1964 -- Brooklyn Erupts as Harlem Lulls Washington Afro American, July 25, 1964
The summer of 1964 found frustrated Blacks in cities across the nation turning to civil unrest to call attention to their plight. New York, the nation’s largest city, was among those that experienced the phenomenon.
NEW YORK -- (UPI) -- Screaming, rock and bottle throwing rioters battled police in Brooklyn Wednesday night and looters took over Thursday in this city’s fifth consecutive night of disturbances.
Three suspected looters, all colored were wounded by police and two policemen battling the mobs were injured.
There were indications some of the rioters were organized. One detective said a few of the looters were equipped with walkie-talkies over which they received information about the location of police units. Some police units were sent on wild goose chases resulting from false telephone tips.
For the first time since the disorders began in Harlem last Saturday night, police used horses to disperse the Brooklyn mobs.
An estimated 1,000 angry jeering youths mounted two major charges against the helmeted riot police in defiance of Mayor Robert Wagner’s broadcast warning that ''mob rule'' would not be tolerated.
Mayor Wagner addressing New Yorkers in the wake of four nights of uprisings, declared that ''mob rule'' in the nation’s largest city would not be tolerated “at any time.''
The mayor, speaking on a citywide radio and television hookup, said ''the mandate to maintain law and order is absolute'' and the city would not ''bow or surrender to pressure.''
''Without law and order, colored and civil rights programs would be set back one half century,” Wagner said in his 230-minute speech to the people. ''Law and order are the colored citizen’s best freedom -- make no mistake about that.''
. . . The Mayor’s office said it has received hundreds of telephone calls and telegrams, the overwhelming majority of them supporting the Mayor.
In Cairo, where he attended an African Conference, Black Nationalist leader Malcolm X predicted the city’s racial troubles ''will probably get much worse.''
Rep. Adam Clayton Powell said in Washington Wednesday that only immediate action by Mayor Wagner to reform police procedures can stop further violence. The Harlem Democrat urged the Mayor to replace white policemen with more colored ones and bar the use of live ammunition in dealing with rioters.
1944 -- 200 Black Sailors Die in Munitions Blast In one of the most tragic events of World War II more than 200 Black Navy men were killed in an explosion at the Port Chicago, Calif. naval depot.
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