In the 1960s, there were numerous race-based uprisings and protests that occurred in various cities in the United States, including the 1964 Harlem Riot. The African American community in Harlem, like in other cities, was protesting against racial discrimination, segregation, police brutality, and social injustices that they experienced regularly. The frustration and anger of the community led them to resort to violence to express their dissatisfaction with the system.
Ironically, the Harlem Riot took place just two weeks after the signing of the 1964 Civil Rights Act by President Lyndon Johnson, which aimed to outlaw discrimination based on race, color, sex, religion, and nationality. This law was considered the most sweeping measure ever adopted in the country to guarantee racial justice. However, despite the enactment of the law, the socioeconomic structures that discriminated against African Americans did not change.
The Harlem Riot was triggered by the fatal shooting of a 15-year-old African American, James Powell, by an off-duty white police lieutenant, Thomas Gilligan. The Harlem community saw the incident as an unnecessary example of police brutality and was outraged by the murder. Many people believed that Officer Gilligan, a war veteran and experienced police officer, could have arrested and subdued Powell without using deadly force.
The first two days after the shooting saw peaceful protests in Harlem and other areas of New York City. However, on July 18, some protesters gathered outside the Harlem Police Station and demanded that Officer Gilligan be terminated or resign. The police officers on guard outside the building waded into the crowd with their nightsticks as tensions escalated, and some protesters started throwing bricks, bottles, and rocks. This confrontation led to rioting, which first broke out in Harlem and later spread to Bedford-Stuyvesant, the black and Puerto Rican section of Brooklyn.
The race riot lasted for six days, during which there were looting, vandalism, breaking of windows, and setting local businesses on fire, resulting in around $1 million worth of property damage. One black resident was killed, and more than 100 people were injured, with 450 arrests made.
The Harlem uprising was just the beginning of a series of violent confrontations between police and African American communities in more than a dozen cities in the North, including Philadelphia, Jersey City, Paterson, Elizabeth, and Chicago, Illinois (Dixmoor). The series of rebellions, along with civil rights protests mainly in the South, led to the designation of the summer of 1964 as the Long, Hot Summer.
Resources:
Harlem race riot of 1964 | United States history | Britannica
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