Conditions for Urban Unrest
1964 Rochester Unrest; 1965 Watts
Unrest
1935 Harlem Unrest
1. Black Confidence
1. Black Confidence
The economic opportunities of the postwar
economy which leads to high employment
rates in major cities.
New Racial Freedoms Experienced by
blacks.
“The New Negro” of the Harlem
Renaissance
2. Racial Conflict/Backlash
Racial backlash against the growth of the
Black population in major northern and west
coast cities.
2. Racial Conflict/Backlash
Racial backlash against freedoms :
Increased policing ;the “confinement” of
Harlem.
3. Geographic Proximity Between Black and
White ethnics
3. Geographic Proximity Between Black and
White ethnics
4. Watershed Moment
4. Watershed Moment
New laws and/or economic conditions that
tip the balance of power: Civil Rights Act
of 1964; New Industrial growth (e.g.
automobile factories; Kodak)
New laws and/or economic conditions that
tip the balance of power: Great
Depression; white ownership and black
unemployment.
5. New Social Movements pushing for
reforms.
5.. New Social Movements pushing for
reforms
Civil Rights groups, unions, street
Political resistance to the new laws:
The Pattern
• Unrest takes shape in cities where black
advancement/”confidence” is met with white resistance.
•
Major shifts take place—a ”Watershed” moment (federal laws,
an economic crisis) intervene to tip the balance of power in this
ongoing conflict.
• New political and cultural organizations and movements emerge
in resistance to these broader powers.
• These new political forms seek reforms through formal
channels. But those formal channels are quickly exhausted.
• Unrest occurs when those channels are exhausted.
Rochester: 1964
CONDITIONS #1, 2, 3
African Americans see what is possible in a prosperous city
such as Rochester.
Daily interactions (both allied and conflicted) between
black and white that persists for decades. There is
geographic “intimacy:” people are engaging each other
(small businesses owners and black customers; white
building owners and tenants; white police and black youth.
Geographic Proximity: Although black housing is
segregated, black and white residents share other public
spaces (buses, downtown shopping districts, etc).
Rochester: 1964
CONDITION # 4 (Watershed moment)
• Civil Rights act of 1964 (the end of statutory racism)
• Economic Prosperity:
• Some of the most pioneering and profitable corporations
in the United States are based in Rochester: Kodak,
Xerox, Bauch and Lomb.
• There is only 2% unemployment.
• And yet 10,000 jobs remain unfilled in the city (jobs that
are refused to blacks).
Rochester 1964
• CONDITION # 5: New Social Movements
• Black workers and residents appeal to the state and
private sector for reforms: (end discriminatory hiring
practices; build better schools; housing, healthcare).
• Their efforts fall of deaf ears.
• To the contrary, police repression increases. Blacks are
pushed deeper into their Third Ward neighborhood.
(Recall: the use of German Shepherds).
• The emergence of new political formations: Black youth
organizations (street gangs)
UNREST
• A flashpoint of violence, where several elements
converge: Police encroachment on organized black public
space; the use of the German Shepherd; white vitriol
against black anger.
The “Riot” turns into “Rebellion” on subsequent nights:
- It was “highly organized” according to those who
participated.
- 20-30 Molotov cocktails
- “I picked up everything I could”
- Deliberate targeting of certain businesses
- “Grandmas, aunts, uncles, youth”.
Common Elements
• The cities are economically stable if not booming.
• - Policing Intensifies = Black confinement and
punishment. (keep them bounded).
• - The middleman position of the “immigrant
shopkeeper.” (Italians, Jews, Asians)
• - The authorities blame “outside agitators.”
• - Everyday people engage in unrest. There is no
“profile” of a so-called rioter
• - Street organizations (“gangs”) are a central political