Knowledge is Power

a partial list:

July 13, 1863 – New York City Draft Riots; four days, as rioters looted businesses, torched buildings and brawled with police and National Guardsmen, set a black children’s orphanage ablaze, on June 16, some 4,000 federal troops marched into the city and put the uprising down by force.

April 2, 1863 – Richmond Bread Riots; in the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia, armed, half-starved women, chanting “bread or blood!”

November 10, 1898 – Wilmington Insurrection of 1898; white business leaders and Democratic politicians intent on dissolving the city’s biracial, majority-Republican government

August 1921 – Battle of Blair Mountain; coal mine union, as many as 15,000 miners—many of them World War I veterans, machine gun fire, and biplanes to drop explosives and tear gas.

May 1932 – July 28, 1932 – Bonus Expeditionary Force; WWI veterans promised more pay by Congress set up a well-run camp near DC and are routed by MacArthur, Patton et al.

August 1, 1946 [Election Day] – Battle of Athens; citizens, including some World War II veterans, accused the local officials of predatory policing, police brutality, political corruption and voter intimidation. The event is sometimes cited by firearms ownership advocates as an example of the value of the Second Amendment in combating tyranny.

August 11-15, 1965 – Watts Riots; a white California Highway Patrol officer pulled over and arrested a black man [21 year-old Marquette Fry] for drunk driving, a crowd of witnesses soon turned ugly, 14,000 National Guard troops.

July 12-17, 1967 – Newark riots; rumor spread that a black arrestee had died in police custody.

July 23 – 28, 1967 – 12th Street Riot, Detroit; an unlicensed drinking club above a print shop on 12th Street—was hosting a party of 82 African Americans, all celebrating the special homecoming of two local GIs from the Vietnam War, After two days, President LBJ declared a state of insurrection against the government and called in the troops; 8,000 National Guardsmen arrived by land, 4,700 paratroopers by air.

1968 Holy Week Uprising, New York City and 60 other cities; April 4, 1968 MLK assassination.

August 28, 1968 – The Chicago riots at the Democratic National Convention; The Chicago Seven…

July 13, 1977 – New York City Blackout; NYC financial crisis + power failure.

May of 1980 – Miami Riots; three-mile-wide, three-day-long riot after a high-speed traffic pursuit for a black man.

April 29-May 4, 1992 – The Rodney King riots (LA); Reaction to acquittal of policemen on trial in beating of Rodney King, Reginald Denny, Fidel Lopez, “can we all get along”, the California Army National Guard, the 7th Infantry Division, and the 1st Marine Division