Hard Hat Riot

Last updated

Hard Hat Riot
Part of the student strike of 1970
Hard hats on Nixon cabinet table May 26, 1970.jpg
Hard hats on cabinet table after Nixon meeting with and supporting construction trades group less than three weeks after the New York City Hard Hat Riot
Location New York City Hall, Lower Manhattan, New York City, New York, U.S.
DateMay 8, 1970;53 years ago (1970-05-08)
11:55 a.m. (Eastern Time Zone)
Deaths0
Injured100+
PerpetratorsNYC union trade/construction workers

The Hard Hat Riot occurred on May 8, 1970, in New York City. It started around noon when around 400 construction workers and around 800 office workers attacked around 1,000 demonstrators affiliated with the student strike of 1970. The students were protesting the May 4 Kent State shootings and the Vietnam War, following the April 30 announcement by President Richard Nixon of the U.S. invasion of neutral Cambodia. Some construction workers carried U.S. flags and chanted "USA, All the way", and "America, love it or leave it". Anti-war protesters shouted, “Peace now”.

Contents

The riot, first breaking out near the intersection of Wall Street and Broad Street in Lower Manhattan, led to a mob scene with more than 20,000 people in the streets, eventually leading to a siege of New York City Hall, an attack on the conservative Pace University, and lasted more than three hours. Around 100 people, including seven policemen, were injured on what became known as "Bloody Friday". Six people were arrested, but only one of them was a construction worker associated with the rioters. [1] [2] [3] [4] President Nixon then invited the hardhat leaders to Washington, D.C., and accepted a hardhat from them.

Background

On May 4, 1970, thirteen students were shot, four of them fatally, at Kent State University in Ohio by National Guardsmen as they demonstrated against the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War and U.S. incursions into Cambodia. One of the dead was Jeffrey Glenn Miller, who was from a New York City suburb on Long Island, which led to funeral proceedings in Manhattan and Long Island, which helped fuel local activism. In the days before the riot, there were anti-war protests on Wall Street and smaller clashes between construction workers and anti-war demonstrators. As a show of sympathy for the dead students, the Republican Mayor of New York City John Lindsay ordered all flags at New York City Hall to be flown at half-staff on May 8, the day of the riot. [5] [6]

The U.S. labor movement was deeply divided over support for President Richard Nixon's Vietnam War policy. AFL–CIO president George Meany and most labor leaders in the United States were vehemently anti-communist and thus strongly supported U.S. military involvement in Southeast Asia.

Peter J. Brennan, president of the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York, was a strong supporter of Nixon's policy of Vietnamization and ending American involvement in the war. [7] Brennan was also president of the Building and Construction Trades Council of New York, the statewide umbrella group for construction unions, and the vice president of the New York City Central Labor Council and the New York State AFL–CIO, umbrella groups for all labor unions in these respective areas. [8] [9] Brennan was a registered Democrat who had lobbied strongly for Democrats through the 1950s and 1960s, but increasingly supported Republican candidates as support for skilled labor unions decreased. [8] The building and construction unions were overwhelmingly white, Catholic, blue-collar and male. Although blue-collar whites were not generally more pro-war than upscale whites, the anti-war movement was particularly unpopular among blue collar whites. [10] In response to flag desecration within the anti-war movement and perceived rejection of returning veterans, a disproportionate majority of whom were blue-collar, blue-collar whites came to oppose the anti-war demonstrators, who tended to be college-educated, a group which were disproportionately non-veterans. [11]

The riot

At 7:30 a.m. on May 8, several-hundred anti-war protesters, mostly college students, began picketing the New York Stock Exchange, and later held a protest and memorial at Federal Hall National Memorial for the four dead students at Kent State. By late morning, when some high school students, teachers, and others joined, the protesters now numbered more than a thousand. They were gathered in the street in front of Federal Hall and on the steps around the statue of George Washington. Paul O'Dwyer was among the speakers. [12] [3] The protesters demanded an end to the war in Vietnam and Cambodia, the release of political prisoners in the United States, such as Black Panther Party leaders Huey Newton and Bobby Seale, and an end to military-related research on all university campuses. [13] [14]

Shortly before noon, more than 400 construction workers, many of whom were building the World Trade Center, converged on the student rally at Federal Hall from four directions. Some construction workers carried U.S. flags and chanted "USA, All the way", and "America, love it or leave it". Anti-war protesters shouted, "Peace now." More than 800 office workers soon joined the construction workers' ranks. Hundreds more construction workers arrived around noon, as the lunch-time crowd and onlookers in the streets exceeded 20,000. [1] A thin and inadequate line of police, who were largely sympathetic to the workers' position, formed to separate the construction workers from the anti-war protesters. Construction workers then broke through the police lines and began chasing students through the streets. The workers attacked those who looked like hippies and beat them with their hard hats and other weapons, including tools and steel-toe boots. Victims and onlookers reported that the police stood by and did little. [15]

Hundreds of construction workers and counter-protesters moved up Broadway, making their way to City Hall Park toward City Hall. They pushed their way to the top of the steps, singing City Hall as some chanted "Hey, hey, whattya say? We support the USA", while some held American flags, then attempted to gain entrance because they demanded the flag above City Hall be raised to whole staff. Police on duty at City Hall, and reinforcement, were able to stop the men from getting inside. A few workers were asked to enter the building to calm tensions. A postal worker who was already inside went to the roof of city hall and raised the U.S. flag there to full mast. When one mayoral aide lowered the flag back down to half-mast, hundreds of construction workers stormed the area around City Hall, leading to a melee like on Wall Street the hour prior. Deputy Mayor Richard Aurelio, fearing the building would be overrun by the mob, ordered city workers to raise the flag back to full mast. [16]

Rioting construction workers also attacked buildings near the city hall. Many were Catholic "white ethnics". Several workmen ripped the Red Cross flag down at nearby Trinity Church, because the flag was associated with the anti-war protestors, though it was planted to signal a first aid haven. Several groups of construction workers stormed the newly built main Pace University building, smashing lobby windows and beating up students and professors, including with tools. Ironically, Pace was a conservative business-oriented school where the most popular major was accounting—hardly a hotbed of activism. More than 100 people were injured. The injured included seven policemen. Most of the injured required hospital treatment. The most common victim was a "22-year-old white male collegian" and the worst injuries were to the "half-dozen young men beaten unconscious," but about one in four of the injured were women. Six people were arrested, but only one construction worker was arrested by police. [17]

Aftermath

Peter J. Brennan, U.S. Secretary of Labor during the Nixon and Ford administrations. Pjbrennan.jpg
Peter J. Brennan, U.S. Secretary of Labor during the Nixon and Ford administrations.

During a press conference that evening, President Nixon tried to defuse the situation before tens of thousands of students arrived in Washington, D.C. for a scheduled protest rally the next day. Before dawn, the next morning, Nixon told some protesters that "I understand just how you feel", and defended the recent U.S. troop movements into Cambodia as aiding their goal of peace. [18] [19] [14] [20]

Mayor Lindsay severely criticized the police for their lack of action. [21] New York City police leaders later accused Lindsay of "undermining the confidence of the public in its police department" by his statements, [22] and blamed the inaction on inadequate preparations and "inconsistent directives" in the past from the mayor's office. [23]

The next week, Brennan claimed "the unions had nothing to do with it", and that workers allegedly "fed up" with violence and flag desecration by anti-war demonstrators, and denied that anything except fists had been used against the demonstrators, though police records showed tools and some iron pipes were used. [24] Brennan claimed telephone calls and letters to the unions were 20 to 1 in favor of the workers. [25] One man, Edward Shufro, of the brokerage firm Rose and Ehrman, saw two men wearing grey suits directing the workers. [26] The NYPD "buried most records of police malfeasance", according to Kuhn's The Hardhat Riot, and in August 1970, the NYPD published a report that largely acquitted itself of any collusion with construction workers though its own records were decades later shown to undercut that report. [27] The construction workers and police were both mostly "white ethnics", lived in the same neighborhoods, and socialized in similar establishments; many were also veterans of World War II and Korea and both were also disproportionately likely to have family and friends in Vietnam. [28] On Sunday, May 10, Nixon's Chief of Staff H. R. Haldeman wrote in his diary, "The college demonstrators have overplayed their hands, evidence is the blue-collar group rising up against them, and [the] president can mobilize them". [29]

Several thousand construction workers, longshoremen and white-collar workers protested against the Mayor on May 11, holding signs reading "impeach the Red Mayor" [30] and chanting "Lindsay is a bum". [31] They held another rally May 16, carrying signs calling the mayor a "rat", "commie rat" and "traitor". [32] Mayor Lindsay described the mood of the city as "taut". [31]

The rallies culminated in a large rally on May 20 in which an estimated 150,000 construction workers, longshoremen, and others rallied outside city hall. When the workers later marched down Broadway, many office workers in surrounding buildings showed their support by showering the marchers with ticker tape. One magazine coined the day, "Workers' Woodstock". [33]

On May 26, Brennan led a delegation of 22 union leaders, who represented more than 300,000 tradesmen, to meet with President Nixon at the White House and presented him with several ceremonial hard hats, and a flag pin. Nixon said he sought to honor those “labor leaders and people from Middle America who still have character and guts and a bit of patriotism”. Nixon general counsel Charles Colson, who organized the meeting and was later in charge of developing a strategy to win union support for Nixon in the 1972 presidential election, identified Brennan as a friendly labor leader due to his role in organizing the counter-protests in the weeks after "Bloody Friday". [34]

Brennan later organized significant labor union political support for Nixon in the 1972 election. Nixon appointed Brennan as his labor secretary after the election as a reward for his support and he was retained by President Gerald Ford into 1975, following Nixon's resignation. [35] [36] The book The Hardhat Riot wrote of the riot that it was the day when the Old Left attacked the New Left, because "two liberalisms collided that day, presaging the long Democratic civil war ahead", and that the riot and demonstrations after captured the "era when FDR’s everyman first turned against the liberalism that once had championed him" and Nixon "moved the Republican Party from blue bloods to blue collars". In their reviews of The Hardhat Riot, the New York Daily News wrote that the riot "changed American politics, perhaps forever" and, in the New York Times, Clyde Haberman characterized the riot as "a blue-collar rampage whose effects still ripple, not the least of them being Donald Trump’s improbable ascension to the presidency". [37] [38] [39]

See also

Notes

  1. 1 2 Kuhn, David Paul (2020). The Hardhat Riot: Nixon, New York City, and the Dawn of the White Working-Class Revolution. Oxford University Press. pp. 141–144, 214, 236. ISBN   978-0190064716.
  2. ↑ Profile of incident, chnm.gmu.edu; accessed April 23, 2016.
  3. 1 2 , The Daily Beast excerpt of The Hardhat Riot; accessed September 11, 2020.
  4. ↑ , The Washington Post book review of The Hardhat Riot; accessed September 11, 2020.
  5. ↑ Kuhn, David Paul (2020). The Hardhat Riot: Nixon, New York City, and the Dawn of the White Working-Class Revolution. Oxford University Press. pp. 120–131. ISBN   978-0-19-006471-6.
  6. ↑ Kifner, "4 Kent State Students Killed by Troops", New York Times, May 5, 1970.
  7. ↑ Kuhn, David Paul (2020). The Hardhat Riot: Nixon, New York City, and the Dawn of the White Working-Class Revolution. Oxford University Press. p. 276. ISBN   978-0-19-006471-6.
  8. 1 2 McFadden, "Peter Brennan, 78, Union Head and Nixon's Labor Chief", nytimes.com, October 4, 1996.
  9. ↑ Fink, Biographical Dictionary of American Labor, 1984.
  10. ↑ Kuhn, David Paul (2020). The Hardhat Riot: Nixon, New York City, and the Dawn of the White Working-Class Revolution. Oxford University Press. pp. 70, 276. ISBN   978-0-19-006471-6. "[U]pscale whites were slightly more in favor of escalating the war in Cambodia, compared to downscale whites"—and like most Americans in 1970, blue-collar whites also saw the war as a "mistake", but the "anti-war movement was less popular than the Vietnam War" among all Americans, and particularly blue-collar whites by 1970.
  11. ↑ Kuhn, David Paul (2020). The Hardhat Riot: Nixon, New York City, and the Dawn of the White Working-Class Revolution. Oxford University Press. pp. 70, 276. ISBN   978-0-19-006471-6.
  12. ↑ Kuhn, David Paul (2020). The Hardhat Riot: Nixon, New York City, and the Dawn of the White Working-Class Revolution. Oxford University Press. pp. 7–9. ISBN   978-0190064716.
  13. ↑ Bigart, "War Foes Here Attacked By Construction Workers", New York Times, May 9, 1970.
  14. 1 2 Freeman, "Hardhats: Construction Workers, Manliness, and the 1970 Pro-War Demonstrations", Journal of Social History, Summer 1993.
  15. ↑ Kuhn, David Paul (2020). The Hardhat Riot: Nixon, New York City, and the Dawn of the White Working-Class Revolution. Oxford University Press. pp. Part Two, key pages: 189, 352. ISBN   978-0190064716.
  16. ↑ Kuhn, David Paul (2020). The Hardhat Riot: Nixon, New York City, and the Dawn of the White Working-Class Revolution. Oxford University Press. pp. Part Two of the book, notable pages 176, 197. ISBN   978-0190064716.
  17. ↑ Kuhn, David Paul (2020). The Hardhat Riot: Nixon, New York City, and the Dawn of the White Working-Class Revolution. Oxford University Press. pp. 141–144, 214, 236. ISBN   978-0190064716.
  18. ↑ Kuhn, David Paul (2020). The Hardhat Riot: Nixon, New York City, and the Dawn of the White Working-Class Revolution. Oxford University Press. pp. 224–225. ISBN   978-0190064716.
  19. ↑ Foner, U.S. Labor and the Vietnam War, 1989.
  20. ↑ Frankel, "NIXON DEFENDS CAMBODIA DRIVE AS AIDING STUDENTS' PEACE AIM; says pullout will begin soon, nytimes.com, May 9, 1970.
  21. ↑ Maurice Carroll, "Police Assailed by Mayor On Laxity at Peace Rally", nytimes.com, May 10, 1970, p. 1
  22. ↑ David Burnham, 5 Police Groups Rebut Critical Mayor, nytimes.com, May 12, 1970, p. 18
  23. ↑ Michael T. Kaufman. "P.B.A BLAMES CITY IN REPLY TO MAYOR ON LAXITY CHARGE; City Hall Directive Called 'Inconsistent' as Guide in Attack by Workers", The New York Times, May 11, 1970, p. 1
  24. ↑ Kuhn, David Paul (2020). The Hardhat Riot: Nixon, New York City, and the Dawn of the White Working-Class Revolution. Oxford University Press. pp. Part Three, key pages: 231, 241. ISBN   978-0190064716.
  25. ↑ Perlmutter, "Head of Building Trades Unions Here Says Response Favors Friday's Action; 20-1 Endorsement Cited In Phone Calls and Mail", nytimes.com, May 12, 1970.
  26. ↑ "Edward Shufro, of the brokerage firm Rose and Ehrman, watched through binoculars two men in grey suits who, he said, seemed to be directing the workers". See Bigart, "War Foes Here Attacked By Construction Workers", nytimes.com, May 9, 1970.
  27. ↑ Kuhn, David Paul (2020). The Hardhat Riot: Nixon, New York City, and the Dawn of the White Working-Class Revolution. Oxford University Press. pp. 238–239. ISBN   978-0190064716.
  28. ↑ , The Wall Street Journal book review of The Hardhat Riot; accessed September 11, 2020.
  29. ↑ Kuhn, David Paul (2020). The Hardhat Riot: Nixon, New York City, and the Dawn of the White Working-Class Revolution. Oxford University Press. p. 277. ISBN   978-0190064716.
  30. ↑ "150,000 New York workers join in pro-Nixon parade". The Vancouver Sun. New York. Associated Press. May 20, 1970. p. 3.
  31. 1 2 HOMER BIGART "Thousands Assail Lindsay In 2d Protest by Workers", nytimes.com, May 12, 1970, p. 1
  32. ↑ Homer Bigart, "Thousands in City March To Assail Lindsay on War", nytimes.com, May 16, 1970, p. 11
  33. ↑ Kuhn, David Paul (2020). The Hardhat Riot: Nixon, New York City, and the Dawn of the White Working-Class Revolution. Oxford University Press. pp. Chapter 23. ISBN   978-0190064716.
  34. ↑ Kuhn, David Paul (2020). The Hardhat Riot: Nixon, New York City, and the Dawn of the White Working-Class Revolution. Oxford University Press. pp. 252–253. ISBN   978-0190064716.
  35. ↑ Peter Brennan obituary, nytimes.com, October 4, 1996.
  36. ↑ Stetson, "Brennan Reports Labor Leaders Favoring Nixon Are Organizing", nytimes.com, September 9, 1972; Stetson, "200 Labor Chiefs in City Form Nixon Committee", nytimes.com, September 28, 1972; Naughton, "Construction Union Chief in New York Is Chosen to Succeed Hodgson", nytimes.com, November 30, 1972; Shabecoff, "Brennan Choice Called Political Move", nytimes.com, December 1, 1972.
  37. ↑ Haberman, Clyde (July 1, 2020). "The Day the White Working Class Turned Republican". The New York Times.
  38. ↑ , The New York Daily News review of The Hardhat Riot; accessed September 11, 2020.
  39. ↑ Kuhn, David Paul (2020). The Hardhat Riot: Nixon, New York City, and the Dawn of the White Working-Class Revolution. Oxford University Press. p. 3. ISBN   978-0190064716.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Russian Revolution</span> Political events starting in 1917

The Russian Revolution was a period of political and social change in the Russian Empire, starting in 1917. This period saw Russia abolish its monarchy and adopt a socialist form of government following two successive revolutions and a bloody civil war. The Russian Revolution can also be seen as the precursor for the other European revolutions that occurred during or in the aftermath of World War I, such as the German Revolution of 1918–1919.

The New Deal coalition was an American political coalition that supported the Democratic Party beginning in 1932. The coalition is named after President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal programs, and the follow-up Democratic presidents. It was composed of voting blocs who supported them. The coalition included labor unions, blue-collar workers, racial and religious minorities, liberal white Southerners, and intellectuals. Besides voters the coalition included powerful interest groups: Democratic Party organizations in most states, city machines, labor unions, some third parties, universities, and foundations. It was largely opposed by the Republican Party, the business community, and rich Protestants. In creating his coalition, Roosevelt was at first eager to include liberal Republicans and some radical third parties, even if it meant downplaying the "Democratic" name. By the 1940s, the Republican and third-party allies had mostly been defeated. In 1948, the Democratic Party stood alone and survived the splits that created two splinter parties.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blue-collar worker</span> Working-class person who performs manual labour

A blue-collar worker is a working class person who performs manual labor or skilled trades. Blue-collar work may involve skilled or unskilled labor. The type of work may involve manufacturing, warehousing, mining, excavation, carpentry, electricity generation and power plant operations, electrical construction and maintenance, custodial work, farming, commercial fishing, logging, landscaping, pest control, food processing, oil field work, waste collection and disposal, recycling, construction, maintenance, shipping, driving, trucking, and many other types of physical work. Blue-collar work often involves something being physically built or maintained.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of the United States (1964–1980)</span> Aspect of history

The history of the United States from 1964 through 1980 includes the climax and end of the Civil Rights Movement; the escalation and ending of the Vietnam War; the drama of a generational revolt with its sexual freedoms and use of drugs; and the continuation of the Cold War, with its Space Race to put a man on the Moon. The economy was prosperous and expanding until the recession of 1969–70, then faltered under new foreign competition and the 1973 oil crisis. American society was polarized by the ultimately futile war and by antiwar and antidraft protests, as well as by the shocking Watergate affair, which revealed corruption and gross misconduct at the highest level of government. By 1980 and the seizure of the American Embassy in Iran, including a failed rescue attempt by U.S. armed forces, there was a growing sense of national malaise.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Lindsay</span> American politician (1921–2000)

John Vliet Lindsay was an American politician and lawyer. During his political career, Lindsay was a U.S. congressman, mayor of New York City, and candidate for U.S. president. He was also a regular guest host of Good Morning America. Lindsay served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from January 1959 to December 1965 and as mayor of New York City from January 1966 to December 1973.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Red flag (politics)</span> Symbol of socialism and left-wing politics

In politics, a red flag is predominantly a symbol of left-wing politics, including socialism, communism, Marxism, labour movement, and anarchism. The originally empty or plain red flag has been associated with left-wing politics since the French Revolution (1789–1799).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">First Red Scare</span> Early 20th-century American historical event

The first Red Scare was a period during the early 20th-century history of the United States marked by a widespread fear of far-left movements, including Bolshevism and anarchism, due to real and imagined events; real events included the Russian 1917 October Revolution and anarchist bombings in the U.S. At its height in 1919–1920, concerns over the effects of radical political agitation in American society and the alleged spread of socialism, communism, and anarchism in the American labor movement fueled a general sense of concern.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter J. Brennan</span> American politician

Peter Joseph Brennan was an American labor activist and politician who served as United States Secretary of Labor from February 2, 1973, until March 15, 1975, in the administrations of Presidents Nixon and Ford. Brennan had previously been the president of both the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York and the Building and Construction Trades Council of New York, and he returned to the former position after leaving the Ford administration. He was a strong opponent of affirmative action measures to increase the number of minority construction workers. After organizing a demonstration in support of the Nixon administration that turned into the Hard Hat Riot of May 8, 1970, where construction workers violently attacked student anti-war protesters, Brennan was wooed by the Nixon administration as a potential supporter in the 1972 presidential election. His work for Nixon in that election was crucial in increasing the vote for Nixon in New York and in the union movement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam</span> 1969 nationwide activism against the US involvement in the Vietnam War

The Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam was a massive demonstration and teach-in across the United States against the United States involvement in the Vietnam War. It took place on October 15, 1969, followed a month later, on November 15, 1969, by a large Moratorium March in Washington, D.C.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Great Railroad Strike of 1877</span> Widespread US rail-worker strike

The Great Railroad Strike of 1877, sometimes referred to as the Great Upheaval, began on July 14 in Martinsburg, West Virginia, after the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) cut wages for the third time in a year. The Great Railroad Strike of 1877 was the first strike that spread across multiple states in the U.S. This strike finally ended 52 days later, after it was put down by unofficial militias, the National Guard, and federal troops. Because of economic problems and pressure on wages by the railroads, workers in numerous other cities, in New York, Pennsylvania and Maryland, into Illinois and Missouri, also went out on strike. An estimated 100 people were killed in the unrest across the country. In Martinsburg, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and other cities, workers burned down and destroyed both physical facilities and the rolling stock of the railroads—engines and railroad cars. Some locals feared that workers were rising in revolution such as the Paris Commune of 1871, while others joined their efforts against the railroads.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Protests of 1968</span> Worldwide escalation of social conflicts

The protests of 1968 comprised a worldwide escalation of social conflicts, which were predominantly characterized by the rise of left-wing politics, anti-war sentiment, civil rights urgency, youth counterculture within the silent and baby boomer generations, and popular rebellions against state militaries and bureaucracies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1970 South Carolina gubernatorial election</span> Election

The 1970 South Carolina gubernatorial election was held on November 3, 1970 to select the governor of the state of South Carolina. John C. West, the Democratic nominee, won a close general election against Albert Watson, the Republican congressman from the 2nd congressional district.

Joshua B. Freeman is an author and professor of history at Queens College, City University of New York (CUNY) and the CUNY Graduate Center. He is the former executive officer of the Graduate Center's history department.

A labour revolt or worker's uprising is a period of civil unrest characterised by strong labour militancy and strike activity. The history of labour revolts often provides the historical basis for many advocates of Marxism, communism, socialism and anarchism, with many instances occurring around the world in both the 19th and 20th centuries.

David Paul Kuhn is an American writer, and political analyst, whose most recent book,The Hardhat Riot: Nixon, New York City, and the Dawn of the White Working-Class Revolution, was recognized by The New York Times as one of the "100 Notable Books of 2020."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1939 Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden</span> Fascist rally held in New York City

On February 20, 1939, a Nazi rally took place at Madison Square Garden, organized by the German American Bund. More than 20,000 people attended, and Fritz Julius Kuhn was a featured speaker. The Bund billed the event, which took place two days before George Washington's Birthday, as a pro-"Americanism" rally; the stage at the event featured a huge Washington portrait with swastikas on each side.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ghetto riots (1964–1969)</span> American civil unrest, 1964-1969

The term ghetto riots, also termed ghetto rebellions, race riots, or negro riots refers to summer social unrest across the United States in the mid-to-late 1960s, characterized by African American groups using violent tactics.

References

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.