No More Normal

A new neighbor up the street has an immaculate lawn, not a blade of grass is askew.

The landscaping is exquisite with various beautifully, colored plantings and professionally-done masonry. The homeowner, a friendly man with an easy wave and a smile, is always trimming and cutting. The house is newly painted, has a new roof and is generally better kept than other homes in the area. But members of the household are seldom seen walking in the neighborhood.

They better keep it that way. This family is African American and I would guess that anything less than perfect would raise the hackles of neighbors who would say they expected nothing more from “those people.”

And heavens to Murgatroyd, if this family had the audacity to post a “Black Lives Matter” sign on their front lawn for the all-white neighborhood to see. How dare they jar the peace and quiet of their perfect neighborhood with a sign that not all is pleasant in pleasant valley. How dare they? There is no sign and the family knows better than to rile up the people they wave to each day.

That, in a nutshell, is the problem with America. It has been simmering and occasionally boiling over since the nation was created. African Americans live by a different set of rules and standards than whites and the anger most recently exploded with the killing of George Floyd.

Mr. Floyd allegedly passed a back check in a Minnesota store. He got the death penalty and every African American knows he or she faces the same potential danger, regardless of where they live or how much money they have or what kind of a fancy job they have.

Mr. Floyd’s killing was not the cause of the sudden, worldwide show of anger at the American system where police too often kill unarmed African Americans. The killing was just the spark that set off the kindling and the simmering inferno the same way it has over countless moments in the nation’s history.

There have been times when the country was on the brink of evaporation. I wasn’t around during World War I and World War II. In both wars, the matters were ended by the side with more bombs.

Demonstrations against the Vietnam War often violently ripped at the seams of patriotism in the U.S. The country only began to recover from the earthquake when the military realized it didn’t have enough bombs and withdrew and left Vietnam to Ho Chi Minh.

Then along came Sept. 11, 2001. Thousands were killed as the nation was attacked by a foreign enemy on our own soil, for the first time. American flags went up everywhere, particularly at Muslim-owned convenience stores and gas stations where the owners wanted American to know they stood in lockstep against the terrorists. And the attacks were met with bombs, the U.S. invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.

Well, this civil unrest is different. No amount of firepower will quell the rebellion among the African American citizens of the U.S. It doesn’t matter how many National Guard troops or soldiers are called or how many shock grenades and tear gas canisters are thrown or how many people are tased or wounded or worse with rubber and not so rubber bullets. It will not work.

The government’s superior firepower will stop the demonstrations for a while. The violence will subside. Life will return to normal for many people. But the anger is not going away because African Americans will not stand for the “normal” way of American life.

There must be a huge groundswell of Americans who demand the arrests of any police officer who shoots an unarmed African American, for no apparent reason. Law enforcement must stand up quickly and with no hesitation against any of their own who break the law. The police must show the American public that they stand on the side of justice and not raw power.

There must be a wholesale rejection of the hatred that so many white people feel toward people of color, a hatred that has the tacit and sometimes blatant approval of many leaders. The leaders of the nation must come down on the side of justice and not law and order at any cost.

There is hope and it shows in the hundreds of thousands of protesters in the U.S., Germany, France and elsewhere who understand that the current American system must change or it will be doomed. There are many, many people who were sickened by the killing of George Floyd and many marched arm in arm, African Americans and whites, demanding that justice be served.

Violence is as American as apple pie. Here is a partial list of the violent moments in history, most unknown to the average citizen:

1824 and 1831: Hard Scrabble and Snow Town Riots, respectively, Providence, R.I.

1829 — Cincinnati riots, Aug. 15–22.

1831 — Nat Turner’s slave rebellion, Aug. 21–23, Southampton County, Va.

1834 — Anti-abolitionist riot, New York City.

1835 — Gentleman’s Riot, numerous riots throughout 1835 targeting abolitionists, Boston, Mass.

1835 — Snow Riot, Washington D.C.

1836 — Cincinnati Riots of 1836.

1839 — Anti-Rent War, Hudson Valley, N.Y.

1841 — Dorr Rebellion, Rhode Island

1841 — Cincinnati Riots of early September 1841.

1842 — Lombard Street Riot, also known as the Abolition Riots, Aug. 1, Philadelphia.

1842 — Muncy Abolition riot of 1842.

1844 — Philadelphia nativist, anti-Catholic riots, May 6–8, July 6–7, Philadelphia.

1851 — Christiana Riot, Lancaster County, Pa.

1853 — Cincinnati Riot of 1853, Cincinnati, Ohio.

1855 — Cincinnati riots of 1855.

1855 — Bloody Monday, Know-Nothing Party riot against immigration. Aug. 6, Louisville, Ky.

1856 — Pottawatomie massacre, May 24, Franklin County, Kan.

1856 — San Francisco Vigilance Movement, San Francisco, Calif.

1857 — New York City Police Riot, June 16, New York City.

1859 — John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry, Oct. 16, Harpers Ferry, Va.

1861 — Baltimore Riot of April 19, 1861, April 19, also referred to as the Pratt Street Riot, Baltimore, Md.

1862 — Buffalo riot of 1862, Aug. 12, Buffalo, N.Y.

1863 — Detroit race riot of 1863, March 6.

1863 — New York City draft riots, July 13–16.

1864 — Charleston Riot, March 28, Charleston, Ill.

1866 — Memphis Race Riots of 1866, May 1–3, Memphis, Tenn.

1866 — New Orleans riot, July 30, New Orleans, La.

1868 — Pulaski Riot, Pulaski, Tenn.

The New York Orange Riot of 1871, between Irish Catholics and Irish Protestants.

1870 — Mamaroneck Riot, labor riot between Italian and Irish laborers.

1871 — Second New York City Orange riot.

1871 — Meridian race riot of 1871, Meridian, Miss.

1871 — Los Angeles anti-Chinese riot, Los Angeles, Calif.

1873 — Colfax massacre, April 13, Colfax, La.

1874 — Election Riot of 1874, Barbour County, Ala.

1874 — Tompkins Square Riot, New York City.

1874 — Battle of Liberty Place, New Orléans, La.

1876 — South Carolina civil disturbances of 1876, South Carolina

1877 — Widespread rioting occurred across the US as part of the Great Railroad Strike of 1877:

1877 — San Francisco Riot of 1877.

1880–1880 Garret Mountain May Day riot, May 1, Paterson.

1882 — Greenwood, N.Y., insurrection of 1882.

1884 — Cincinnati riots of 1884, March 28–30.

1885 — Rock Springs massacre, Sept. 2, 1885, riot between Chinese miners and white miners; 28 killed, 15 injured, Rock Springs, Wyo.

1886 — Seattle riot of 1886, Feb. 6–9, Seattle, Wash.

1886 — Haymarket riot, May 4, Chicago, Ill.

1886 — Bay View Massacre, May 4; 1,400 workers march for eight hour work day; seven killed and several more wounded after confrontation with National Guard in Milwaukee, Wis.

1887 — Thibodaux Massacre, November 22–25; a racial attack mounted by white paramilitary groups in Thibodaux, La.

1894 — May Day riots of 1894, May 1, Cleveland, Ohio.

1895 — New Orleans dockworkers riot, New Orleans, La.

1897 — Lattimer massacre, September 1897, near Hazleton, Pa.

1898 — Wilmington insurrection, Nov. 10, Wilmington, N.C.

1900 — Akron Riot of 1900, Akron, Ohio.

1900 — New Orleans Riot.

1901 — Denver Riots, Denver, Colo.

1901 — New York Race Riots.

1901 — Pierce City Riots, Pierce City, Mo.

1902 — Liverpool Riots, Denver, Colo.

1903 — Colorado Labor Wars, 1903–1904.

1903 — Anthracite Coal Strike, Eastern Pennsylvania

1903 — Evansville Race Riot, Evansville, Ind.

1903 — Motormen’s Riot, Richmond, Va.

1906 — Atlanta Riots, Atlanta, Ga.

1907 — Bellingham riots, Bellingham, Wash.

1908 — Springfield Race Riot, Springfield, Ill.

1909 — Greek Town riot, Feb. 21, South Omaha, Neb.

1913 — Wheatland Riot, Aug. 3, Wheatland, Calif.

1913 — Copper Country Strike of 1913–1914, Calumet, Mich.

1914 — Ludlow massacre, April 20, Ludlow, Colo.

1916 — Everett massacre, Nov. 5, Everett, Wash.

1917 — East St. Louis Race Riots, July 2, St. Louis, Missouri and East St. Louis, Ill.

1917 — Chester race riot, July 25–29, Chester, Pa.

1917 — Springfield Vigilante Riot, Springfield, Mo.

1917 — Houston Race riot, Aug. 23, Houston, Texas.

1919 — May Day Riots, May 1, Cleveland, Ohio, Boston, Mass. , New York City.

1919 — Red Summer, white riots against blacks in Blakeley, Ga., Memphis, Tenn., Morgan County, W. Va., Jenkins County, Ga., Charleston, S.C., Sylvester, Ga., New London, Conn., Putnam County, Ga., Monticello, Miss., Memphis, Tenn., New London, Conn., Annapolis, Md., Macon, Miss., Bisbee, Ariz. Dublin, Ga., Philadelphia, Pa., Coatesville, Pa., Tuscaloosa, Ala., Longview, Texas, Port Arthur, Texas, Washington, D.C., Norfolk, Va., New Orleans, La., Darby, Pa., Hobson City, Ala., Chicago, Ill., Newberry, S.C., Bloomington, Ill., Syracuse, N.Y., Philadelphia, Pa., Hattiesburg, Miss., Texarkana, Texas; New York City, Knoxville, Tenn., Ellenton, S.C., Omaha, Neb., Elaine, Ark., Baltimore, Md., and Corbin, Ky.
1921 — Tulsa Race Massacre, May 31 — June 1, Tulsa, Okla.

1922 — Perry race riot, December 14–15, Perry, Fla.

1930 — Watsonville Riots, Jan. 19–23, Watsonville, Calif.

1935 — Harlem Riot, March 19–20, New York City.

1935 — Southern Tenant Farmers’ Union Riot, Arkansas.

1939 — U.S. Nazi Riot, New York City.

1942 — Sojourner Truth Homes Riot, Feb. 28, Detroit, Mich.

1943 — Beaumont race riot of 1943, June, Beaumont, Texas.

1943 — Detroit race riot of 1943, June 20–21, Detroit, Mich.

1943 — Harlem riot of 1943, Aug. 1–3, New York City.

1946 — Columbia race riot of 1946, Feb. 25–26, Columbia, Tenn.

1946 — Airport Homes race riots, Chicago, Ill.

1947 — Fernwood Park race riot, mid-August, Fernwood, Chicago, Ill.

1949 — Fairground Park riot, June 21, St. Louis, Mo.

1949 — Anacostia Pool Riot, June 29, Washington, D.C.

1949 — Peekskill riots, Peekskill, N.Y.

1949 — Englewood race riot, Nov. 8–12, Englewood, Chicago, Ill.

1951 — Cicero race riot of 1951, July 12, Cicero, Ill.

1956 — Mansfield School Integration Incident 400 pro-segregationists brandishing weapons and racist signage prevent 12 black children from entering Mansfield High School Mansfield, Texas.

1958 — Battle of Hayes Pond, January 18, Maxton, N.C., armed confrontation between members of the North Carolina Lumbee tribe and the KKK.

1968 Washington, D.C., riots.

1960 — Newport Jazz Festival Riot, July 2, Newport, R.I.

1960 — El Cajon Boulevard Riot, Aug. 20, San Diego, Calif.

1962 — Ole Miss riot, Sept. 3 — Oct. 1, The University of Mississippi, Oxford, Miss.

1963 — Birmingham riot, May 11, Birmingham, Ala.

1963 — Cambridge riot, June 14, Cambridge, Md.

1964 — Chester School Protests, April 2–26, Chester, Pa.

1964 — July 16 killing of James Powell by police in the Yorkville neighborhood just south of East Harlem precipitates a string of race riots in July and August.

1964 — Dixmoor race riot, August 15–17, Dixmoor, Ill.

1964 — Philadelphia 1964 race riot, Aug. 28–30, Philadelphia

1965 — Watts riots, Aug. 11–17, Los Angeles, Calif.

1966 — Division Street riots, June 12–14, Humboldt Park, Chicago, Ill.

1966 — Omaha riot, July 2, Omaha, Neb.

1966–1966 Chicago West-Side riots, July 12–15, Chicago, Ill.

1966 — Hough riots, July 18–24, Cleveland, Ohio.

1966 — Waukegan riot, Aug. 27, Waukegan, Ill.

1966 — Benton Harbor riots, Aug. 30 — Sept. 4, Benton Harbor, Mich.

1966 — Summerhill and Vine City Riots, Sept. 6–8, Atlanta, Ga.

1966 — Hunters Point social uprising, Sept. 27 — Oct. 1 San Francisco, Calif.

1967 — A total of 159 race riots, almost all African-American, erupted across the United States.

1968 — Orangeburg Massacre, S.C. State Univ., Feb. 8, Orangeburg, S.C.

1968 — Assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., April 4, Memphis, Tenn. , precipitates April 4–14 riots throughout the nation.

1969–1969 Greensboro uprising, May 21–25, Greensboro, N.C.

1969 — Cairo disorders, May–December, Cairo, Ill.

1969 — Stonewall riots, June 28 — July 2, New York City.

1969–1969 York Race Riot, July 17–24, York, Pa.

1970 — University of Puerto Rico riot, March 4–11, at least one killed, Río Piedras, Puerto Rico.

1970 — Kent State riots/shootings, May 1970, four killed, Kent, Ohio.

1970 — Augusta Riot, May 11–13, Augusta, Ga.

1970 — Hard Hat Riot, Wall Street, May 8, New York City.

1970 — Jackson State killings, May 14–15, two killed, Jackson, Miss.

1970–1970 Asbury Park race riots, July 4–10, Asbury Park.

1970–1970 Memorial Park riot, Aug. 24–27, Royal Oak, Mich.

1971 — Wilmington riot, Feb. 9, Wilmington, N.C.

1971 — Camden riots, Aug. 1971, Camden, N.J.

1971 — Attica Prison uprising, Sept. 9–13, at least 39 killed, Attica, N.Y.

1973 — Wounded Knee incident, Feb. 27 — May 8, Wounded Knee, S.D.

1973 — Shooting of Clifford Glover Riot, April 23. Rioting broke out in South Jamaica, Queens after an undercover police officer shot and killed a 10-year-old African American youth.

1974 — Boston busing race riots anti-busing riots throughout Boston, Mass.

1976 — Escambia High School riots, Feb. 5, Pensacola, Fla.

1976 — Anti-busing riot in downtown Boston, April 5, Boston, Mass.

1979 — Greensboro massacre, Nov. 3, Greensboro, N.C.

1980–1989

1982 — Miami riot, Dec. 28, A Miami policeman shoots a black video game player in an arcade. Riots breakout in the Overtown section of Miami.

1986 — Marquette Park KKK rally, June 28, Chicago, Ill.

1988 — Tompkins Square Park riot, Aug. 6–7, New York City.

1989 — Miami riot, Jan. 16–18, Miami policeman kills a black motorcycle rider. Riots breakout in the Overtown section of the city. Miami.

1991 — Crown Heights riot, August, Brooklyn, N.Y.

1992 — Rodney King riots, April–May, Los Angeles, Calif.

1992 — West Las Vegas riots, April 29, Las Vegas, Nev.

1992–1992 Washington Heights riots, July 4–7, N.Y.

1996 — St. Petersburg, Florida Riot, October.

2000 — Brooks Brothers riot, Miami-Dade county, Fla.

2000 — Puerto Rican Day Parade attacks, June 11, Central Park, N.Y.

2001 — Seattle Mardi Gras riot, Feb. 27, Seattle, Wash.

2001–2001 Cincinnati Riots, April 10–12, Cincinnati, Ohio.

2003 — Benton Harbor riot, June 2003, Benton Harbor, Mich.

2005 — Civil disturbances and military action in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, August — September, New Orleans, La.

2005 — Toledo riot, Oct. 15, Toledo, Ohio

2009 — Riots against police shooting of Oscar Grant, Jan. 7, 120 arrested, Oakland, Calif.

2010 — Springfest riot, April 10, 200 police disperse crowd of 8,000 using tear gas, pepper spray, rubber bullets, and bean bag rounds, near the campus of James Madison University; dozens injured, 30–35 arrested, Harrisonburg, Va.

2010 — Santa Cruz May Day riot, May 1, 250 rampage through downtown Santa Cruz, Calif.

2010 — Oakland protest riot, Nov. 5. Police arrest more than 150 as a crowd broke windows and knocked down fences, protesting sentence of former officer in shooting of Oscar Grant on New Years Day 2009.

2012 — Anaheim police shooting and protests, July 28. Violence erupted after multiple shootings in the neighborhood by police that included unarmed Manuel Diaz.

2013 — Flatbush Riots, March 11, Riots in Brooklyn, N.Y., after the death of Kimani Gray who was shot and killed by police.

2014 — Ferguson unrest, Ferguson and St. Louis, Mo., Aug. 10 and Nov. 24. Following the shooting death of Michael Brown by a Ferguson police officer, protests erupt in the streets. Police respond with riot gear, tear gas, sound canons, police dogs, concussion grenades, rubber bullets, pepper balls, wooden bullets, beanbag rounds, tasers, pepper spray, and armored vehicles.

2014 — St. Louis, Mo., Oct. 8, police vehicle windows broken as rage at the killing of Vonderrit Myers Jr.

2014 — New York City and Berkeley, Calif., prosecutors and a grand jury refused to indict a police officer in the death of Eric Garner and protests erupted in New York City and other cities.

2014 Oakland riots, November–December, a series of riots and civil disturbances took place in Oakland and the surrounding area in reaction to the events involving the shooting of Michael Brown and later, the death of Eric Garner.

2014 — Berkeley, Mo, Dec. 23–24. Antonio Martin is shot to death by police in a St. Louis suburb nearby to Ferguson, leading to violent conflict with police, and looting.

2015 — Baltimore protests, April 25–28. Days of protests break out following the death of Freddie Gray while in police custody. A total of 34 people were arrested and 15 officers injured after rioting and looting break out.

2015 — St. Louis, Mo., Aug. 19. Conflict with police followed a fatal shooting by St. Louis police officers of black teenager Mansur Ball-Bey.

2016 — Sacramento riot, June 26, confrontation between white nationalists and left-wing counter protesters at the California state capitol. Ten people were hospitalized for stabbing and laceration wounds.

2016 — Widespread protests erupt in response to two deaths at the hands of police, the shooting of Alton Sterling and shooting of Philando Castile. At least 261 people were arrested in protests in New York City, Chicago, St. Paul, Baton Rouge, and other cities.

2016–2016 Milwaukee riots, Sherman Park, Aug. 13–15, sparked by the fatal police shooting of 23-year-old Sylville Smith.

2016 — Charlotte, N.C., riot, Sept. 20–21, in response to the shooting of Keith Lamont Scott by a Charlotte police officer.

2017–2017 Unite the Right rally, Charlottesville, Virginia, Aug. 11–12. White nationalists and white supremacists opposed the removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee, prompting clashes with protesters. An onlooker, Heather Heyer, was killed and 19 other injured when a rally attendee drove his car into a crowd of counter-protestors. Two law enforcement officers also died in a helicopter crash while monitoring the event.

2017–2017 St. Louis protests, beginning Sept. 15, large protests erupted when police officer Jason Stockley was found not guilty of murder in the shooting death of Anthony Lamar Smith on Dec. 20, 2011.

2019 — Memphis riot, June 13, following the fatal shooting of Brandon Webber by U.S. Marshals, Memphis, Tenn.