Race riots in Miami

Last updated
Race riots in Miami
Date1980s
Location
Miami, Florida
Caused byVariety of factors including...

Race riots in Miami include a series of violent events that occurred in Miami mainly through the 1980s. After desegregation, much of the racial violence in Miami had calmed only to be reignited by the 1980s. [1] The decade of riots were the result of policing controversies and ethnic tensions fueled by the perceived threat of recent immigrants to African Americans on the Miami job market. [2]

Contents

Background

In the United States through the 1960s, desegregation was empowering once disadvantaged African American communities to reach new political and economic gains. In Miami the Cuban exile seemed to undercut new African American gains as Cubans began to compete for jobs, residence, and political power. The later perceived successes of many Cubans gave a feeling of powerlessness to local African Americans. Many Cuban refugees lacked English language skills and ended up living in lower income neighborhoods and taking up blue collar jobs that many African Americans also held. In 1963, Ebony magazine characterized the Cuban exile as an "invasion" bringing in "grave social and economic problems." [3]

By 1968, Miami witnessed a riot in its Liberty City neighborhood during the 1968 Republican National Convention, caused by the frustration African Americans faced in the country. [4] By the 1970s, the Hispanic population of Miami outnumbered the African American population and more Hispanic owned businesses had been opened than African American owned businesses. [3]

Between the 1968 Miami riot and the 1980 Miami riots, up to thirteen "mini-riots" would occur in Miami, all stemming from police confrontations with African-Americans. [5]

Riots and incidents

1980 Miami riots

The 1980 riots were race riots that occurred in Miami, starting in earnest on May 18, 1980, following the acquittal of police officers who had beaten black motorcyclist Arthur McDuffie. [6]

1982 Overtown riot

After the accidental police shooting of a man in an Overtown video arcade, a riot broke out in the neighborhood. Cars were burned, businesses were looted, and police were shot at. Ivey Kearson, director of the Overtown Jobs Program, said of the riot's cause "unemployment in the area is 50 percent or higher." "Most of the people here, they don't see anything happening for them and their neighbors and the guy down the street." "It's not just going to be in Miami and it's not going to just be blacks. People feel they have to react violently." [7] The policemen in the original arcade shooting were Latin American. "Leave these Latins get out of here, right now," shouted the Rev. Jonathan Rolle, in a television interview about the incident. Later, in a phone interview, he would say, "The Latin police, they just ride around in their cars, and they never get out". ". . . . The Latins are the ones who are killing the blacks." [8]

1989 Miami riot

The 1989 Miami riot came after police officer William Lozano shot Clement Lloyd, who was fleeing another officer on a motorcycle. He crashed and his passenger, Allan Blanchard, was also killed. Four days of rioting later took place in Overtown. [9] On January 21 after the shooting, violence erupted in Overtown and the next day in Liberty City. [10] Schools were closed and police cordoned off a 130-block area and teargassed rioting crowds. [11]

Aftermath

"Quiet riot"

After the arrest of Haitian demonstrators picketing a Cuban owned business, believed to have harassed Haitian customers, and the condemnation of Nelson Mandela's visit to Miami by many Cuban city officials, many black business organizations boycotted Miami entirely throughout the summer of 1990. This boycott was dubbed at the time as a "quiet riot". The boycott was noteworthy for its peaceful and successful tactics as compared to the recent riots. [12] In the end $50,000,000 dollars was lost due to cancelled conventions in the city and ended with various business deals in the city to help expand black owned businesses and attract black professionals. [13]

1991 Miami riot

After police shot a shooting suspect in Overtown, rioting broke out in majority black neighborhoods of Liberty City, Overtown, and to a lighter degree in Coconut Grove. Twenty people were arrested after rocks were thrown at a police station, a city bus, and a dumpster was set on fire. [14]

See also

Related Research Articles

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:

The 2001 Cincinnati riots were a series of civil disorders which took place in and around the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood of downtown Cincinnati, Ohio from April 9 to 13, 2001. They began with a peaceful protest in the heart of the city on Fountain Square over the inadequate police response to the police shooting of unarmed African American 19-year-old Timothy Thomas. The peaceful protest soon turned into a march that went in the direction of the victim's home neighborhood of Over-the-Rhine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1992 Los Angeles riots</span> Riots following the beating of Rodney King

The 1992 Los Angeles riots, were a series of riots and civil disturbances that occurred in Los Angeles County, California, United States, during April and May 1992. Unrest began in South Central Los Angeles on April 29, after a jury acquitted four officers of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) charged with using excessive force in the arrest and beating of Rodney King. The incident had been videotaped by George Holliday, who was a bystander to the incident, and was heavily broadcast in news and media outlets.

The 1991 Washington, D.C., riot, sometimes referred to as the Mount Pleasant riot or Mount Pleasant Disturbance, occurred in May 1991, when rioting broke out in the Mount Pleasant neighborhood of Washington, D.C., in response to an African-American female police officer having shot a Salvadoran man in the chest following a Cinco de Mayo celebration.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Liberty City (Miami)</span> Neighbourhood in Miami, Florida, US

Liberty City is a neighborhood in Miami, Florida, United States. The area is roughly bound by NW 79th Street to the north, NW 27th Avenue to the west, the Airport Expressway to the South, and Interstate 95 to the east. The neighborhood is home to one of the largest concentrations of African Americans in South Florida, as of the 2000 census. Although it was often known as "Model City" both historically and by the City of Miami government, residents more commonly call it Liberty City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Overtown (Miami)</span> Neighborhood of Miami in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States

Overtown is a neighborhood of Miami, Florida, United States, just northwest of Downtown Miami. Originally called Colored Town in the Jim Crow era of the late 19th through the mid-20th century, the area was once the preeminent and is the historic center for commerce in the black community in Miami and South Florida.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of Miami</span>

Thousands of years before Europeans arrived, a large portion of south east Florida, including the area where Miami, Florida exists today, was inhabited by Tequestas. The Tequesta Native American tribe, at the time of first European contact, occupied an area along the southeastern Atlantic coast of Florida. They had infrequent contact with Europeans and had largely migrated by the middle of the 18th century. Miami is named after the Mayaimi, a Native American tribe that lived around Lake Okeechobee until the 17th or 18th century.

The 1980 Miami riots were race riots that occurred in Miami, Florida, starting in earnest on May 18, 1980, following an all-White male jury acquitting four Dade County Public Safety Department officers in the death of Arthur McDuffie, a Black insurance salesman and United States Marine Corps lance corporal. McDuffie was beaten to death by four police officers after a traffic stop. After the officers were tried and acquitted on charges including manslaughter and evidence tampering, a riot broke out in the Black neighborhoods of Overtown and Liberty City on the night of May 17. Riots continued until May 20, resulting in at least 18 deaths and an estimated $100 million in property damage.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Liberty Square (Miami)</span> Public housing apartment complex in Miami, Florida, United States

Liberty Square is a 753-unit Miami-Dade public housing apartment complex in the Liberty City neighborhood of Miami, Florida. It is bordered at Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard/North 62nd Street to the south, North 67th Street to the north, State Road 933 to the east, and Northwest 15th Avenue to the west. Constructed as a part of the New Deal by the Public Works Administration and opening in 1937, it was the first public housing project for African Americans in the Southern United States.

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.

The Cambridge riots of 1963 were race riots that occurred during the summer of 1963 in Cambridge, a small city on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. The riots emerged during the Civil Rights Movement, locally led by Gloria Richardson and the local chapter of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. They were opposed by segregationists including the police.

Delrish Moss is currently a law enforcement Captain with the Florida International University Police Department.

A group of black organizations in Miami called for “a mass rally of concerned Black people,” to take place on August 7, 1968, at the Vote Power building in Liberty City, a black neighborhood. Sponsors were the Vote Power League, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and numerous smaller organizations. The protest was not provoked by a specific incident, but was intended “to show their frustration with the nation’s unfair political, social, and economic systems.” Another scholar described the root causes as “discrimination, proscription, and segregation.” A more extensive statement from the same scholar says the “major grievances... included deplorable housing conditions, economic exploitation, bleak employment prospects, racial discrimination, poor police-community relations, and economic competition with Cuban refugees.” The date was chosen to coincide with the Republican National Convention being held in Miami Beach.

The 1989 Miami riot was sparked after Miami Police Department (MPD) officer William Lozano shot Black motorcyclist Clement Lloyd on January 16, 1989. Lloyd, 23, was fleeing from another MPD officer who was chasing him for an alleged traffic violation. Lozano was on foot investigating an unrelated incident, heard about the situation on his police radio and later stated the motorcycle "veered toward him". Lozano fired a shot at the motorcycle, striking Lloyd in the head and killing him instantly. The motorcycle crashed into an oncoming car, injuring two occupants. Lloyd's passenger, Allan Blanchard, 24, died the following day from his injuries. Several Black witnesses stated that Lozano walked almost to the center of the street with his handgun and poised ready to shoot for several seconds as the motorcyle approached. Rioting began almost immediately after the shooting in Overtown, and on the following day in Liberty City, both predominantly Black neighborhoods of Miami, and continued until January 19 when the Chicago Bulls including star player Michael Jordan played a scheduled game in Overtown against the Miami Heat, who were in their inaugural season. Schools were closed and police cordoned off a 130-block area and teargassed rioting crowds.

Garth Coleridge Reeves Sr. was the Publisher of the Miami Times from 1970–1994, when he was then named Publisher Emeritus. Inducted in 2017 to the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) Hall of Fame he was for the latter half of the 20th century an African American voice in Miami, Florida, having taken over his fathers duties as publisher after WWII.

"When the looting starts, the shooting starts" is a phrase originally used by Walter E. Headley, the police chief of Miami, Florida, in response to an outbreak of violent crime during the 1967 Christmas holiday season. He accused "young hoodlums, from 15 to 21", of taking "advantage of the civil rights campaign" that was then sweeping the United States. Having ordered his officers to combat the violence with shotguns, he told the press that "we don't mind being accused of police brutality". The quote may have been borrowed from a 1963 comment from Birmingham, Alabama police chief Bull Connor. It was featured in Headley's 1968 obituary published by the Miami Herald.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barbara M. Carey-Shuler</span>

Barbara M. Carey-Shuler, public servant, community activist and educator served as the first African American woman on the Board of County Commissioners for Miami-Dade County, Florida when she was appointed by then-Governor Robert Bob Graham on December 10, 1979. She was elected to the Commission in 1982, 1986, 1996, 2000, and 2004 while serving as the Chairwoman of the Board of County Commissioners from 2002-2004, when she became the first African-American to hold the position in the 60 years of Miami-Dade County governance.

The 1982 Overtown riot was a period of civil unrest in Miami, Florida, United States, from December 28 to 30, 1982. The riot was caused by the shooting death of an African American man in the city's Overtown neighborhood by a Latino police officer on December 28, leading to three days of disorder that resulted in one additional death, numerous injuries and arrests, and widespread property damage.

References

  1. ↑ "Miami Black History: 1980s to 1990s". thenewtropic.com. 17 February 2015. Retrieved 2019-05-07.
  2. ↑ Marvin Dunn (2016). BLACK MIAMI IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY (PDF). University Press of Florida.
  3. 1 2 Raymond A Mohl (1990). "On the Edge: Blacks and Hispanics in Metropolitan Miami since 1959". The Florida Historical Quarterly. 69 (1): 37–56. JSTOR   30148998.
  4. ↑ Mergel, Sarah Katherine (July 21, 2016), The 1968 Republican Convention, werehistory.org, retrieved November 24, 2017
  5. ↑ Marvin Dunn (1997). The Making of Urban America. SR Books. ISBN   9780842026390.
  6. ↑ Huffington Postt, McDuffie Riots: Eerie Scene From Miami Race Riot Of 1980, 05/29/2013.
  7. ↑ "Overtown Violence Worst Since Liberty City". UPI. Retrieved 2020-01-02.
  8. ↑ Cody, Edward (December 31, 1982). "Miami Racial Tensions Fester". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2020-01-02.
  9. ↑ Wakefield, Rebecca (June 30, 2005). "Changing Times". Miami Herald . Retrieved 2017-12-23.
  10. ↑ Marquez, Myriam (1989-01-27). "Miami Riots An Unexpected Slap In The Face, And Well-deserved". Sun Sentenial. Retrieved 2017-12-23.
  11. ↑ "Police Shooting Sparks Riot in Miami". Harvard Crimson. 1989-01-18. Retrieved 2019-05-12.
  12. ↑ "The Quiet Riot". miaminewtimes.com. 26 September 1990. Retrieved 2019-02-12.
  13. ↑ "'QUIET RIOT' - IF IT CAN HAPPEN IN MIAMI, IT CAN HAPPEN ANYWHERE". orlandosentenial.com. Retrieved 2019-02-12.
  14. ↑ Parker, Laura (1991-06-29). "VIOLENCE AFTER POLICE SHOOTING EXPOSES MIAMI RACIAL TENSION". Washington Post. ISSN   0190-8286 . Retrieved 2020-01-02.
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.