Buffalo City Council Punishes Black Neighborhoods After Uprising

 

June 26, 1967 – For many residents of the Lakeview Projects on the east side of Buffalo, New York the was only one thing authorities paid attention to and that was violence.

As in so many cities across America Buffalo was generally segregated and for the Lakeview residents this meant the standard problems of economic inequality and police repression. This had been the situation for residents in the post-war years as Buffalo went through a process of deindustrialization with plants built for war production closed and this led to the closure of other businesses. Also as in many American cities, there was "White Flight" as White residents moved out to the suburbs further disrupting business taking retail and service jobs from the city.

On the afternoon of the 26^th police attempted to intervene in a dispute between two Black adolescents. This sparked an explosion as 250 to 300 Blacks quickly surrounded the two officers demanding they leave the boys alone and making accusations of unnecessary force. The group quickly became a mob when they picked up bottles, clubs, or anything that they could throw.

Soon more police arrived and this escalated the tensions and the violence. Soon the mob swelled to at least 1,000 and they began destroying storefronts and city property. As the violence escalated Mayor Frank Sedita reached out to the Black leaders and met with Reverend Milton Williams the local head of the NAACP.

Williams tried to talk to the mob, made primarily of youth but as there really were no organizers he had a difficult time. He added, “For these young people living in these conditions they know that violence is the only language authorities understand.”

The violence carried over for the next four nights with up to 400 police officers trying to quell the violence and making arrests. After the 3r^d night New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller requested retired baseball star Jackie Robinson to go and try and speak to the youth, Robinson was Rockefeller’s Special Assistant for Urban Affairs. Robinson met with the mayor for over 6 hours to try and plan and coordinate activities to quell the violence but whatever the plan was it failed. Robinson stated that what he had heard in a meeting with some of the youth and social workers was that the economics was the fuel for the unrest in the city not just the rioting.

“One social worker told me she had been to some 600 meetings with business owners and had secured 310 jobs,” said Robinson. “I hear the same thing all over, ask a young man if he’d like to work it’s always yes. These things happen when people have nothing to do.”

Once things had calmed down on the morning of July 1, and the uprising ended there was $250,000 in damage, 81 injuries, and 600 arrests. Fortunately, in this riot, there were no deaths.

The Buffalo Common Council (city council) met on July 5^th four days after the uprising and apparently felt that the violence was not something to discuss as they didn’t mention the rioting in their meeting. The disdain for the Lakeview neighborhoods continued at the next council meeting where they ended with a resolution praising the police for not needing outside help to stop the violence.

As summer turned to fall the council did finally focus on the uprising but as so often happens, they focused not on the root causes but on suppression. They appealed to the state to change firearm regulations allowing police to carry heavier weapons and allow homeowners to arm themselves. They increased police patrols in the Eastside neighborhoods.

The biggest thing the council did was a complete revision of the disorderly conduct code for the city expanding it to include making street baseball illegal and allowing the mayor to close taverns and restaurants if he felt the presence of these businesses might impact the peace of the city. The new laws also limited the size of gatherings and made flying anything but the American flag illegal.

There was no action by the council to remedy the economics and recreation issues Black leaders spoke about, instead, it seemed that the focus was on punishing the Black neighborhoods with increased surveillance and profiling. Passing laws that helped to break up the community rather than push it together. 

Sources:

https://www.newspapers.com/image/80150395/?match=1&terms=%22Buffalo%20riots%22%20&clipping_id=58646062

https://face2faceafrica.com/article/when-black-new-yorkers-decided-to-unite-for-their-own-buffalo-race-riots-of-1967

https://medium.com/@schafer.benjamin.j/weve-yet-to-heal-from-buffalo-s-last-riot-what-makes-you-think-this-one-is-any-different-afc1753efe6c

Brutal Lynching in Limon, CO

On this day in 1900 15-year-old Preston John Porter Jr was lynched by a white mob in Limon, CO. Ostensibly because he had confessed to the murder of a white farm girl named Louise Frost on Nov. 8. There was no evidence of this other than Preston, his brother and father were the only negros in Lincoln County and so had to be the murderers, at least one of them. On November 12, all three were arrested and taken to the city jail in Denver. After the Porters had been in jail for four days, newspapers reported that Preston had confessed to the crime “in order to save his father and brother from sharing the fate that he believes awaits him.” It was a terrible fate, as a mob of 200 stopped the train from Denver at a depot 3 miles west of Limon and assaulted the sheriff of Lincoln County, taking Preston from the train; chained to a railroad stake, and burned alive. Despite enormous press coverage identifying multiple members of the mob, no investigation into the lynching was conducted and the coroner concluded Preston died “at the hands of parties unknown.”

 

Forgotten History: 1922 Guayaquil General Strike & Massacre

Today's Forgotten History: #OTD in 1922 at least 300 striking utility workers were massacred by the Ecuadoran army in the city of Guayaquil. Inspired by railroad workers in the nearby town of Durán, the utility and trolly workers of Guayaquil declared a general strike. Due to competition in the cocoa market, Ecuador was suffering a depression, the strikers made relatively modest demands such as the payment of wages on time, the establishment of medical auxiliary posts, payment in United States dollars or gold rather than the sucre, fifteen days notice before lay-offs and the re-hiring of fired union organizers. The government agreed to exchange rate moratorium and to continue negotiating on demands but the word had not gotten around to the 20,000 strikers and supporters who were advancing on the police station when the army began firing. The general strike ended shortly after the massacre of 15 November. The following day, President Tamayo signaled that he would sign the exchange rate moratorium that had been demanded by the strikers. Most workers returned to their jobs, but the trolley workers continued their strike. On 21 November, the trolley worker strike was finally resolved, with the trolley workers receiving pay raises, shorter hours, and other demands. However, the trolley company would also increase fares