The Louisville riots of 1968 refers to riots in
Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...
in May 1968. As in many other cities around the country, there were unrest and riots partially in response to the
assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr., an African-American clergyman and civil rights leader, was fatally shot at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968, at 6:01 p.m. CST. He was rushed to St. Joseph's Hospital, where he died at 7 ...
, on April 4. On May 27, a group of 400 people, mostly blacks, gathered at 28th and Greenwood Streets, in the
Parkland neighborhood. The intersection, and Parkland in general, had recently become an important location for Louisville's black community, as the local
NAACP
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E.&nb ...
branch had moved its office there.
The crowd was protesting against the possible reinstatement of a white officer who had been suspended for beating a black man some weeks earlier. Several community leaders arrived and told the crowd that no decision had been reached, and alluded to disturbances in the future if the officer was reinstated. By 8:30, the crowd began to disperse.
However, rumors (which turned out to be untrue) were spread that
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC, often pronounced ) was the principal channel of student commitment in the United States to the civil rights movement during the 1960s. Emerging in 1960 from the student-led sit-ins at segrega ...
speaker
Stokely Carmichael
Kwame Ture (; born Stokely Standiford Churchill Carmichael; June 29, 1941November 15, 1998) was a prominent organizer in the civil rights movement in the United States and the global pan-African movement. Born in Trinidad, he grew up in the Unite ...
's plane to Louisville was being intentionally delayed by whites. After bottles were thrown by the crowd, the crowd became unruly and police were called. However the small and unprepared police response simply upset the crowd more, which continued to grow. The police, including a captain who was hit in the face by a bottle, retreated, leaving behind a patrol car, which was turned over and burned.
By midnight, rioters had looted stores as far east as Fourth Street, overturned cars and started fires.
Within an hour, Mayor
Kenneth A. Schmied
Kenneth Albert Schmied (July 11, 1911 – April 5, 1973), a Republican, served as Mayor of Louisville, Kentucky from 1965 until 1969. He was the last Republican to have held the office.
The 1969 elections saw Democrat Frank W. Burke win the mayo ...
requested 700
Kentucky National Guard
The Kentucky National Guard comprises the:
*Kentucky Army National Guard
*Kentucky Air National Guard
See also
* Kentucky Active Militia, the state defense force of Kentucky which replaced the Kentucky National Guard during World War I and World ...
troops and established a citywide curfew. Violence and vandalism continued to rage the next day, but had subdued somewhat by May 29. Business owners began to return, although troops remained until June 4. Police made 472 arrests related to the riots. Two black teenage rioters had died, and $200,000 in damage had been done.
The disturbances had a longer-lasting effect. Most white business owners quickly pulled out or were forced, by the threat of racial violence, out of Parkland and surrounding areas. Most white residents also left the West End, which had been almost entirely white north of Broadway, from subdivision until the 1960s. The riot would have effects that shaped the image which whites would hold of Louisville's West End, that it was predominantly black.
See also
*
1968 Washington, D.C. riots
*
Baltimore riot of 1968
The Baltimore riot of 1968 was a period of civil unrest that lasted from April 6 to April 14, 1968, in Baltimore. The uprising included crowds filling the streets, burning and looting local businesses, and confronting the police and national gua ...
*
Bloody Monday
Bloody Monday was a series of riots on August 6, 1855, in Louisville, Kentucky, an election day, when Protestant mobs attacked Irish and German Catholic neighborhoods. These riots grew out of the bitter rivalry between the Democrats and the Nat ...
*
History of Louisville, Kentucky
The geology of the Ohio River, with but a single series of rapids halfway in its length from the confluence of the Monongahela and Allegheny rivers to its union with the Mississippi, made it inevitable that a town would grow on the site. Louisvi ...
*
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 ...
*
List of riots
This is a chronological list of known riots.
Seventeenth century and earlier
* 44 BC – Assassination of Julius Caesar (Rome, Roman Republic). During Caesar's cremation in the Forum, an incensed mob took firebrands from the pyre and attacke ...
*
Protests of 1968
The protests of 1968 comprised a worldwide escalation of social conflicts, predominantly characterized by popular rebellions against state militaries and the bureaucracies.
In the United States, these protests marked a turning point for the ci ...
*
NAACP in Kentucky
NAACP in Kentucky is very active with branches all over the state, largest being in Louisville and Lexington. The Kentucky State Conference of NAACP continues today to fight against injustices and for the equality of all people.
The National Asso ...
References
Further reading
*
*
*
External links
Louisville's Black Power Riot, 1968Extensive paper on the riots by
University of Louisville
The University of Louisville (UofL) is a public research university in Louisville, Kentucky. It is part of the Kentucky state university system. When founded in 1798, it was the first city-owned public university in the United States and one of ...
professor Bruce M. Tyler
{{DEFAULTSORT:Louisville Riots Of 1968
1968 in Kentucky
Crimes in Louisville, Kentucky
African-American history in Louisville, Kentucky
African-American riots in the United States
Riots and civil disorder in Kentucky
King assassination riots
May 1968 events in the United States