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Chicago Riot
Eugene Williams a black teenager went swimming in Lake Michigan and some white kids stoned him. He drowned and the police refused to make an arrest. After 2 weeks 38 people died and more than 500 got injured because of the riots. -
Harlem Riot
Young black man Lino Rivero got caught stealing a 10 cent penknife. Rumors spread that the storeowners beat him to death. People took this as police mistreatment and sparked riots in Harlem. 3 people died, 100 were injured. -
Detroit Riot
Racial tensions had been simmering between black and white residents in Detroit throughout the first half of 1943. By June 20, they reached a boiling point when a white sailor’s girlfriend said a black man had insulted her. Rumors of perceived or real injustices began to flow, and before long black and white residents took to the streets against one another. When it was all said and done two days later, 34 people were dead, 433 were wounded, and $2 million worth of property had been destroyed. -
Harlem Riot
A black solider named Robert Bandy approached a white police officer who had arrested a black woman on charges of disorderly conduct. The officer eventually shot Bandy, after which a crowd of 3,000 people gathered around as he escorted Bandy to the hospital for treatment. The crowd’s anger spread across two days, leading to six deaths and 600 arrests. -
Philadelphia Riot
A black woman named Odessa Bradford got into an argument with two police officers after her car stalled on a North Philadelphia city street. Officers tried to physically remove her from the vehicle. After a witness tried to come to her aid, both were arrested, leading to anger and confusion among residents. They took to the streets to vent that anger. In the end, 774 people were arrested and hundreds of stores were destroyed. -
San Francisco Riot
A white police officer shot and killed a 17-year-old black teenager after he fled the scene of a stolen car. A crowd gathered and grew angry, residents threw rocks at officers and set buildings on fire. The protests lasted for another three days before winding down with no deaths. -
Newark New Jersey Riot
Two white police officers, John DeSimone and Vito Pontrelli, arrested a black taxi driver named John Weerd Smith for a traffic violation. Witnesses later said they saw Smith’s incapacitated body being dragged from the police car, sparking rumors that the officers had killed the man. Anger spread across the city’s black neighborhoods, leading to six days of rioting that killed 26 people and injured 725. Fifteen hundred people were arrested, and property damage exceeded 10 million. -
Chicago Riot
Civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, setting off unrest in black communities across the country. More than 100 cities experienced some form of civil unrest, but the violence was worst in Chicago, where grieving residents took to the streets for days of angry protests. Eleven people died, 48 were wounded by police gunfire, and 2,150 were arrested. -
Los Angeles Riot
Four Los Angeles Police Department officers were acquitted in the videotaped beating case of Rodney King, a black motorist. Six days of civil unrest unfolded in front of national news cameras, resulting in 53 deaths, 2,000 injuries, and 11,000 arrests. There was also $1 billion in property damage, making it one of the deadliest and costliest urban uprisings in modern history. -
Cincinnati Riot
Timothy Thomas, an unarmed 19-year-old black man, was shot and killed by police officer Stephen Roach after being pulled over for a traffic violation. The shooting lead to widespread outrage and protests, which spilled out into the streets and turned violent. The four days of rioting were the largest and costliest uprising since the Los Angeles protests in 1992 and cost the city between $1.5 million and $2 million. -
Ferguson Riot
Michael Brown, an unarmed 18-year-old, was shot and killed after an interaction with police officer Darren Wilson. Photos of Brown’s lifeless body soon flooded social media. Crowds gathered in Ferguson, followed by angry clashes with riot cops in the streets. Months later, when a grand jury failed to indict Wilson on criminal charges, protesters clashed with police again. A Department of Justice report later documented systemic racial discrimination. -
Baltimore Riot
Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old black man, made eye contact with a Baltimore police officer and, for unknown reasons, ran away from him. The officer chased Gray, arrested him, and put him in a paddy wagon. Roughly an hour later, Gray was rushed to a local hospital with a severed spine, an injury that killed him on April 19. Shortly after Gray was hospitalized, residents began protesting a pattern of police violence. After Gray’s death the protests became violent.
