| 1964 Rochester race riot | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Ghetto riots | |||
| Date | July 24–26, 1964 | ||
| Location | Rochester, New York, United States | ||
| Caused by | Police brutality against African-Americans | ||
| Parties | |||
| |||
| Casualties | |||
| Death(s) | 5 (4 from helicopter crash) [1] | ||
| Injuries | 350 [2] | ||
| Arrested | 976 [2] | ||
The 1964 Rochester race riot was a riot that occurred in 1964 in Rochester, New York, United States. The riot occurred in the context of a rapidly-growing African American population in Rochester which had experienced discrimination in employment, housing, and policing in the preceding years. Violence began when the Rochester Police Department attempted to make an arrest at a block party on July 24, 1964. The riot lasted until July 26 and resulted in five deaths, four of which occurred in a helicopter crash in the city, as well as over 300 injuries and 900 arrests. In the aftermath of the riot, downtown Rochester received the attention of several new urban renewal and public housing projects, and local activists organized campaigns to change hiring practices in the city.
The African American population of Rochester grew during the 1950s and 1960s, increasing from 7,845 in 1950 to more than 32,000 in 1964, at the time of the riot. [3] Much of that population growth came from the South, travelling north in hopes of better socioeconomic conditions. Black migrants were instead met with segregated schools, dilapidated housing, and an unemployment rate that was more than six times higher than the unemployment rate for whites. [3] Black residents suffered from constant public harassment and humiliation, often being referred to as "bean pickers" in a reference to black migrant workers in the area, as well as being denied housing throughout the city, with African Americans being funneled into the run-down Upper Falls neighborhood. [1] The Rochester race riot came at a time of heightened racial tensions and violence in the United States, occurring only a week after a major race riot in Harlem.
At 10:00 p.m. on July 24, 1964, the Rochester Police Department (RPD) attempted to arrest an intoxicated man at a street block party and dance on Joseph Avenue, in the Upper Falls neighborhood of Rochester. [4] Police found 20-year-old Randy Manigault unruly and disorderly. They determined he was intoxicated and attempted to arrest him. Manigualt became combative and resisted arrest.
Bystanders felt police were too forceful and started throwing bottles and bricks at police. Police then called for backup from the RPD, with a K-9 unit responding due to a shortage of other officers. Despite being against RPD practice to use police dogs on crowds, two police dogs were used to control the crowd. This use of police dogs seems to have played a part in starting the riot, with the presence of K-9 units evoking memories of violent police dogs being used against peaceful civil rights protesters in Birmingham, Alabama. [1]
By 11:30 p.m. all available officers had been deployed and were engaged with around 400 rioters. At 2:00 a.m., Rochester police chief William Lombard ordered officers to use riot weapons on the crowd. The riot had swelled to 2,000 people by 3:30 a.m. and looting had begun on Clinton Avenue, the main thoroughfare in Upper Falls. Governor Rockefeller declared a state of emergency by 9:00 a.m., with the event being officially dubbed a "riot" at that time. The chaos calmed during the day on July 25, 1964, before rioting resumed in force that night. [1]
On July 25 six black organizers, including three clergy members, brought Mayor Lamb a list of demands which, if met, would bring an end to the violence. These included a mayoral committee consisting of members of the black community to oversee the police department, the deputization of "responsible area residents" and more resources allocated to black-owned businesses and workers. Mayor Lamb would not agree to deputize citizens. [5] Meanwhile, violence had spread to other areas of the city by that evening, including Rochester's 3rd and 19th Wards. One man was killed when he arrived on scene wearing a helmet, stood in the street and was subsequently hit and dragged 100 feet by a passing car. [6]
The last day of the ordeal was July 26, when a helicopter used to survey the violence flew too close to a house on Clarissa Street, clipping the roof. The crash resulted in the immediate death of the helicopter pilot and two residents of the house. [7] Col. Robert Abbott, the civil defense director for Monroe County, died from his wounds weeks later as a fourth victim. [1] Later that same day, violence erupted in Rochester's Upper Falls neighborhood when demonstrators threw Molotov cocktails at police, who responded with gunfire. [8]
Peace was restored after three days, after Governor Nelson Rockefeller mobilized the New York National Guard. Between 800 and 1,000 national guardsmen were sent to the city. [8] [9] By the time the disturbance was over, five were dead (four from the helicopter crash) and 350 injured. [1] [2] 976 people were arrested and 204 stores were either looted or damaged. [2]
A police officer, Dominick D'Angelo, suffered a cut under his eye, but was able to remain on duty, [10] and ABC News reporter Dick Baumbach was shot in the face, but it only grazed his facial structure.[ citation needed ]
Although the riot was initially blamed on "outside agitators," almost all the rioters arrested were from the local area, with only 14 people arrested who resided outside Monroe County. Third Ward Supervisor Constance Mitchell stated, "I know the kids here. I know the hard ones and the good kids. And it was the good kids in my ward who first threw the bricks through the windows. Then the adults stepped in. This community just went insane." [11] This led to a reappraisal of policies and practices which had not changed in face of a growing black population in the previous 10 years. [12] [13]
At that time, most black Rochesterians held low-pay and low-skill jobs and lived in substandard housing. [13] Rochester's public housing authority had only been established in 1955 [14] and its only projects, Hanover Houses and Chatham Gardens, were overflowing with tenants by 1964. [12] In the decade following the riot, the City of Rochester acquired the land blighted by the riot, leveled remaining buildings, and removed or re-positioned many of the streets. [12] [14] Several public housing projects were planned and built during the 1960s and 1970s. [14]
Social service agencies, including Action for a Better Community and the Urban League of Rochester, were established as a result of the riot. In 1965, local activists organized the organization FIGHT (Freedom, Integration, God, Honor, Today) to combat discriminatory hiring practices with the assistance of Saul Alinsky. The organization was led by Franklin Florence and reached an agreement with Eastman Kodak to hire more African American employees in 1967. [13]
In the broader context of racism against Black Americans and racism in the United States, mass racial violence in the United States consists of ethnic conflicts and race riots, along with such events as:
Rochester is a city in the U.S. state of New York and the seat of Monroe County. It is the fourth-most populous city and 10th most-populated municipality in New York, with a population of 211,328 at the 2020 census. The city forms the core of the larger Rochester metropolitan area in Western New York, with a population of over 1.09 million residents. Throughout its history, Rochester has acquired several nicknames based on local industries; it has been known as "the Flour City" and "the Flower City" for its dual role in flour production and floriculture, and "the World's Image Center" for its association with film photography.
The 1967 Detroit riot, also known as the 12th Street Riot, was the bloodiest of the urban riots in the United States during the "Long, hot summer of 1967". Composed mainly of confrontations between black residents and the Detroit Police Department, it began in the early morning hours of Sunday July 23, 1967, in Detroit, Michigan.
The Watts riots, sometimes referred to as the Watts Rebellion or Watts Uprising, took place in the Watts neighborhood and its surrounding areas of Los Angeles from August 11 to 16, 1965.
This article documents the history of Rochester, New York, in western New York State. Settlement began in the late 18th century, and the city flourished with the opening of the Erie Canal. It became a major manufacturing center, and attracted many Italians, Germans, Irish and other immigrants, as well as a dominant group of Yankees of New England origin. The Yankees made Rochester the center of multiple reform movements, such as abolitionism and women's rights. It was famous as the center of the American photography industry, with headquarters of Eastman Kodak. In the 1970s it became fashionable to call the industrial cities along the Great Lakes 'rustbelt cities' following the move away from steel, chemical and other hard goods manufacturing. Rochester, with the presence of Ritter-Pfaulder, Bausch and Lomb, Eastman Kodak, Xerox, Gannett and other major industries, defied the trend for many decades following WWII.
The 1967 Newark riots were an episode of violent, armed conflict in the streets of Newark, New Jersey. Taking place over a four-day period, the Newark riots resulted in at least 26 deaths and hundreds more serious injuries. Serious property damage, including shattered storefronts and fires caused by arson, left much of the city's buildings damaged or destroyed. At the height of the conflict, the National Guard was called upon to occupy the city with tanks and other military equipment, leading to iconic media depictions that were considered particularly shocking when shared in the national press. In the aftermath of the riots, Newark was quite rapidly abandoned by many of its remaining middle-class and affluent residents, as well as much of its white working-class population. This accelerated flight led to a decades-long period of disinvestment and urban blight, including soaring crime rates and gang activity.
Following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., a leading African-American civil rights activist, on April 4, 1968, Washington, D.C., experienced a four-day period of violent civil unrest and rioting. Part of the broader riots that affected at least 110 U.S. cities, those in Washington, D.C.—along with those in Chicago and in Baltimore—were among those with the greatest numbers of participants. President Lyndon B. Johnson called in the National Guard to the city on April 5, 1968, to assist the police department in quelling the unrest. Ultimately, 13 people were killed, with approximately 1,000 people injured and over 6,100 arrested.
The Hough riots were riots in the predominantly African-American community of Hough in Cleveland, Ohio, United States which took place from July 18 to 23, 1966. During the riots, four African Americans were killed and 50 people were injured. There were 275 arrests and numerous incidents of arson and firebombings. City officials at first blamed black nationalist and communist organizations for the riots, but historians generally dismiss these claims today, arguing that the cause of the Hough Riots were primarily poverty and racism. The riots caused rapid population loss and economic decline in the area, which lasted at least five decades after the riots.
The 1906 Atlanta Race Riot, also known as the 1906 Atlanta Race Massacre, was an episode of mass racial violence against African Americans in the United States in September 1906. Violent attacks by armed mobs of White Americans against African Americans in Atlanta, Georgia, began after newspapers, on the evening of September 22, 1906, published several unsubstantiated and luridly detailed reports of the alleged rapes of 4 local women by black men. The violence lasted through September 24, 1906. The events were reported by newspapers around the world, including the French Le Petit Journal which described the "lynchings in the USA" and the "massacre of Negroes in Atlanta," the Scottish Aberdeen Press & Journal under the headline "Race Riots in Georgia," and the London Evening Standard under the headlines "Anti-Negro Riots" and "Outrages in Georgia." The final death toll of the conflict is unknown and disputed, but officially at least 25 African Americans and two whites died. Unofficial reports ranged from 10–100 black Americans killed during the massacre. According to the Atlanta History Center, some black Americans were hanged from lampposts; others were shot, beaten or stabbed to death. They were pulled from street cars and attacked on the street; white mobs invaded black neighborhoods, destroying homes and businesses.
The Chicago race riot of 1919 was a violent racial conflict between white Americans and Black Americans that began on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois, on July 27 and ended on August 3, 1919. During the riot, 38 people died. Over the week, injuries attributed to the episodic confrontations stood at 537, two thirds Black and one third white; and between 1,000 and 2,000 residents, most of them Black, lost their homes. Due to its sustained violence and widespread economic impact, it is considered the worst of the scores of riots and civil disturbances across the United States during the "Red Summer" of 1919, so named because of its racial and labor violence. It was also one of the worst riots in the history of Illinois.
Riots often occur in reaction to a perceived grievance or out of dissent. Riots may be the outcome of a sporting event, although many riots have occurred due to poor working or living conditions, government oppression, conflicts between races or religions.
Avondale is a neighborhood in Cincinnati, Ohio. It is home to the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden. The population was 11,345 at the 2020 census.
The Rochester Police Department, also known as the RPD, is the principal law enforcement agency of the City of Rochester, New York, reporting to the city mayor. It currently has approximately 852 officers and support staff, a budget of approximately $90 million, and covers an area of 37 square miles (96 km2). The Rochester Police Department has been under a court-ordered federal consent decree from the United States Department of Justice since 1975 over its hiring practices. The decree was part of a 1975 settlement involving racial discrimination.
The long, hot summer of 1967 refers to the more than 150 race riots that erupted across the United States in the summer of 1967. In June there were riots in Atlanta, Boston, Cincinnati, Buffalo, and Tampa. In July there were riots in Birmingham, Chicago, Detroit, Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Newark, New Britain, New York City, Plainfield, Rochester, and Toledo.
The Knoxville riot of 1919 was a race riot that took place in the American city of Knoxville, Tennessee, on August 30–31, 1919. The riot began when a lynch mob stormed the county jail in search of Maurice Mays, a biracial man who had been accused of murdering a white woman. Unable to find Mays, the rioters looted the jail and fought a pitched gun battle with the residents of a predominantly black neighborhood. The Tennessee National Guard, which at one point fired two machine guns indiscriminately into this neighborhood, eventually dispersed the rioters. Headlines in the immediate aftermath stated five people were killed, while the Washington Times reported "Scores dead." Other newspapers placed the death toll at just two, though eyewitness accounts suggest it was much higher.
The King assassination riots, also known as the Holy Week Uprising, were a wave of civil disturbance which swept across the United States following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1968. Some of the biggest riots took place in Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Chicago, and Kansas City.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt Florence Sr. was an American Christian minister who was heavily involved in civil rights work in Rochester, New York, for five decades. He was most well known as the founder and first president of the civil rights group FIGHT in 1965 after the 1964 Rochester race riot. Prior to his death, he served as the senior pastor at the Central Church of Christ in Rochester, which he founded.
On March 23, 2020, Daniel Prude, a 41-year-old African-American man, died after being physically restrained by Rochester, New York police officers. Prude had been suffering from a mental health episode after ingesting PCP and was walking naked in the city's streets. The officers put a spit hood over his head after he began spitting. They restrained him face-down on the street for two minutes and fifteen seconds, and he stopped breathing. Prude received CPR on the scene and later died of complications from asphyxia after being taken off life support.
A mass shooting took place on September 19, 2020, in Rochester, New York, United States, at a late-night backyard party on Pennsylvania Avenue. Two people were killed and fourteen others were injured. No arrests have been made. It is considered the largest mass shooting in Rochester in recent memory.
Edgerton is a neighborhood in the Northwest Quadrant of Rochester, New York that sits between the Genesee River on the east and the Erie Canal bed on the west. One of the city's oldest and largest residential areas, Edgerton is among the most ethnically, linguistically, and racially diverse communities in Western New York. The neighborhood has been called "the Bermuda Triangle of Rochester" because of its "nearly invisible" status in local politics. Edgerton is currently the poorest neighborhood in Rochester, with an Unemployment Rate higher than that of the United States during the Great Depression.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
