What's Up With (Race) Riots? Part I The 19th Century

Why do race riots occur and are they effective?

This is part one of an examination of the history of American race riots to find out.

01:35 - I begin with a discussion of vigilantism with my college friend Jahne. We both took a class called The American Vigilante and understanding vigilantism is a helpful tool for understanding riots.

04:39 - The Pre-Civil War Era. Looking back to Force and Freedom, (ep. 3) I look at how Black-initiated riots accelerated social change.

08:13 - The Civil War, because, yes, people were rioting and attacking Black people in the middle of it. This slowed social change as the government worked to keep Black people from migrating North.

11:31 - Reconstruction, the worst of the riots. Southerners wanted to deny the results of the Civil War so, in both rural and urban communities, Black people attempting to organize or assert themselves met with riots. Though Republicans got more radical in pushing Reconstruction, they ultimately gave up and social change was thwarted.

• Leroy Johnson's story is really interesting, read up on him here (https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/leroy-johnson-1928-2019)

16:33 - White Terror and lynching. Attacks on 'uppity' behavior from Black people as a means to keep them down. In response, many left the South in the First Great Migration.

Sources: [As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.]

Rioting in America [https://amzn.to/3r5ryGb] by Paul Gilje

Blackpast.org

Force and Freedom: Black Abolitionists and the Politics of Violence [https://amzn.to/3acLJM4]

Music Credit

PeaceLoveSoul by Jeris (c) copyright 2012 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/VJ_Memes/35859 Ft: KungFu (KungFuFrijters)