White Night Riots Research Paper

621 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: History of gay rights in california

The White Night Riots consisted of two riots on May 21st, 1979 following a highly controversial trial verdict in San Francisco, California. Thousands of members of the predominantly gay community flooded the streets to protest the merciful sentence received by Dan White for the murders of Harvey Milk, a gay rights activist and politician, and Mayor George Moscone. Numerous arrests were made, and there was considerable physical damage over the course of the White Night Riots.
Harvey Milk emerged as the first openly gay individual to be elected in a public office in the state of California. Upon moving to San Francisco, Milk opened his very own camera shop right in the middle of the gay community, Castro Street. Milk was inspired to run for a seat on the Board of Supervisors after viewing the tax on small businesses as unfair. “With his charisma, energy and natural political skills, Milk was soon known as the “Mayor of Castro Street” (Harvey Milk). The citizens of San …show more content…

The mass of protestors gathered back in Castro Street, still fuming and unyielding. A cluster of bitter police officers, some off-duty, decided to take matters into their own hands. The officers raided Castro Street, assaulting protestors and vandalizing small businesses. “They shouted anti-gay slurs at the victims, and eventually turned their attention to attacking anyone that happened to be out on Castro Street” (Stezano). The violence continued for hours before the police chief was made aware of the officers’ rogue raid. However, none of the officers involved were ever reprimanded for their actions.
The White Night Riots proved to be one of the most historic events in San Francisco. It was an incredible movement for the gay community to come together with the city of San Francisco to protest the inexcusable verdict in Dan White’s trial. Harvey Milk made an enormous impact on the city and marked huge stepping stones in the battle for gay

Show More
Related

  • The Antigay Movement In Vicki L. Eaklor's Queer America

    1579 Words  | 4 Pages

    The Times of Harvey Milk suggests that the experiences of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, and transgender people in the 1980s and 1990s reflect on the dangers of visibility. While the election of the first openly gay politician, Harvey Milk, was a first, representing change in it’s own, the murder of Harvey Milk spoke even louder, specifically the short amount of time his murderer, Dan White, was sentenced. The film suggests that while being openly gay at the time, while accepted by some, remained and still remains a danger. Public leaders within the movement experienced violence, discrimination, and in Harvey Milk’s case murder. Even so, it is shown that with every injustice the community grows bigger and stronger, never losing the support of its community and allies. This is shown in the film by the silent, candlelight parade of 45,000 people on the night of the murder, followed by an angry, violent, riot following the sentencing of his murderer. Though Milk was murdered, a decade before he would have never been elected, he wouldn’t have had support, this was a pivotal point in the growth of the movement.

    Read More

  • The Mayor Of Castro Street Sparknotes

    1018 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Mayor of Castro Street is an inspiring yet emotional and tragic story that takes a look at Harvey Milk’s life and the way it influenced the Gay Liberation Movement. The book goes into detail about Harvey as a person and how that affected his political campaign. In this review I’ll be going over what the book was about, the fear gay people felt and how unfair things were for people in the LGBT community in the 1970’s.

    Read More

  • Stonewall Riots Research Paper

    1479 Words  | 3 Pages

    LGBTQIA stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and asexual. The LGBTQIA topic is still an issue in society. There are people who are still against it. Some people in society still see this topic as a negative thing. The Stonewall riots was an important event for the LGBTQIA community. Stonewall is where the gay rights movement started. The transgender community is an important part of the LGBTQIA community. Same sex marriage was an important event that happened and impacted people of the community. The LGBTQIA community has many influential people like Laverne cox and Caitlyn Jenner. The L and G stands for lesbian and gay which means you are attracted to the same sex. The B stands for bisexual which means you are

    Read More

  • Ethical Deviance: The LAPD and Los Angeles Riots

    2523 Words  | 6 Pages

    The beating of Rodney King from the Los Angeles Police Department on March 3, 1991 and the Los Angeles riots resulting from the verdict of the police officers on April 29 through May 5, 1992 are events that will never be forgotten. They both evolve around one incident, but there are two sides of ethical deviance: the LAPD and the citizens involved in the L.A. riots. The incident on March 3, 1991 is an event, which the public across the nation has never witnessed. If it weren’t for the random videotaping of the beating that night, society would never know what truly happened to Rodney King. What was even more disturbing is the mentality the LAPD displayed to the public and the details of how this mentality of policing led up to this particular incident. This type of ethical deviance is something the public has not seen since the civil rights era. Little did Chief Gates, the Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department, and the LAPD know what the consequences of their actions would lead to. Moving forward in time to the verdict of those police officers being acquitted of the charges, the public sentiment spiraled into an outrage. The disbelief and shock of the citizens of Los Angeles sparked a mammoth rioting that lasted for six days. The riots led to 53 deaths and the destruction of many building. This is a true but disturbing story uncovering the ethical deviance from the LAPD and the L.A. riots. The two perspectives are from the Rodney King incident are the LAPD and the L.A. riots.

    Read More

  • Post-War Civil Rights: The Wind of Determination

    817 Words  | 2 Pages

    After World War II, “ A wind is rising, a wind of determination by the have-nots of the world to share the benefit of the freedom and prosperity” which had been kept “exclusively from them” (Takaki, p.p. 383), and people of color in United States, especially the black people, who had been degraded and unfairly treated for centuries, had realized that they did as hard as whites did for the winning of the war, so they should receive the same treatments as whites had. Civil rights movement emerged, with thousands of activists who were willing to scarify everything for Black peoples’ civil rights, such as Rosa Parks, who refused to give her seat to a white man in a segregated bus and

    Read More

  • Police Brutality In The Media Essay

    1341 Words  | 3 Pages

    There has been controversy in the world about police brutality and whether police have used excessive force to apprehend a subject is increasing. Police brutality has been around for a long time, but it just now televised. In the late 19th century, the issue of police brutality was often tied to business owners’ efforts to break up strikes by workers attempting to organize and form labor unions, also on a day known as Bloody Sunday where a group of peaceful protesters were literally beaten to the ground, sprayed with tear gas, and water hose by the police (“Police Brutality”). Even in 2015 in Baltimore Freddie Gray, 25-year-old African-American male, died while in police custody due to injuries in the spine and in some parts of Baltimore the

    Read More

  • The Stonewall Riots

    1224 Words  | 3 Pages

    The media considers the1969 Stonewall Riots in New York City the spark of the modern gay rights movement. This occurred after the police raided the Stonewall bar, a popular gay bar in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village. Allyn argues that the new energy and militancy generated by the riot played a crucial role in creating the gay liberation movement. Arguably, the Stonewall Riots have come to resemble the pivotal moment in gay rights history largely because it provided ways for the gay community to resist the social norms. In fact, the riots increased public awareness of gay rights activism (Allyn 157). Gay life after the Stonewall riots, however, was just as varied and complex as it was before. In the following era, ho...

    Read More

  • Racial Challenges During The Progressive Era

    1166 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Chicago riot was the most serious of the multiple that happened during the Progressive Era. The riot started on July 27th after a seventeen year old African American, Eugene Williams, did not know what he was doing and obliviously crossed the boundary of a city beach. Consequently, a white man on the beach began stoning him. Williams, exhausted, could not get himself out of the water and eventually drowned. The police officer at the scene refused to listen to eyewitness accounts and restrained from arresting the white man. With this in mind, African Americans attacked the police officer. As word spread of the violence, and the accounts distorted themselves, almost all areas in the city, black and white neighborhoods, became informed. By Monday morning, everyone went to work and went about their business as usual, but on their way home, African Americans were pulled from trolleys and beaten, stabbed, and shot by white “ruffians”. Whites raided the black neighborhoods and shot people from their cars randomly, as well as threw rocks at their windows. In retaliation, African Americans mounted sniper ambushes and physically fought back. Despite the call to the Illinois militia to help the Chicago police on the fourth day, the rioting did not subside until the sixth day. Even then, thirty eight

    Read More

  • Rodney King Research Paper

    672 Words  | 2 Pages

    On the morning of March 3rd, 1991 an African-American man led police on a high-speed chase through the city of Los Angeles. Approximately eight miles later police swarmed around the car and confronted the driver, who went by the name Rodney King. During the confrontation, officers tortured King until the point he was forced to seek medical care. A case was opened and the police officers were acquitted. This angered many people, specifically Blacks and led to the historical “L.A. Riots’’ , where they felt race had something to do with the case.

    Read More

  • Summary Of The Film 'This Is What Democracy Look Like'

    1274 Words  | 3 Pages

    The media takes this news focuses on the protestor’s violence and showcases them as the ones creating a scene. The media then showcases police as the ones that have to deal with the situation by detaining citizens, thus making them look like the good guys. The mayor and chief police also take away from the citizen’s freedom by allocating a 7pm curfew and a 25 block ‘no protest zone’. So if individuals were to not follow the set curfew they can be detained even if they had nothing to do with the protest. Police started attacking citizens even before curfew, which stripped citizens more of their freedom and liberty to protest. Individuals who were leaving their office, and who were not apart of the protest were also taken to prison, even when they followed procedure. This proves that the actions taken were not a part of the due process system where we protect individuals but rather part of the crime control module where we screen out innocent people and get them into the

    Read More

  • oscar grant

    758 Words  | 2 Pages

    It was in till night fell upon the city of Oakland, when the protests against the sentence turn violent. There were reports from the Oakland PD that a car hit an officer, another officers gun holster was taken from him, and many windows were broken.

    Read More

  • Watts Riots Essay

    1088 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Watts riots is one of the most important riots in the many important riots that have occurred in the United States. Thousands of African-Americans, fed up with the horrible police brutality at the time, reacted by battling the police in the streets along with the looting and burning of White-owned stores. The riot was unprecedented, but not unexpected, during a time of great racial tension, with the Civil Rights Movement having become an ever-increasing strain on the country. Police brutality was not the only factor in causing the riot, as there were economic problems in the Black community at the time that also contributed to the unrest. The Watts riot, also known as the Watts Rebellion, influenced riots to come in the decades following

    Read More

  • Harvey Milk

    1065 Words  | 3 Pages

    Harvey Milk said, “If a bullet should enter my brain, let that bullet destroy every closet door.”(Aretha 83). Harvey Milk was the first gay politician that moved people’s hearts. He changed the way people thought about gay people back in the 1970’s. Defending homosexuals from criticism, he civilized them with the people. Since the background of homosexuality was harsh which affected Harvey Milk’s early life, he took the action to process of becoming civilized as an officer, and he left many legacies.

    Read More

  • Rios Punished Summary

    978 Words  | 2 Pages

    Rios describes how patrol officer didn’t really care, or to help these youth. Instead of helping out, law enforcement targeted these young deviant boys. Rios shows us a depth overview of Oakland Police Department. In doing so, he shows us how the miscommunication, and the inequality these law agencies in the inner city ghetto

    Read More

  • The Causes Of The Stonewall Riots

    1014 Words  | 3 Pages

    In 1969, the US was preparing to land the first man on the moon,  the first case of HIV/AIDS was confirmed, and members of the gay community were harshly discriminated against because of their sexuality. Family incomes had started to fluctuate and become unstable, and disputes with police were common among the population. On a mild Friday night in 1969, a riot broke out in Greenwich Village after a police raid that sparked rebellion. Police raids on bars that had patrons suspected of ...

    Read More

More about White Night Riots Research Paper

Open Document