The White Night riots were a series of violent events sparked by an announcement of a lenient sentencing of
Dan White
Daniel James White (September 2, 1946 – October 21, 1985) was an American politician who assassinated San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk, on Monday, November 27, 1978, at City Hall. White was convicted of manslaugh ...
for the
assassinations
Assassination is the murder of a prominent or important person, such as a head of state, head of government, politician, world leader, member of a royal family or CEO. The murder of a celebrity, activist, or artist, though they may not have a ...
of
George Moscone
George Richard Moscone (; November 24, 1929 – November 27, 1978) was an American attorney and Democratic politician. He was the 37th mayor of San Francisco, California from January 1976 until his assassination in November 1978. He was known ...
, the
mayor of San Francisco
The mayor of the City and County of San Francisco is the head of the executive branch of the San Francisco city and county government. The officeholder has the duty to enforce city laws, and the power to either approve or veto bills passed by ...
, and of
Harvey Milk
Harvey Bernard Milk (May 22, 1930 – November 27, 1978) was an American politician and the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California, as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Milk was born and raised in ...
, a member of the city's
Board of Supervisors who was one of the
first openly gay elected officials in the United States. The events took place on the night of May 21, 1979 (the next night would have been Milk's 49th birthday) in
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
. Earlier that day, White had been convicted of
voluntary manslaughter
Voluntary manslaughter is the killing of a human being in which the offender acted during ''the heat of passion'', under circumstances that would cause a reasonable person to become emotionally or mentally disturbed to the point that they canno ...
, the lightest possible conviction for his actions. That White was not convicted of
first-degree murder
Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification or valid excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person without justification or excuse, especially the ...
(with which he was originally charged) had so outraged the city's gay community that it set off the most violent reaction by gay Americans since the 1969
Stonewall riots in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
(which is credited as the beginning of the modern
gay rights movement in the United States).
The
gay community of San Francisco had a longstanding conflict with the
San Francisco Police Department. White's status as a former police officer intensified the community's anger at the SFPD. Initial demonstrations took place as a peaceful march through the
Castro district
The Castro District, commonly referred to as the Castro, is a neighborhood in Eureka Valley in San Francisco. The Castro was one of the first gay neighborhoods in the United States. Having transformed from a working-class neighborhood throug ...
of San Francisco. After the crowd arrived at the
San Francisco City Hall
San Francisco City Hall is the seat of government for the City and County of San Francisco, California. Re-opened in 1915 in its open space area in the city's Civic Center, it is a Beaux-Arts monument to the City Beautiful movement that epitomi ...
, violence began. The events caused hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of property damage to City Hall and the surrounding area, as well as injuries to police officers and rioters.
Several hours after the riot had been broken up, police made a retaliatory raid on a
gay bar
A gay bar is a drinking establishment that caters to an exclusively or predominantly lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) clientele; the term '' gay'' is used as a broadly inclusive concept for LGBT communities.
Gay bars once serv ...
in San Francisco's
Castro District
The Castro District, commonly referred to as the Castro, is a neighborhood in Eureka Valley in San Francisco. The Castro was one of the first gay neighborhoods in the United States. Having transformed from a working-class neighborhood throug ...
. Many patrons were beaten by police in
riot gear
Riot control measures are used by law enforcement, military, paramilitary or security forces to control, disperse, and arrest people who are involved in a riot, unlawful demonstration or unlawful protest.
If a riot is spontaneous and irration ...
. Two dozen arrests were made during the course of the raid, and several people later sued the SFPD.
In the following days, gay leaders refused to apologize for the events of that night. This led to increased political power in the gay community, which culminated in the election of Mayor
Dianne Feinstein
Dianne Goldman Berman Feinstein ( ; born Dianne Emiel Goldman; June 22, 1933) is an American politician who serves as the senior United States senator from California, a seat she has held since 1992. A member of the Democratic Party, she wa ...
to a full term
the following November. In response to a campaign promise, Feinstein appointed a pro-gay
Chief of Police
Chief may refer to:
Title or rank
Military and law enforcement
* Chief master sergeant, the ninth, and highest, enlisted rank in the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Space Force
* Chief of police, the head of a police department
* Chief of the b ...
, which increased recruitment of gay people in the police force and eased tensions.
Background
Gay history of San Francisco
The American settlers who moved west toward California in the 18th and 19th centuries were largely male prospectors and miners. Events such as the
California Gold Rush created a broadly male society in that region.
Romantic friendship
A romantic friendship, passionate friendship, or affectionate friendship is a very close but typically non-sexual relationship between friends, often involving a degree of physical closeness beyond that which is common in contemporary Western ...
s were common, and often tolerated. As San Francisco was settled the ratio of men to women remained disproportionately high, resulting in the growth of a culture that was more open-minded towards homosexuality. The city's notorious brothel district – named the
Barbary Coast – earned the city a reputation as a lawless and amoral society leading to San Francisco becoming known as "Sodom by the Sea."
[Stryker & Van Buskirk (1996), pp. 18.]
The end of
Prohibition
Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcohol ...
prompted the opening of several
gay bar
A gay bar is a drinking establishment that caters to an exclusively or predominantly lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) clientele; the term '' gay'' is used as a broadly inclusive concept for LGBT communities.
Gay bars once serv ...
s along North Beach. The most notable of these were the
Black Cat where
female impersonation shows became the main draw, and a lesbian bar known as Mona's.
During
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, San Francisco became a major debarkation point for servicemen stationed in the
Pacific Theater. The U.S. military, which was
concerned about male homosexuality, had a policy of dismissing servicemen caught in known gay establishments with
blue discharge
A blue discharge (also known as a "blue ticket") was a form of administrative military discharge formerly issued by the United States beginning in 1916. It was neither honorable nor dishonorable. The blue ticket became the discharge of choice for ...
s. As many of these men faced ostracism from their communities and families, they chose to remain in the city. The number of men that remained was a significant factor in the creation of a homosexual community in San Francisco.
Gay activism in San Francisco
In 1951, the
California Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of California is the highest and final court of appeals in the courts of the U.S. state of California. It is headquartered in San Francisco at the Earl Warren Building, but it regularly holds sessions in Los Angeles and Sac ...
affirmed in ''Stoumen v. Reilly'' the right of homosexuals to assemble peacefully.
To assist homosexuals with legal problems, in 1951 labor activist
Harry Hay started the Mattachine Foundation from his living room in Los Angeles. Two years later, the
Mattachine Society had expanded to several cities through the organizational skills of Chuck Rowland and under the leadership of less radical leaders Ken Burns in Los Angeles, Hal Call in San Francisco, and Curtis Dewees, Joe McCarthy, and Tony Segura in New York, and Prescott Townsend of Boston. A few years later,
Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin started the
Daughters of Bilitis
The Daughters of Bilitis , also called the DOB or the Daughters, was the first lesbian civil and political rights organization in the United States. The organization, formed in San Francisco in 1955, was conceived as a social alternative to le ...
with six other women in San Francisco, initially to have a place to socialize without fear of harassment or arrest. Within a few years, both organizations learned of each other and grew to have similar goals: helping assimilate homosexuals into general society, working for legal reform to repeal sodomy laws, and assisting those who were arrested. Both groups were headquartered in San Francisco by 1957, where ''The Ladder'' was edited by Lyon & Martin while ''The Mattachine Review'' was edited by Hal Call--both of which were printed by Call's Pan Graphic Press.
Police continued to arrest homosexuals in large numbers, routinely bringing
paddy wagon
A police van (also known as a paddy wagon, meat wagon, divisional van, patrol van, patrol wagon, police wagon, Black Mariah/Maria, police carrier, or in old-fashioned usage, pie wagon) is a type of vehicle operated by police forces. Police vans ...
s to gay bars and arresting their patrons. Charges were usually dismissed but those arrested often lost their anonymity when newspapers printed their names, addresses and places of employment. Officers also notified the employer and family of the accused, causing serious damage to their reputations.
In 1964, a New Year's Eve benefit event was held for the
Council on Religion and the Homosexual. Police stood outside with large floodlights, and in an effort to intimidate took photographs of anyone entering the building. Later, several officers demanded that they be allowed inside. Three lawyers explained to them that under California law, the event was a private party and they could not enter unless they bought tickets. The lawyers were then arrested.
Several ministers who were in attendance held a press conference the next morning, likening the SFPD to the
Gestapo
The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe.
The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one orga ...
. Even the Catholic
archbishop strongly condemned the actions of the police. In an attempt to reduce such harassment two officers were tasked with improving the police department's relationship with the gay community.
The Mattachine Society and Daughters of Bilitis promoted non-confrontational education for homosexuals and heterosexuals, hoping to prove that homosexuals were respectable and normal. Living beyond the mostly white, middle class scope of these groups was an active community of cross-dressers, hustlers, and "street queens" who worked primarily in the
Tenderloin district of the city. After being denied service at Gene Compton's Cafeteria, a few activists picketed the restaurant in 1966. A few days later, early in the morning, the police arrived to arrest patrons in drag.
A riot ensued when a drag queen threw the contents of a cup of coffee in the face of a police officer in response to the officer's grabbing of her arm. The cafe's plate glass windows were shattered in the melée, and then again a few days later after they had been replaced. Although three years later the
Stonewall Riots would have a more significant impact, the Compton's Cafeteria riots were among the first in American history where homosexuals and the newly forming transgender community fought against the authorities.
[A smaller-scale riot broke out in 1959 in Los Angeles, when the drag queens and street hustlers at Cooper Donuts, who were frequently harassed by the LAPD, fought back after police arrested three people, including ]John Rechy
John Francisco Rechy (born March 10, 1931) is a Mexican-American novelist and essayist. In his novels, he has written extensively about gay culture in Los Angeles and wider America, among other subject matter, and is among the pioneers of moder ...
. Patrons began pelting the police with donuts and coffee cups. The LAPD called for back-up and arrested a number of rioters. Rechy and the other two original detainees were able to escape (Faderman and Timmons, pp. 1–2).
Political clout
San Francisco continued to grow as a haven for homosexuals. North Beach and Polk Street had been quiet neighborhoods each with a large homosexual population, but in the 1960s the growth of the
Castro District
The Castro District, commonly referred to as the Castro, is a neighborhood in Eureka Valley in San Francisco. The Castro was one of the first gay neighborhoods in the United States. Having transformed from a working-class neighborhood throug ...
outpaced either of them. Thousands of gay men migrated to San Francisco, turning the quiet Irish working-class neighborhood around Castro Street into a bustling center of activity.
[
] Meanwhile, many lesbians moved their homes and businesses to nearby Valencia Street in the
Mission District
The Mission District (Spanish: ''Distrito de la Misión''), commonly known as The Mission (Spanish: ''La Misión''), is a neighborhood in San Francisco, California. One of the oldest neighborhoods in San Francisco, the Mission District's name is ...
. New Yorker
Harvey Milk
Harvey Bernard Milk (May 22, 1930 – November 27, 1978) was an American politician and the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California, as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Milk was born and raised in ...
resettled on Castro Street in 1972, and opened
Castro Camera
Castro Camera was a camera store in the Castro District of San Francisco, California, operated by Harvey Milk from 1972 until his assassination in 1978. During the 1970s the store became the center of the neighborhood's growing gay community, as ...
the following year. Dissatisfied with the level of bureaucratic apathy and indifference toward the gay community, Milk decided to run for city supervisor. Through his multiple campaigns, culminating in his 1977 election, he became the political voice for the gay community, promoting himself as the "Mayor of Castro Street."
By 1977, 25 percent of the population of San Francisco was reported to be gay.
On Labor Day of 1974, tensions between the gay community and the SFPD came to a head when a man was beaten and arrested while walking down Castro Street. Police reinforcements suddenly appeared on the street, their badge numbers hidden, and beat dozens of gay men. Of these, 14 were arrested and charged with obstructing a sidewalk.
[Shilts (1982), pp. 92–93] Harvey Milk dubbed them the "Castro 14", and a $1.375 million lawsuit was filed against the police.
In 1975, after
George Moscone
George Richard Moscone (; November 24, 1929 – November 27, 1978) was an American attorney and Democratic politician. He was the 37th mayor of San Francisco, California from January 1976 until his assassination in November 1978. He was known ...
had been elected Mayor, he appointed
Charles Gain
Charles Gain (November 1, 1923 – August 21, 2018) was an American police official, who served first as police chief for Oakland, California, then as chief in San Francisco in the 1970s. He was born in Hanford, California.
In 1975, Gain was appo ...
as his Chief of Police. Gain, whose conciliatory position towards African Americans had branded him as one of the most liberal law enforcement officers in the country, soon earned the ire of the police force.
[Shilts (1982), pp. 120–121] Gain implemented policies that proved unpopular with his staff, such as painting police cars
powder blue
__NOTOC__
Powder blue is a pale shade of blue.
As with most colours, there is no absolute definition of its exact hue. Originally, ''powder blue'', in the 1650s, was powdered smalt (cobalt glass) used in laundering and dyeing applications, an ...
, and barring officers from drinking on the job. His lenient policies towards gays also angered the police force. When asked what he would do if a gay police officer
came out
Coming out of the closet, often shortened to coming out, is a metaphor used to describe LGBT people's self-disclosure of their sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity.
Framed and debated as a privacy issue, coming out of ...
, Gain replied "I certainly think that a gay policeman could be up front about it under me. If I had a gay policeman who came out, I would support him 100 percent."
This statement sent shock waves through the police department, and made national headlines. Made during the first week of Gain's tenure, the remark also made Mayor Moscone extremely unpopular with the police.
The two were so intensely disliked by the police that in 1977 rumors circulated about a plan by right-wing police officers to assassinate Gain,
[Shilts (1982), p. 201] and a year later similar plans formed targeting Mayor Moscone.
Upon being informed of this threat, Moscone hired a bodyguard.
Assassinations
![SFCityHall](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/18/SFCityHall.png)
Dissatisfied with city politics, and in financial difficulty due to his failing restaurant business and low annual salary of $9,600, former police officer and Supervisor Dan White resigned from the
San Francisco Board of Supervisors on November 10, 1978.
[Shilts (1982), p. 250] However, after a meeting with the Police Officers' association and the Board of Realtors, White announced that he wanted his seat back. Liberal Supervisors saw this as an opportunity to end the 6-5 split on the Board that blocked progressive initiatives they wanted to introduce. After intense lobbying by Supervisors Milk and Silver, as well as
State Assemblyman Willie Brown, Moscone announced on November 26, 1978, that he would not be reappointing Dan White to the seat he had vacated.
[Shilts (1982), pp. 254–262][
][
]
The next morning White went to City Hall armed with his police .38
Smith & Wesson
Smith & Wesson Brands, Inc. (S&W) is an American firearm manufacturer headquartered in Springfield, Massachusetts, United States.
Smith & Wesson was founded by Horace Smith and Daniel B. Wesson as the "Smith & Wesson Revolver Company" in 1856 ...
revolver and 10 extra cartridges in his coat pocket. To avoid the
metal detector
A metal detector is an instrument that detects the nearby presence of metal. Metal detectors are useful for finding metal objects on the surface, underground, and under water. The unit itself, consist of a control box, and an adjustable shaft, ...
he entered the building through a basement window, and proceeded to the office of Mayor
George Moscone
George Richard Moscone (; November 24, 1929 – November 27, 1978) was an American attorney and Democratic politician. He was the 37th mayor of San Francisco, California from January 1976 until his assassination in November 1978. He was known ...
. Following a brief argument, White shot the Mayor in the shoulder and chest, and then twice in the head.
[
] White then walked to his former office, reloading his gun, and asked Milk to join him. White then shot Milk in the wrist, shoulder and chest, and then twice in the head. Supervisor Dianne Feinstein heard the gunshots and called the police, who found Milk on his stomach, bleeding out from his head wounds.
[
]
Riots
Dan White verdict
On May 21, 1979, White was found guilty of the
voluntary manslaughter
Voluntary manslaughter is the killing of a human being in which the offender acted during ''the heat of passion'', under circumstances that would cause a reasonable person to become emotionally or mentally disturbed to the point that they canno ...
of Mayor Moscone and Supervisor Milk.
The prosecutor asked for a finding of first-degree murder with "special circumstances", which would have permitted the death penalty under the terms of a recently adopted capital punishment law in California, Proposition 7.
The "special circumstances" alleged in this case were that Mayor Moscone had been killed in order to block the appointment of someone to fill the City Supervisor seat from which Dan White had resigned, and also that multiple people were killed.
White's sentence was reduced due in part to the so-called
Twinkie defense, a judgment that provoked outrage in the community. The "Twinkie" defense was presented by a psychiatrist to the jury, stating that White had a
diminished capacity
In criminal law, diminished responsibility (or diminished capacity) is a potential defense by excuse by which defendants argue that although they broke the law, they should not be held fully criminally liable for doing so, as their mental funct ...
due to depression. The copious amounts of junk food White consumed are cited as a symptom of his mental state.
The jury heard a tape recording of White's confession, which consisted of highly emotional ranting about the pressure he was under, and members of the jury wept in sympathy for the defendant.
White represented the "old guard" of San Francisco, who were wary of the influx of minority groups into the city and represented a more conservative, traditional view that the more liberal forces in the city, like Moscone and Milk, were perceived to be eroding. Members of the San Francisco Police and Fire Departments raised more than $100,000 to defend White and some wore shirts reading "Free Dan White," which earned the anger of the gay community.
[Peddicord (1996), p. 88.][Shilts (1982), p. 302.] He received a conviction for the least serious offense, voluntary manslaughter, and was sentenced to seven years and eight months in Soledad prison.
[
] With good behavior he had the chance to be released after serving two-thirds of his sentence, about five years.
[
] Upon hearing the verdict, District Attorney
Joseph Freitas, Jr., said "It was a wrong decision. The jury was overwhelmed by emotions and did not sufficiently analyze the evidence that this was deliberate, calculated murder."
In defense of his client, White's attorney Douglas Schmidt stated that White "is filled with remorse and I think he's in a very bad condition."
White would later confirm that the killings were premeditated. In 1984, he told former police Inspector Frank Falzon that not only had he planned to kill Moscone and Milk, but also had plans to kill Assemblyman
Willie Brown and Supervisor
Carol Ruth Silver
Carol Ruth Silver (born October 1, 1938)Schultz, Debra L. and Blanche Wiesen Cook (2002). ''Going South: Jewish Women in the Civil Rights Movement''. NYU Press, is an American lawyer and civil rights activist. She was a Freedom Rider, arrest ...
. He believed that the four politicians were attempting to block his reinstatement as Supervisor.
[
]
Falzon quoted White as having said, "I was on a mission. I wanted four of them. Carol Ruth Silver, she was the biggest snake ... and Willie Brown, he was masterminding the whole thing."
March through the Castro
When told of the verdict, Milk's friend and activist
Cleve Jones
Cleve Jones (born October 11, 1954) is an American AIDS and LGBT rights activist. He conceived the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt, which has become, at 54 tons, the world's largest piece of community folk art as of 2020. In 1983, at the onset ...
addressed an audience of about 500 people that had gathered on Castro Street, telling them of the verdict. With shouts of "Out of the bars and into the streets" Jones led a crowd down Castro Street, its numbers bolstered by people emerging from each bar.
[Shilts (1982), pp. 326–332] The crowd circled around and marched through the Castro again, by now numbering about 1,500 people.
In a 1984 interview, Jones gave a voice to the feeling in the crowd as they began to group together on Castro Street after news of the verdict spread, stating, "The rage in people's face—I saw people I'd known for years, and they were so furious. That to me was the scariest thing. All these people I'd know from the neighborhood, boys from the corner, these people I'd ridden the bus with, just out there, screaming for blood."
Violence at City Hall
![White Night riots](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ec/White_Night_riots.jpg)
By the time the crowd reached City Hall its numbers had increased to over 5,000. Protesters shouted slogans such as "Kill Dan White!" and "Dump Dianne!", a reference to Mayor
Dianne Feinstein
Dianne Goldman Berman Feinstein ( ; born Dianne Emiel Goldman; June 22, 1933) is an American politician who serves as the senior United States senator from California, a seat she has held since 1992. A member of the Democratic Party, she wa ...
.
[As president of the Board of Supervisors upon the death of Mayor Moscone, Feinstein had succeeded to the mayoralty on December 4, 1978.] The handful of police officers on duty at the scene were uncertain about how to deal with the situation, and the Police Department, which was unaccustomed to an angry gay crowd, was similarly uncertain of how to proceed.
[
] The protesters were convinced that the police and prosecution had conspired to avoid a severe sentence for White, although Prosecutor Thomas Norman denied this repeatedly until his death.
Members of the crowd tore gilded ornamental work from the building's wrought iron doors and then used it to break first floor windows. Several of Harvey Milk's friends monitored and attempted to hold back the crowd, including Milk's long term partner
Scott Smith.
A formation of police appeared on the north side of the
Civic Center Plaza
Civic Center Plaza, also known as Joseph Alioto Piazza, is the plaza immediately east of San Francisco City Hall in Civic Center, San Francisco, in the U.S. state of California. Civic Center Plaza occupies two blocks bounded by McAllister, Larkin ...
, and those attempting to hold back the mob sat down, grateful for the reinforcements. The officers however did not restrain themselves to holding back the crowd, and instead attacked them with
night sticks.
One young man used a metal signpost to smash the window of a police car, and two of his companions threw burning toilet paper on the upholstery, setting it on fire. A dozen more police cars would be destroyed in a similar fashion by these three young men, while others burned eight more non-police vehicles. The photo on the front cover of the
Dead Kennedys
Dead Kennedys are an American punk rock band that formed in San Francisco, California, in 1978. The band was one of the defining punk bands during its initial eight-year run.
Dead Kennedys' lyrics were usually political in nature, satirizing p ...
1980 album ''
Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables
''Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables'' is the debut studio album by the American punk rock band Dead Kennedys. It was first released on September 2, 1980, through Cherry Red Records in the United Kingdom, and I.R.S. Records in the United States. ...
'', which shows several police cars on fire, was taken that night. Several crowd members threw tear gas, which they had stolen from police vehicles.
[
] Riots began to break out, with one mob disrupting traffic.
Electric trollies were disabled when their overhead wires were pulled down, and violence broke out against the police officers, who were outnumbered. Police Chief Charles Gain, standing inside City Hall, ordered officers not to attack and to simply stand their ground.
Mayor Feinstein and Supervisor
Carol Ruth Silver
Carol Ruth Silver (born October 1, 1938)Schultz, Debra L. and Blanche Wiesen Cook (2002). ''Going South: Jewish Women in the Civil Rights Movement''. NYU Press, is an American lawyer and civil rights activist. She was a Freedom Rider, arrest ...
addressed the demonstrators in an attempt to defuse the situation. Mayor Feinstein said that she had received news of the verdict "with disbelief", and Supervisor Silver stated, "Dan White has gotten away with murder. It's as simple as that."
Silver was injured when struck by a flying object.
More than 140 protesters were also injured.
[
]
Police retaliation
After nearly three hours of shouts from the angry crowd, officers moved in to quell the riot. Police reportedly covered their badges with black tape—preventing any identification—and attacked rioters. Dozens of police officers swept into the crowd, using
tear gas
Tear gas, also known as a lachrymator agent or lachrymator (), sometimes colloquially known as "mace" after the early commercial aerosol, is a chemical weapon that stimulates the nerves of the lacrimal gland in the eye to produce tears. In ...
to force protesters away from the building. Police were surprised at the resistance they faced from the protesters, who attempted to push them back using tree branches, chrome torn off city buses, and asphalt ripped from the street, as weapons. As one man ignited the last police car he shouted to a reporter "Make sure you put in the paper that I
ate too many Twinkies."
[Shilts (1982), pp. 331–332] Sixty officers were injured, and about two dozen arrests were made.
The second stage of the violence was a police raid/riot hours later in the predominantly gay Castro neighborhood, which vandalized the Elephant Walk bar and injured many of its occupants.
[
] After order was restored at City Hall, SFPD cars carrying dozens of officers headed into the
Castro District
The Castro District, commonly referred to as the Castro, is a neighborhood in Eureka Valley in San Francisco. The Castro was one of the first gay neighborhoods in the United States. Having transformed from a working-class neighborhood throug ...
.
Officers entered a gay bar called the Elephant Walk, despite their orders not to do so. They shouted "dirty cocksuckers" and "sick faggots", shattered the large
plate glass
Plate glass, flat glass or sheet glass is a type of glass, initially produced in plane form, commonly used for windows, glass doors, transparent walls, and windscreens. For modern architectural and automotive applications, the flat glass is ...
windows of the bar, and attacked patrons. After 15 minutes police withdrew from the bar and joined other officers who were indiscriminately attacking gays on the street. The incident lasted nearly two hours.
[Shilts (1982), pp. 332–334][Woods (2003), pp. 95–96]
When Police Chief
Charles Gain
Charles Gain (November 1, 1923 – August 21, 2018) was an American police official, who served first as police chief for Oakland, California, then as chief in San Francisco in the 1970s. He was born in Hanford, California.
In 1975, Gain was appo ...
heard about the unauthorized Elephant Walk raid, he immediately went to the location and ordered his men to leave. Later that night, freelance reporter Michael Weiss saw a group of police officers celebrating at a downtown bar. "We were at City Hall the day
he killingshappened and we were smiling then," one officer explained. "We were there tonight and we're still smiling."
At least 61 police officers and an estimated 100 members of the public were hospitalized in the course of the riot.
A
civil grand jury convened to find out who ordered the attack, but it ended inconclusively with a settlement covering personal injury claims and damages.
Aftermath
The next morning gay leaders convened in a committee room in the Civic Center. Supervisor
Harry Britt
Harry Britt (June 8, 1938 – June 24, 2020) was an American political activist and politician in San Francisco. Britt was involved during the late-1960s in the civil rights movement when he was a Methodist minister in Chicago. He was first appoi ...
, who had replaced Milk, along with members of the
Harvey Milk Democratic Club, made it clear that nobody was to apologize for the riots. Britt informed a press conference, "Harvey Milk's people do not have anything to apologize for. Now the society is going to have to deal with us not as nice little fairies who have hairdressing salons, but as people capable of violence. We're not going to put up with Dan Whites anymore."
[Shilts (1982), pp. 334–339] Reporters were surprised that a public official would condone the violent acts of the previous night, expecting an apology from Britt. Subsequent attempts to find a gay leader who would give an apologetic statement proved unsuccessful.
That evening, May 22, would have been the 49th birthday of Harvey Milk. City officials had considered revoking the permit for a rally planned for that night, but decided against it for fear of sparking more violence. Officials stated that the rally could channel the community's anger into something positive. Police from San Francisco and its neighboring towns were placed on alert by Mayor Feinstein, and
Cleve Jones
Cleve Jones (born October 11, 1954) is an American AIDS and LGBT rights activist. He conceived the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt, which has become, at 54 tons, the world's largest piece of community folk art as of 2020. In 1983, at the onset ...
coordinated contingency plans with the police, and trained 300 monitors to keep an eye on the crowd. Approximately 20,000 people gathered on Castro and Market streets, where the mood was "angry, but subdued." Officers monitored the crowd from a distance,
however the crowd engaged in a peaceful celebration of Milk's life. Attendees danced to popular disco songs, drank beer, and sang a tribute to Milk.
On the same night, for over three hours about a hundred people held a demonstration at
Sheridan Square in
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
, to protest the verdict. About 20 officers observed the protest, which began at 8 pm, but no arrests were made. A candlelight vigil was planned for two days later, sponsored by the Coalition for Lesbian and Gay Rights and the
National Gay Task Force
The National LGBTQ Task Force is an American social justice advocacy non-profit organizing the grassroots power of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) community. Also known as The Task Force, the organization supports ac ...
.
On October 14, 1979, between 75,000 and 125,000 people
marched on Washington for gay rights. Many carried portraits of Milk, and placards honoring his legacy.
[Shilts (1982), p. 348] The rally, something that Milk had intended to organize, was instead a tribute to his life.
Dan White was released from prison on January 14, 1984 after serving five years of a seven-year, eight-month sentence. On the evening following his release, 9,000 people marched down Castro street and burned his
effigy. State authorities reportedly feared an assassination attempt, and in response Scott Smith urged people not to retaliate with violence. He stated, "Harvey was against the death penalty. He was a nonviolent person."
[
]
White committed suicide by
carbon monoxide poisoning
Carbon monoxide poisoning typically occurs from breathing in carbon monoxide (CO) at excessive levels. Symptoms are often described as " flu-like" and commonly include headache, dizziness, weakness, vomiting, chest pain, and confusion. Large ...
on October 21, 1985. He connected a rubber hose to his car's exhaust system and routed it to the interior of the vehicle, which he let fill with
carbon monoxide
Carbon monoxide (chemical formula CO) is a colorless, poisonous, odorless, tasteless, flammable gas that is slightly less dense than air. Carbon monoxide consists of one carbon atom and one oxygen atom connected by a triple bond. It is the simple ...
. Mayor Feinstein said, "This latest tragedy should close a very sad chapter in this city's history."
[Schreibman, Jack. "Man who used 'Twinkie Defense' Commits Suicide" ]Associated Press
The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. ne ...
, reprinted in ''St. Petersburg Times
The ''Tampa Bay Times'', previously named the ''St. Petersburg Times'' until 2011, is an American newspaper published in St. Petersburg, Florida, United States. It has won fourteen Pulitzer Prizes since 1964, and in 2009, won two in a single ...
''. October 22, 1985 According to Orange County lawyer Jeff Walsworth, White had expressed remorse for the killings in February 1984. White reportedly stated that it would always cause him inner turmoil.
Inspector Falzone said the contrary, however, commenting that at no time did White express remorse in any form at the deaths of Moscone and Milk.
Analysis
Causes
![Thecastro01](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d2/Thecastro01.jpg)
The community had a long history of conflict with the San Francisco Police Department. Following World War II, gay bars were subject to frequent raids and attempts by the
California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control
The California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) is a government agency of the state of California that regulates the manufacture, distribution, and sale of alcoholic beverages.
Background
Upon the repeal of prohibition in 1933 and ...
to revoke their alcohol licenses.
[Shilts (1982), pp. 53–60] They were accused of serving alcohol to homosexuals, a criminal act at the time.
The growing political and economic power of the city's gay community conflicted with the established but dwindling numbers of the conservative institutions, such as the police and fire departments. By 1971, police were arresting an average of 2,800 men per year on public sex charges; by contrast, 63 such arrests were made in New York City, although up to a quarter of San Francisco was reported to be gay at the time.
[Shilts (1982), pp. 62–63] Many charges were dismissed due to
entrapment, but several men were given harsh sentences. In March, 1979,
an attack on a lesbian bar by off-duty police officers made the national news and highlighted the tension between the LGBT community and police. ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'' cited the incident when it reported a week before the White Night riots that anti-homosexual violence had "increased to a level unparalleled in San Francisco's recent history", including what the gay community perceived as "increasing harassment and abuse directed toward homosexuals by the police themselves," as well as indifference by city officials.
When Dan White was found guilty of
involuntary manslaughter
Manslaughter is a common law legal term for homicide considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is sometimes said to have first been made by the ancient Athenian lawmaker Draco in the 7th cen ...
, his successful
diminished capacity
In criminal law, diminished responsibility (or diminished capacity) is a potential defense by excuse by which defendants argue that although they broke the law, they should not be held fully criminally liable for doing so, as their mental funct ...
defense enraged the gay community.
That the police and fire departments had raised money for his defense gave their anger a focus, turning it against the city government and especially the SFPD.
Effects on San Francisco politics
With the 1979 municipal elections occurring only months after the riot, prominent gay leaders feared a backlash at the polls.
[Shilts (1982), pp. 340–342] The elections continued without incident, and the gay community fared better than expected, wielding unprecedented influence. Although the virtually unknown gay Mayoral candidate David Scott finished third in the election, his showing was strong enough to force Mayor Feinstein into a
runoff election against conservative City Supervisor Quentin Kopp. Feinstein's promises to appoint more gay people to public office, and her heavy campaigning in the Castro, ensured that she won enough support from the gay community to give her a full term as Mayor.
One of Mayor Feinstein's first actions upon being elected was to announce the appointment of Cornelius Murphy as the new Chief of Police. Murphy declared that police cars would no longer be colored
powder blue
__NOTOC__
Powder blue is a pale shade of blue.
As with most colours, there is no absolute definition of its exact hue. Originally, ''powder blue'', in the 1650s, was powdered smalt (cobalt glass) used in laundering and dyeing applications, an ...
, but instead would be repainted as "macho black-and-whites."
This pleased the rank and file, and restored confidence in police leadership.
Murphy also vowed to maintain the progressive policy towards gays that his predecessor had implemented. By 1980, one in seven new police recruits was either gay or lesbian.
In one of his last public appearances, outgoing Police Chief Charles Gain stated that he fully expected to see the day when San Francisco would have both a gay mayor and Chief of Police.
By October 1985, an organization for gay law enforcement personnel in California, the Golden State Peace Officers Association, had incorporated as a non-profit organization.
It was founded by Art Roth, an Oakland police officer who was present on the night of the riots.
![Prop 8 Rally in Market St](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/71/Prop_8_Rally_in_Market_St.jpg)
Thirty years after the announcement of Dan White's guilty verdict, the
Supreme Court of California prepared their decision on ''
Strauss v. Horton''. The case was an attempt to overturn
Proposition 8
Proposition 8, known informally as Prop 8, was a California ballot proposition and a state constitutional amendment intended to ban same-sex marriage; it passed in the November 2008 California state elections and was later overturned in cou ...
, which had added the statement "Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California" to Article I, section 7.5 of the California State Constitution.
[
] This ballot initiative, which was approved in 2008, eliminated the right of same-sex couples to marry in the state.
In late May 2009, while the Court was preparing its announcement, rumors surfaced on the Internet that San Francisco Mayor
Gavin Newsom
Gavin Christopher Newsom (born October 10, 1967) is an American politician and businessman who has been the 40th governor of California since 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the 49th lieutenant governor of California f ...
had asked the court not to announce the decision on May 21.
[
][
] They suggested that he made this request so that the announcement would not coincide with the 30th anniversary of the White Night riots. On May 26, the court upheld the validity of Proposition 8, but ruled that the 18,000 marriages that had already been performed would remain valid.
In 2013, same-sex marriage again became legal when that voter initiative was ruled unconstitutional by the U.S.
Supreme Court in ''Hollingsworth v. Perry''.
Effects on the AIDS movement
![Aids Quilt](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b4/Aids_Quilt.jpg)
Cleve Jones played a major role in the investigation of the riots, and had since become a prominent activist. He dropped out of school to work as a legislative consultant to California State Assembly Speakers
Leo McCarthy and
Willie Brown.
[
][Shilts (1987), p. 17] He also spent time organizing political campaigns. In 1981, while working as a consultant to the California State Assembly Health Committee, he became aware of gay men in San Francisco contracting unusual diseases, such as
Kaposi's sarcoma
Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) is a type of cancer that can form masses in the skin, in lymph nodes, in the mouth, or in other organs. The skin lesions are usually painless, purple and may be flat or raised. Lesions can occur singly, multiply in a limit ...
. The gay community was eventually seriously affected by the
AIDS epidemic, and Jones became a key AIDS activist. Jones co-founded the Kaposi's Sarcoma Research & Education Foundation, which in 1982 became the
San Francisco AIDS Foundation.
[
] On November 27, 1985, at a candlelight vigil on the anniversary of the
Moscone-Milk assassinations, Jones learned that 1,000 people had died of AIDS. He proposed the creation of a quilt, in remembrance of those who had died.
[
] In 1987, Jones, by then HIV-positive himself, launched the
NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt
The NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt, often abbreviated to AIDS Memorial Quilt or AIDS Quilt, is an enormous memorial to celebrate the lives of people who have died of AIDS-related causes. Weighing an estimated 54 tons, it is the largest piece o ...
.
As of 2009, the quilt consists of over 44,000 individual panels.
In a 2004 interview, Jones said "I thought, what a perfect symbol; what a warm, comforting, middle-class, middle-American, traditional-family-values symbol to attach to this disease that's killing homosexuals and IV drug users and Haitian immigrants, and maybe, just maybe, we could apply those traditional family values to my family."
[
]
See also
*
Gay Power, Gay Politics, an episode of ''
CBS Reports
''CBS Reports'' is the umbrella title used for documentaries by CBS News which aired starting in 1959 through the 1990s. The series sometimes aired as a wheel series rotating with '' 60 Minutes'' (or other similar CBS News series), as a series of ...
'' about the San Francisco LGBT community, produced in the aftermath of the riots
*
LGBT history
LGBT history dates back to the first recorded instances of same-sex love and sexuality of ancient civilizations, involving the history of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) peoples and cultures around the world. What survives af ...
* ''
The Times of Harvey Milk
''The Times of Harvey Milk'' is a 1984 American documentary film that premiered at the Telluride Film Festival, the New York Film Festival, and then on November 1, 1984, at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco. The film was directed by Rob Epstein, ...
'', a 1984 documentary which describes the White Night riots
*
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 ...
Notes
References
Bibliography
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External links
Video of the White Night riots
{{DEFAULTSORT:White Night Riots
LGBT-related riots
Riots and civil disorder in California
History of LGBT civil rights in the United States
LGBT history in San Francisco
1979 riots
1979 in LGBT history
Politics of San Francisco
Harvey Milk
Castro District, San Francisco
Crimes in San Francisco
1979 crimes in the United States
May 1979 events in the United States
1979 in San Francisco
Protests in the San Francisco Bay Area
Police brutality in the United States