Scene 1: # Street U and 13th
36 years have passed since the DC riot. This is the place where thirteen people died and thousands were injured during a three day riot.
Nowadays, we cannot find any trace of the riot that occurred at that time.
Only the elderly people still have the memory of the day of the riot.
# old pedestrian ;
“at that time I was 22, park police…all this are burnt down…”
The younger generation does not know what happened here.
# young people.
“I read this only in the book….it’s 1970 or something….”
We visited an old hot dog and chili restaurant. This restaurant was opened way before this riot took place. We can learn from the owner what actually happened after the riot.
# the owner of that hot dog and chili
Q1: the business?
Q2:job?
Q3:housing?
# the scene : DC riot picture (black and white)
The Washington Riots in 1968 were a pivotal point for African-Americans in the District of Columbia. It was a culminating event after years of extreme highs and lows in the Civil Rights Movement. Incredible strides in the struggle to seek racial equality had been achieved. However, the struggle was not over and there was much work to be done.
# File picture Dr. king’s death.
…..narrator voice in the file film……..
The African-American community reached a boiling point with the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on April 4th, 1968. In reaction to his death 100 cities nationwide exploded in rioting.
Prior to King’s death, many factors contributed to a nation polarized by racial and economic inequality. Four factors contributed to the polarization of minority and majority communities in the months leading up to the riots. These factors include unequal opportunities for education, housing, and employment and the negative relationships between police and black civilians.
Immediately following the riots some of these needs were addressed. However, these four factors continue to create disproportionately resourced minority and majority communities today.
Even in this election these factors were not addressed by the both parties.
#scene conference :Robert Woodson….”even republican and democrat the black problem never addressed..”
The persistence of these inequalities over so many years has led to a society that is built on and structured by the perpetuation of these inequalities.
In the following film we will look at the immediate responses by the government and the communities to these factors that contributed to the riots. Then we will address the status of the four contributing factors today in minority communities in Washington, D.
Consolidated with authentic research, Twilight provides an important examination of the hidden reasons for the Los Angeles riots. A more drawn out chronicled see additionally uncovers the bigger class strains and the gigantic change of ethnic structure of Los Angeles from 1970 to 1990 that added to the atmosphere that could deliver such a huge scale riot.
Gilbert, Ben W. Ten blocks from the White House: Anatomy of the Washington Riots of 1968. FA Praeger, 1968.
On June 21, the city of Detroit exploded as racial tensions finally reached their boiling point. Various news organizations, such as Time and Newsweek, covered the story. At the time of the riots, none of the reported accounts of the uprising matched. The most disputed facts were the discrepancies regarding why the riot started, the number of deaths and injuries, and the exact time the riot began. Yet, most news sources reported that around six hundred people were taken into cu...
On April 4th, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee, an event that would change history forever occurred. That was the day James Earl Ray assassinated the driving force of the Civil Rights movement, Martin Luther King Jr. It shook the nation, as the man who was planning on bringing peace and racial harmony in the United States was killed in an instant. He was probably the most influential scapegoat in American history, setting out to create equality for all races in America. There were many extremist white-based groups which detested the idea of equality, believing that whites were superior over all, groups like the Ku Klux Klan. Martin Luther King did not back down when groups like the KKK harassed him; he used their hate against them and allowed it to thrust him forward for the sake of bettering his cause and pushing towards racial equality. In the end, Martin Luther King was assassinated for his passion and beliefs; his hard work paid off because after his death, there was at least legal racial equality in the U.S. His bravery and strength
Historians offer different perceptions of the significance of Martin Luther King and the 1963 March on Washington. Without examining this event within its historical context the media publicity and iconic ‘I Have a Dream’ speech can easily overshadow progress that was already underway in America. It was insisted by prominent civil rights activist Ella Baker, ‘the movement made Martin rather than Martin making the movement.’ What is important not to overlook is the significant change that took place in the United States during the previous 100 years. Such that, many influential figures in support of racial equality opposed the March. The Civil Rights Act proposed by President Kennedy in 1963 was already in the legislative process. Furthermore the Federal Government was now reasserting power over the entire of the United States by enforcing a policy of desegregation. It is important to note that these changes all took place less than one hundred years after the Thirteenth Amendment in 1965 abolished slavery, and the Fourteenth amendment in 1968 acknowledged the rights of former slaves to be acknowledged as U.S citizens. With this level of progress Kennedy was against the March going ahead due to the argument that it was limited in what it could achieve. Today, King’s 1963 Speech is viewed as one of the most iconic speeches in history. However, was it a key turning point in African Americans achieving racial equality? Federal endorsement would suggest yes after decades of southern states being able to subvert the Federal law designed to break down segregation. This support built upon the corner stones of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth amendments in the nineteenth century. Therefore looking at the national status of black Americans fro...
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
The Tulsa race riot changed the course of American history by actively expressing African American views on white supremacy. Certainly I feel with the available facts in this research paper, that the whites were the aggressors for the events leading up to the Tulsa race riot and the start of the Tulsa race riot. African Americans were simply there to stand up against the white supremacy and to provide the African Americans Tulsa their freedom and equal justice.
In addressing the Los Angeles riot, Dr. West, wrote, “The riot of April 1992 was, neither a race riot, nor a class rebellion, rather, this monumental upheaval was a multiracial, trans-class, and largely male display of justified social rage.” These events were unfortunate, and attempts were made by ‘the powers that be’ to blame them on “the black underclass, the action of criminal hoodlums, or the political revolt of the oppressed urban masses miss the mark.” Instead, Dr. West attributed the cause to: economic decline, cultural decay, and political lethargy in American life. He stated, “Race was the visible catalyst, not the underlying cause.”
When planning the march, the organizers made sure that Washington D.C. was ready for anything so that the march could go on no matter the circumstances. Marchers were advised to bring raincoats, hats, sunglasses, plenty of water, and non-perishable food. To accommodate the expected 100,000 to 200,000 people, there were 292 outdoor toilets, 21 water fountains, 22 first aid stations, 40 doctors and 80 nurses along the march (“On the March” 17). The National Council of Churches made 80,000 boxed lunches for the marchers at 50 cents each. When the buses of people came to Washington D.C.’s outskirts, 5,600 cops and 4,000 army troops came to patrol the parade.
On June 28, 1969, an event occurred that was to be the start of one of the most powerful movements in US history. On that Friday in June, the New York police force raided a popular bar in Greenwich Village called the Stonewall Inn because it was suspected of operating without a liquor license. Raids usually went on undisturbed by people involved, but during this raid the area around the inn exploded into fierce protest. The repercussions and multiple disputes that resulted from the initial raid would come to be known as the Stonewall Riots.
This incident would have produced nothing more than another report for resisting arrest had a bystander, George Holliday, not videotaped the altercation. Holliday then released the footage to the media. LAPD Officers Lawrence Powell, Stacey Koon, Timothy Wind and Theodore Brisino were indicted and charged with assaulting King. Superior Court Judge Stanley Weisberg ordered a change of venue to suburban Simi Valley, which is a predominantly white suburb of Los Angeles. All officers were subsequently acquitted by a jury comprised of 10 whites, one Hispanic and one Asian, and the African American community responded in a manner far worse than the Watts Riots of 1965. ?While the King beating was tragic, it was just the trigger that released the rage of a community in economic strife and a police department in serious dec...
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
The mid 60’s was the era when there was an outburst of riots. In the summer of 1964, Blacks rioted in Harlem, Rochester and Philadelphia. They attacked both police and property. The violence and destruction became more massive the following summer. There were riots in the Watts section of LA, and then in Chicago, Springfield, Mass and again in Philly. Ghetto violence rose again in 1966 with 18 different riots, and peaked in 1967 with 31 riots, of which Newark and Detroit were the worst. The assasination of Martin Luther King Jr.
There were several causes which led to this riot and the immediate cause was racial tension. Racism tends to persist most readily when there are obvious physical differences among groups e.g. “Black” and “white” differences. This no doubt results in attempts to limit economic opportunities, to preserve status, to deny equal protection under law and to maintain cheap labor. Discrimination was represented ...