Urban riots Essays

  • Detroit Riots of 1967

    1521 Words  | 4 Pages

    in the United States; many cities were experiencing race riots. The riot in Detroit started on July 23, 1967, this ended up being the deadliest race riot in the history of the United States, and the riot lasted five days. During the course of the Detroit riot forty-three people were killed, 1,189 people were injured, and more than 7,000 were arrested. After the riot President Lyndon B. Johnson established a commission to investigate the riots in Detroit in 1967. President Johnson informed the commission

  • The Sans-Culottes: A Powerful Driving Force in the French Revolution

    1204 Words  | 3 Pages

    as the “Culottes” were the knee-length pants worn particularly by wealthy French citizens (the name literally meaning Without Culottes.) This movement was extremely popular because it appealed to any and all of the impoverished people in France, urban and rural. Over time, the new, fair government was not fully realized and the Sans-Culottes became angry to the point of violence in an effort to make the changes promised by the first Revolutionaries. The Sans-Culottes were a powerful driving force

  • The Watts Riots

    1391 Words  | 3 Pages

    tension and anger, ready to crush and destroy whatever stands in their way of their demonstration. Central Los Angeles, California was blown away by one of those demonstrations. "It was the worst urban riot since the 1943 disturbance in Detroit" (Bradley 896). According to reports, the Los Angeles riot all started on the evening of August 11, 1965: Two white California Highway Patrol Officers pursued a weaving automobile for six bl... ... middle of paper ... ...nt Bush sent one thousand lawmen

  • Lucasville prison riot

    613 Words  | 2 Pages

    Around 3:00 pm on Sunday April 11, 1993 a riot started when prisoners returning from recreation time attacked prison guards in cell block L. The guards held the keys to the entire cell block and it did not take long for the prisoners to take full advantage of the keys. Four beaten guards were released within hours of the attack but 8 were retained. The riot was started for many reasons but the most obvious reason was TB testing on Muslims, they do not believe in using needles to take blood or for

  • Judge Holden of Blood Meridian

    679 Words  | 2 Pages

    around Judge Holden. Judge Holden is a mystery from his very first appearance in the novel and remains so until the very end of the novel, when he is one of the few characters surviving. The kid first comes face to face with Holden in a saloon after a riot and eventually joins with Holden and a gang of misfit scalp-hunters to roam the Mexican-American borderlands. Judge Holden has some historical foundation as a character. The Judge is mentioned in Samuel Chamberlain's My Confession, a personal narrative

  • History Classroom Reflection

    1179 Words  | 3 Pages

    asking questions about protest and riots. They are interested to know what exactly that meant as well as how it was handled. As the teacher answered these questions with historical facts, the students began processing the information and putting plans into action

  • A Massacre In Memphis Summary

    805 Words  | 2 Pages

    Karr 's famous epigram plus ça change, plus c 'est la même chose stuck with me throughout reading Stephen Ash 's A Massacre in Memphis: The Race Riot That Shook the Nation One Year After the Civil War. In 1866, during the uneasy aftermath of the Civil War, Memphis was swept by an orgy of racial violence. How did it start? Armed white policemen sparked a confrontation with a group of young black men – many of whom were Union veterans. Sound familiar? By the time the situation was brought under control

  • Thresholds Of Violence In Jon Krakauer's Into The Wild

    1093 Words  | 3 Pages

    Loud and dangerous riots are occurring constantly throughout the US taking different forms. In Jon Krakauer 's novel, Into the Wild, Chris McCandless joins the uproar of people disposing their past and an adverse society to head to the vast openness of nature to find peace. In Malcolm Gladwell 's article, Thresholds of Violence, however, students are buying guns or making bombs to dispose of people in their schools and homes; They join a homicidal uprising that began after the mass shooting at Columbine

  • Pete Seeger: The Power Of Song

    866 Words  | 2 Pages

    Pete Seeger: The Power of Song focused on Pete Seeger's life and how his career, social, and political life interacted and intertwined. The movie observes how Seeger's music influenced the political climate on topics such as war and racial prejudices; the documentary went over Seeger's blacklisting, his relationship to the communist movement, his interaction with political leaders and activists such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The documentary emphasized how Pete Seeger used his music to inspire

  • Anti-Chinese Riots Happening in Washington State

    1575 Words  | 4 Pages

    Anti-Chinese Riots Happening in Washington State In the last decades of the 19th century, anti-Asian backlash fueled by high unemployment which increased resentment against Asian settlers, anti-Asian legislation, and growing nativism, erupted into violent riots in Washington State. Throughout the 1880s, thousands of Chinese laborers were especially targeted for murder, assault, and forced evacuation all across the state. The reasoning behind and the implications of these acts of violence

  • The Importance of Misunderstanding in Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

    1881 Words  | 4 Pages

    The Importance of Misunderstanding in Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison In Ralph Ellison's novel Invisible Man, the main character is faced with challenges that he must overcome to survive. Most of the challenges he faces are straightforward; however, he ends up losing to his surroundings. When he makes a speech to calm a disorderly group, he ends up unwittingly naming himself their leader, thus, changing a slightly rowdy group into a mob primed for racial rioting. How can someone's speech be manipulated

  • The Causes of Popular Protests Between 1815 and 1822

    556 Words  | 2 Pages

    being taken away from them as the new machines in the cities which were capable of doing the work of many men were becoming increasingly more popular with factory owners as they were cheaper and could work indefinitely, this riots the main factor that led to the luddite riots. Although the problems in the city were a large cause of popular protests, the situation in the country was also a contributing factor because of enclosure, this was the method in which strips of land that was owned by

  • Rumors in Baldwin's Notes of a Native Son

    1122 Words  | 3 Pages

    Several race riots occurred in the forties. Even though they were equal in violence to the riots of the Civil Rights Movement in the sixties, many Americans forget the riots of the forties. The biggest and bloodiest race riot of the 1940’s took place in Detroit, Michigan, in June of 1943. Several publications covered the riots, and none of the printed facts ever matched up until years later. This rioting resulted from a rumor that flowed through city streets. The rumor and the riot that it caused

  • The Michael Brown Shootings

    945 Words  | 2 Pages

    The night following Brown’s shooting, police dressed in riot gear came to break up an unruly crowd following a prayer vigil held in Brown’s memory. The following day, officers had to resort to using tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse a massive crowd at a local convenience store that had been burned down

  • Protests Against Police Brutality

    733 Words  | 2 Pages

    A riot is a violent disturbance of the peace by a crowd. Martin Luther King once stated, “A riot is the language of the unheard” (Farrell). This meant Dr. King, who only led peaceful protests, knows what can trigger a riot. Riots happen when no one is willing to listen or assist those who were protesting, and then violence breaks out because of ignorance. Peaceful protests can turn into riots very quickly. The people of Tel Aviv wanted justice for

  • Detroit Riots

    649 Words  | 2 Pages

    there is currently so much focus on July of 1967 – this year is the anniversary of one of the deadliest riots in United States history, and it took place right here in Detroit. However, in the half-century since, there has been a good deal of debate over whether the term “riot” is the best name for the violence that occurred. I would say that the violence of July 1967 was more of a rebellion than a riot – a rebellion against an oppressive system in Detroit (and America) that has not yet been fully eradicated

  • Food Riots During Eighteenth Century Europe

    1283 Words  | 3 Pages

    Food Riots During Eighteenth Century Europe Food riots were a form of popular protest generally held to have been common between the seventeenth, eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Food riots were a knee jerk reaction to shortages and unacceptable inflation in the price of necessities[1] . The eighteenth century was particularly prone to this reactionary form of collective action[2] and in order to understand why I have looked at the political and social circumstances within Europe

  • Russia, Ukraine & the World: Current Events

    1452 Words  | 3 Pages

    Effect: The Myth of News, Foreign Policy, and Intervention, (London: Routledge, 2002), pp.7-24. "The European Elections Monitor." Viktor Yanukovych Winner of the Presidential Election in Ukraine. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Mar. 2014. "Revolution in Ukraine. Riot Police Snipers Shoot Civil Protesters." YouTube. YouTube, 23 Feb. 2014. Web. 18 Mar. 2014. "Timeline of Key Events in Ukraine Protests." Yahoo! News. Yahoo!, 20 Feb. 2014. Web. 22 Mar. 2014.

  • The Unthinkable Revolution Response

    1050 Words  | 3 Pages

    Chapter four of Charles Kurzman’s book details the evidence for and against a cultural explanation of the Iranian Revolution. There are two types of cultural explanations that center around the question, “Does culture shape us, or do we shape it (56)?” One side argues that cultures can be conductive of protest movements. The other views protest movements as groups that attempt to change culture, using the language of culture as a tool kit for the revolutionary. Both of these arguments have been used

  • Mob Mentality in A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

    752 Words  | 2 Pages

    or riot; these are all forms of mob mentality. The term “mob mentality” is usually something negative, where large groups of people deindivduate themselves. People lose control and are pressured to fit in with what the rest of the crowd is doing. In the book, A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens, mob mentality has a big impact on the plot. A Tale of Two Cities, shows how mob mentality ties in with history repeating itself, portraying manslaughter and homicide, and also depicting riots. History