RACE RIOTS

The definition of a race riot is a riot caused by racial dissensions or hatreds. Many of these riots took place in states big and small. "Race riots broke out in most of the country’s large cities, notably in 1965 in the Watts district of Los Angeles, which left 34 dead, and two years later in Newark, New Jersey, and Detroit. Four summers of violence resulted in many deaths and property losses that left whole neighborhoods ruined and their residents more distressed than ever."

In addition, Chicago had one of the worst race riots and took 38 lives. Going into depth about this particular riot of cause. In 1919, a riot was triggered when a black youth swam in Lake Michigan and drifted into area that was strictly reserved for whites. This very much upset the whites causing them to have rage therefore stoning him and sadly he drowned.

According to many sources, Chicago was and unfortunately still is the state that has the most race riots. “Since the mid-1960s, the nature of race riots in Chicago (as elsewhere) has significantly shifted. Although violent black/white clashes continued into the mid-1970s, the term's use shifted during the 1960s to refer to the uprisings of poorer blacks (or Latinos) protesting ghetto conditions, especially police brutality…suggests that the issues surrounding racial violence are by no means a finished chapter in Chicago history.”

Face-off between militia and veteran

Furthermore, in an article by after a final round provoked by the assassination of King in April 1968, the rioting abated. Yet the activist pursuit of political and economic empowerment for African Americans continued, reflected culturally in the Black Arts movement—which pursued populist art that promoted the ideas of Black separatism—and in the politicized soul music that replaced gospel and folk music as the sound track of the freedom struggle.

Race riots were an outcome of men and women of different races unnecessary a reason to take each other’s lives based off the difference of the color of their skin. What happened to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness? Does it not exist anymore? The United States of America will never know.