the average age of an American soldier serving in Vietnam was 19 and students quickly rebelled after realizing that young Americans were legally old enough to be drafted to fight and die, but were not yet legally allowed to vote or drink alcohol (UShistory, nd.).

The Memphis Riot of 1866 and Its Roots in the Social Upheaval of the Reconstruction

In July 23, 1967, the Detroit Police department busted a bar with a prominent number of African Americans. They arrested every person in the bar. More and more people started to gather on 12th street to watch the proceedings. That is when the rioting started. The crowd began to get more violent as more people joined.

The popularity of sit-ins can be reflected in the involvement of the N.A.A.C.P. (The National Association of the Advancement of Colored People). An article published by the New York Times talks about planned demonstrations that will occur in New York City which will be headed by the N.A.A.C.P (Robinson 54). This example shows how large the movement had become by summer 1961 because a nationally recognized organization was already actively involved in demonstrating. Another article, printed in late 1961, reports that the national director of the Congress of Racial Equality would begin planned sit-ins nation wide, with a focus in the South and the Midwest (“Negroes to Broaden” 18). This again proves how effective sit-ins were because a nationally recognized organization was taking the movement and organizing a nation wide effort to end discrimination.