Memphis Race Riot Begin 1866

[Valin]

Memphis Riot, 1866

In the late afternoon of May 1, 1866, long broiling tensions between the residents of southern Memphis, Tennessee erupted into a three day riot known as the Memphis Riot of 1866.  The riot began when a white police officer attempted to arrest a black ex-soldier and an estimated fifty blacks showed up to stop the police from jailing him.  Accounts vary as to who began the shooting, but the altercation that ensued quickly involved more and more of the city.  The victims initially were only black soldiers, but the violence quickly spread to other blacks living just south of Memphis who were attacked while their homes, schools, and churches were destroyed.  White Northerners who worked as missionaries and school teachers in black schools were also targeted.

In an attempt to restore order, U.S. Army commander George Stoneman ordered the black soldiers of the Third United States Colored Heavy Artillery regiment back to Fort Pickering just outside the city and they obeyed.  Nonetheless, the violence continued throughout the night as the targets now became the black civilians in the city.  Memphis police and firemen openly participated in the violence and looting and as a result the city's black citizens could not count on them to stop the attacks or put out the fires in the African American neighborhoods.  The conflict stretched into a second day when Memphis Mayor John Park refused to request state or federal assistance.  On the afternoon of the third day, General Stoneman declared martial law and sent black and white troops into the city to reestablish order.

Within a month a congressional committee arrived to investigate the riot.  The investigation and interviews were thorough, but the report was controlled by Radical Republicans in Congress and used to gain support for Reconstruction policies.   The national impact of the report was the rapid endorsement of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, making all ex-slaves citizens, and the increasing of Republican majorities in Congress in the November 1866 elections.  

(Snip)

 

 

In the late afternoon of May 1, 1866, long broiling tensions between the residents of southern Memphis, Tennessee erupted into a three day riot known as the Memphis Riot of 1866.  The riot began when a white police officer attempted to arrest a black ex-soldier and an estimated fifty blacks showed up to stop the police from jailing him.  Accounts vary as to who began the shooting, but the altercation that ensued quickly involved more and more of the city.  The victims initially were only black soldiers, but the violence quickly spread to other blacks living just south of Memphis who were attacked while their homes, schools, and churches were destroyed.  White Northerners who worked as missionaries and school teachers in black schools were also targeted.

In an attempt to restore order, U.S. Army commander George Stoneman ordered the black soldiers of the Third United States Colored Heavy Artillery regiment back to Fort Pickering just outside the city and they obeyed.  Nonetheless, the violence continued throughout the night as the targets now became the black civilians in the city.  Memphis police and firemen openly participated in the violence and looting and as a result the city's black citizens could not count on them to stop the attacks or put out the fires in the African American neighborhoods.  The conflict stretched into a second day when Memphis Mayor John Park refused to request state or federal assistance.  On the afternoon of the third day, General Stoneman declared martial law and sent black and white troops into the city to reestablish order.

Within a month a congressional committee arrived to investigate the riot.  The investigation and interviews were thorough, but the report was controlled by Radical Republicans in Congress and used to gain support for Reconstruction policies.   The national impact of the report was the rapid endorsement of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, making all ex-slaves citizens, and the increasing of Republican majorities in Congress in the November 1866 elections.  

- See more at: http://www.blackpast.org/aah/memphis-riot-1866#sthash.WHvd4dc1.dpuf

Memphis Riot, 1866

[Draggingtree]

The Roots of Segregation

The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America,

by Richard Rothstein, Liveright, 368 pages.

By CARL PAULUS • May 5, 2017

Richard Rothstein’s The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America doesn’t start off in the Deep South, Detroit, Baltimore, or the multitude of other places in the United States where segregation has often been examined. Instead, the research associate at the Economic Policy Institute begins his exploration in an unlikely place: San Francisco. There readers find Frank Stevenson, a transplant from Louisiana who found work in the booming manufacturing sector during World War II.

Stevenson’s story is typical of the African-American experience. He works hard but is blocked from access to new homes and certain jobs because of the color of his skin. Rothstein meticulously describes how local (via zoning and housing associations in places like Palo Alto) and federal (though discrimination in guaranteed mortgages from the Federal Housing Administration) authorities worked hand-in-hand to create segregated neighborhoods as black migrants came to California for the same reason so many others did—to find a slice of the American Dream. His conclusion that governments could impose segregation “where it hadn’t previously taken root” serves as a salient message that carries throughout the book.      http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/the-roots-of-segregation/