The Plainfield riots was one of 159
race riots
An ethnic conflict is a conflict between two or more contending ethnic groups. While the source of the conflict may be political, social, economic or religious, the individuals in conflict must expressly fight for their ethnic group's positio ...
that swept cities in the United States during the "
Long Hot Summer of 1967
The long, hot summer of 1967 refers to the more than 150 race riots that erupted across the United States in the summer of 1967. In June there were riots in Atlanta, Boston, Cincinnati, Buffalo, and Tampa. In July there were riots in Birming ...
". This riot was a series of racially charged violent disturbances that occurred in
Plainfield,
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...
, which mirrored the
1967 Newark riots
The 1967 Newark riots were an episode of violent, armed conflict in the streets of Newark, New Jersey, United States. Taking place over a four-day period (between July 12 and July 17, 1967), the Newark riots resulted in at least 26 deaths and ...
in nearby
Newark
Newark most commonly refers to:
* Newark, New Jersey, city in the United States
* Newark Liberty International Airport, New Jersey; a major air hub in the New York metropolitan area
Newark may also refer to:
Places Canada
* Niagara-on-the ...
.
Background
Two days after some
African American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...
s began protesting and rioting in Newark in 1967, the Plainfield riots began. Plainfield is located about 18 miles southwest of Newark, and about a third of Plainfield's 48,000 citizen were
African American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...
s then. Tensions remained high that summer through the night of Friday, July 14 when a fight broke out at a local diner, The White Star. Afterwards, about 40 young black men left the diner and marched back to their housing project in the West End section of Plainfield. They vented their anger along the way by smashing store windows and
throwing rocks at police cars. When the local police showed up in force, the group dispersed.
The White Star Diner, which still stands today, was depicted by artist Casey Ruble in 2015.
The riot
On Saturday night trouble started again. Many long time residents of Plainfield claimed that "
outside agitators
Outside agitator is a term that has been used to discount political unrest as being driven by outsiders, rather than by internal discontent. The term was popularized during the early stages of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States, when So ...
" who did not live in Plainfield came into the city to provoke violence and to "rile up" the community. Some were white men and some were black men and the hatred they fanned was infectious. Rioting and looting increased and
Molotov cocktails
A Molotov cocktail (among several other names – ''see other names'') is a hand thrown incendiary weapon constructed from a frangible container filled with flammable substances equipped with a fuse (typically a glass bottle filled with flammab ...
were thrown at fire trucks responding to calls. Police from surrounding jurisdictions were called in and the crowds finally dispersed when a heavy rain started to fall early Sunday morning.
On Sunday afternoon several hundred people gathered at Green Brook Park to hear the local Director of Human Relations talk about the situation in the city. The
Union County, New Jersey Park Police, who had jurisdiction over the park, declared the meeting unlawful and ordered the crowd to disperse. Some reported that the police dismissively referred to the gatherers as "boys" in urging them to leave the park, which was taken as racially inflammatory and may have led to anger.
The crowd broke up and reformed in the West End section of Plainfield where widespread rioting started again. The city police were caught off guard and did not respond quickly enough to quell the disorder.
Murder of Officer John Gleason
Later that evening a white police officer, John Gleason, was manning a checkpoint. Members of the white motorcycle gang known as the
Pagans Pagans may refer to:
* Paganism, a group of pre-Christian religions practiced in the Roman Empire
* Modern Paganism, a group of contemporary religious practices
* Order of the Vine, a druidic faction in the ''Thief'' video game series
* Pagan's ...
entered the area and a confrontation between a large group of young black men and the white members of the
Pagans Pagans may refer to:
* Paganism, a group of pre-Christian religions practiced in the Roman Empire
* Modern Paganism, a group of contemporary religious practices
* Order of the Vine, a druidic faction in the ''Thief'' video game series
* Pagan's ...
was brewing. Police Officer John Gleason placed himself between the two groups and the Pagan motorcycle gang left. The remaining crowd refused to disperse and Officer Gleason became surrounded by the crowd which began to threaten him and close in on him. Officer Gleason fired a shot and wounded Bobby Lee Williams. When the officer tried to leave the area to get help, he was overtaken by a mob and was beaten with a steel grocery store cart, stomped and eventually shot and killed with his own service revolver.
Middlesex arms theft
That same night in nearby
Middlesex
Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, historic county in South East England, southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the Ceremonial counties of ...
an arms factory was broken into and 46 automatic weapons were stolen. The Plainfield Machine Company was a small manufacturing company owned by William Haas and William Stork that, among other things, produced
M1 carbine
The M1 carbine (formally the United States Carbine, Caliber .30, M1) is a lightweight semi-automatic carbine that was a standard firearm for the U.S. military during World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. The M1 carbine was produced ...
s for the civilian market. The stolen guns were passed out to the men on the streets of Plainfield that very night. The police were anxious because of the large number of guns now on the streets and the Plainfield Fire Department Station was under constant gunfire for five hours. The bullet holes in the brick facade of the building remain to this day. Finally, New Jersey National Guardsmen, in
armored personnel carriers
An armoured personnel carrier (APC) is a broad type of armoured military vehicle designed to transport personnel and equipment in combat zones. Since World War I, APCs have become a very common piece of military equipment around the world.
Acc ...
relieved the station.
Police tried to arrange a truce and have residents turn in the stolen carbines. Black residents felt that having the guns in the community kept the police at bay and that they now had power over the police. When none of the stolen firearms were returned, the area was cordoned off and 300 heavily armed
New Jersey State Police
The New Jersey State Police (NJSP) is the official state police force of the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is a general-powers police agency with statewide jurisdiction, designated by troop sectors.
History
As with other state police organization ...
and National Guardsmen started a house-to-house search for the stolen weapons. After about an hour and a half, with 66 homes searched, the operation was called off. The police felt that since Governor Hughes had declared a
State of Emergency
A state of emergency is a situation in which a government is empowered to be able to put through policies that it would normally not be permitted to do, for the safety and protection of its citizens. A government can declare such a state du ...
, no search warrants were needed.
Aftermath
By July 21, things had calmed down to the point where
National Guard
National Guard is the name used by a wide variety of current and historical uniformed organizations in different countries. The original National Guard was formed during the French Revolution around a cadre of defectors from the French Guards.
Nat ...
troops and state police could be pulled out of the city.
Dozens of black residents later filed suit against the government claiming that their constitutional rights had been violated during the search for the stolen carbines.
Even several weeks after the riot, the local police and
FBI
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and its principal Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement age ...
were still looking for the stolen weapons. No arrests had been made in the theft and only a few of the guns had been recovered.
More than 100 people had been arrested for looting and rioting during the disturbance. Officer Gleason was the only person killed during the riot and in December 1968, a jury convicted two people, a man and a woman, of murder in his death. They were both sentenced to life imprisonment. Seven others were acquitted and one case was declared a
mistrial
In law, a trial is a coming together of parties to a dispute, to present information (in the form of evidence) in a tribunal, a formal setting with the authority to adjudicate claims or disputes. One form of tribunal is a court. The tribunal, w ...
because of a
deadlocked jury
A hung jury, also called a deadlocked jury, is a judicial jury that cannot agree upon a verdict after extended deliberation and is unable to reach the required unanimity or supermajority. Hung jury usually results in the case being tried again.
T ...
.
Legacy
Like many cities, Plainfield suffered a decline from the
stigma of the riots, and many of the burned and looted businesses remained vacant for over four decades. Several residents decamped for neighboring towns like
Edison
Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These invention ...
,
Scotch Plains,
Watchung,
Warren
A warren is a network of wild rodent or lagomorph, typically rabbit burrows. Domestic warrens are artificial, enclosed establishment of animal husbandry dedicated to the raising of rabbits for meat and fur. The term evolved from the medieval Angl ...
,
Westfield and
Bridgewater. Many residents abandoned their houses after leaving, as the massive number of people selling their property resulted in people being unable to sell them (or at massively reduced prices). After leaving, since the owners did not want to live there anymore but could not sell, they sometimes let them fall into
foreclosure
Foreclosure is a legal process in which a lender attempts to recover the balance of a loan from a borrower who has stopped making payments to the lender by forcing the sale of the asset used as the collateral for the loan.
Formally, a mortg ...
. After a while many of them ended up
derelict. Many of the houses were also turned into
multi family homes. It remains one of the poorest urban areas in the state with a 16 percent poverty rate including over 7 percent having an income less than 50 percent of
poverty level
The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for t ...
.
Author and Plainfield native Isaiah Tremaine published the book ''Insurrection'' in 2017 as an accounting of the Plainfield riots from his perspective as a black teenager living in the city at the time.
In July 2017, the Plainfield Anti-Violence Coalition held a memorial event to discuss and commemorate the 50th anniversary of the rebellion.
Playwright TyLie Shider has used the events of 1967 Plainfield as a backdrop for some of his work, including ''The Gospel Woman'' and ''Certain Aspects of Conflict in the Negro Family.''
See also
*
1967 Detroit riot
The 1967 Detroit Riot, also known as the 12th Street Riot or Detroit Rebellion, was the bloodiest of the urban riots in the United States during the "Long, hot summer of 1967". Composed mainly of confrontations between Black residents and the De ...
in Michigan
*
1967 Newark riots
The 1967 Newark riots were an episode of violent, armed conflict in the streets of Newark, New Jersey, United States. Taking place over a four-day period (between July 12 and July 17, 1967), the Newark riots resulted in at least 26 deaths and ...
in New Jersey
*
Cambridge riot of 1967
Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...
in Maryland
*
List of incidents of civil unrest in the United States
Listed are major episodes of civil unrest in the United States. This list does not include the numerous incidents of destruction and violence associated with various sporting events.
18th century
*1783 – Pennsylvania Mutiny of 1783, June 20 ...
References
*
The National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders'',The Report of The National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders'', March 1, 1968. Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC.
* ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', various news articles, July 15–23, 1967, Aug. 5, Aug. 10, Sept. 9, 1967 and Dec. 25, 1968.
*
Thomas J. Sugrue and Andrew M. Goodman, "Plainfield Burning: Black Rebellion in the Suburban North," ''Journal of Urban History'', vol. 33 (May 2007), pp. 568–601.
*
Toledo Blade
''The Blade'', also known as the ''Toledo Blade'', is a newspaper in Toledo, Ohio published daily online and printed Thursday and Sunday by Block Communications. The newspaper was first published on December 19, 1835.
Overview
The first issue o ...
news articles, July 17, 1967.
{{DEFAULTSORT:1967 Plainfield riots
Plainfield riots, 1967
Pla
PLA may refer to:
Organizations Politics and military
* People's Liberation Army, the armed forces of China and of the ruling Chinese Communist Party
* People's Liberation Army (disambiguation)
** Irish National Liberation Army, formerly called ...
Plainfield riots, 1967
Riots
A riot is a form of civil disorder commonly characterized by a group lashing out in a violent public disturbance against authority, property, or people.
Riots typically involve destruction of property, public or private. The property targeted ...
Plainfield
Urban decay in the United States
Crime in the New York metropolitan area
Riots and civil disorder in New Jersey
July 1967 events in the United States
Long, hot summer of 1967