long, hot summer of 1967

File:Newark Riots 1967 (305517077) (cropped).jpg, New Jersey on July 14 during the 1967 riots]]

File:Detroit 1967.jpg]]

The United States experienced a series of "long hot summers" of racial unrest during the mid-to-late 1960s. They started with the Harlem riots in July 1964, and the Watts riots in August 1965. During the first nine months of 1967, over 150 riots erupted across American cities. The most destructive riots were in Detroit, Michigan and Newark, New Jersey.{{cite web |last1=Evans |first1=Farrell |title=The 1967 Riots: When Outrage Over Racial Injustice Boiled Over |url=https://www.history.com/news/1967-summer-riots-detroit-newark-kerner-commission |website=History.com |access-date=8 December 2024}}{{cite book |last1=Upchurch |first1=T. Adams |title=Race Relations in the United States, 1960–1980 |date=2007 |page=35}} By September, 83 people were killed, thousands were injured, tens of millions of dollars' worth of property had been destroyed and entire neighborhoods had been burned.{{cite web |last=Gonsalves |first=Kelly |title=The 'long, hot summer of 1967' |url=https://theweek.com/captured/712838/long-hot-summer-1967 |website=theweek.com |publisher=The Week}}

Systemic racism, police brutality, high unemployment rates, poor living conditions in urban black neighborhoods, and a sense of hopelessness contributed to the widespread unrest.{{cite book |last1=Sullivan |first1=Patricia |title=Justice Rising: Robert KennedyÕs America in Black and White |date=2021 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-73745-7 |page=346 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vOsmEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA346 |quote=The summer of 1967—the “summer of love” for America's youth counterculture—was a “long hot summer” for black urban Americans, a season of the deadliest and most widespread racial strife in US history. Racial clashes, disorders, and rebellions erupted in an estimated 164 cities in thirty-four states, bringing the nation's crisis to a boil.}}{{cite web |title=The Riots of the Long, Hot Summer |url=https://www.britannica.com/story/the-riots-of-the-long-hot-summer |website=Encyclopedia Britannica |access-date=8 December 2024}} While significant civil rights legislation had been passed, many African Americans felt that the pace of change was too slow and the progress was not reflected in their daily lives.{{cite journal|title=The Ghetto Rebellions and Urban Class Conflict|author=Herbert J Gans|journal = Proceedings of the Academy of Political Science|year = 1968|volume = 29|issue = 1|pages = 42–51|doi = 10.2307/3700905|jstor = 3700905}}{{cite web |title=Civil Rights & Race Riots in the 1960s {{!}} History & Examples |url=https://study.com/academy/lesson/race-riots-in-the-1960s.html |website=Study.com |access-date=12 December 2024}}{{cite web |last1=Howard |first1=Ashley M. |title=How U.S. Urban Unrest in the 1960s Can Help Make Sense of Ferguson, Missouri, and Other Recent Protests |url=https://scholars.org/contribution/how-us-urban-unrest-1960s-can-help-make-sense-ferguson-missouri-and-other-recent#:~:text=The%20causes%20of%20the%201960s,schools%2C%20and%20biased%20school%20boards. |website=Scholars Strategy Network |access-date=12 December 2024 |date=November 12, 2014}}

The Newark riots were sparked by the arrest and beating of John William Smith, a Black cab driver, by police officers. The unrest lasted for five days, involving widespread looting, arson, and violent confrontations with police and National Guard troops. Some 26 people were killed, more than 700 were injured, and more than 1,000 residents were arrested.{{cite web |last1=Evans |first1=Farrell |title=The 1967 Riots: When Outrage Over Racial Injustice Boiled Over |url=https://www.history.com/news/1967-summer-riots-detroit-newark-kerner-commission |website=History.com |date=October 6, 2023 |access-date=8 December 2024}} $10 million (equivalent to ${{Inflation|US|10|1967|r=2}} million in {{Inflation-year|US}}) in property was damaged, and destroyed multiple plots, several of which are still covered in decay as of 2017.{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/11/nyregion/newark-riots-50-years.html|title=Five Days of Unrest That Shaped, and Haunted, Newark|work=The New York Times |date=July 11, 2017 |access-date=2017-08-09 |last1=Rojas |first1=Rick |last2=Atkinson |first2=Khorri }} The Boston Globe described the Newark riots as "a revolution of black Americans against white Americans, a violent petition for the redress of long-standing grievances." The Globe asserted that Great Society legislation had affected little fundamental improvement.Dallek (1998), p. 412.

In Detroit, a large black middle class had begun to develop among those African Americans who worked at unionized jobs in the automotive industry. These workers complained of persisting racist practices, limiting the jobs they could have and opportunities for promotion. The United Auto Workers channeled these complaints into bureaucratic and ineffective grievance procedures.{{cite web |url=http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=3527 |title=Review of Georgakas, Dan; Surkin, Marvin, Detroit, I Do Mind Dying: A Study in Urban Revolution |first=Karen |last=Miller |date=October 1, 1999 }} Violent white mobs enforced the segregation of housing up through the 1960s.{{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/eyesontheprize/profiles/57_mi.html |title=American Experience. Eyes on the Prize. Profiles |website=PBS |access-date=July 29, 2016 |archive-date=February 18, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170218081425/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/eyesontheprize/profiles/57_mi.html}} The Detroit riots were sparked by a police raid on an unlicensed after-hours bar, commonly called the "Blind Pig," in a predominantly Black neighborhood. The riots lasted for five days, causing significant property damage, 1,200 injuries, and at least 43 deaths (33 of those killed were Black residents of the city).{{cite web |title=The Riots of the Long, Hot Summer |url=https://www.britannica.com/story/the-riots-of-the-long-hot-summer |website=Encyclopedia Britannica |access-date=8 December 2024}} Governor George Romney sent in 7,400 National Guard troops to quell fire bombings, looting, and attacks on businesses and police. President Lyndon Johnson deployed U.S. Army troops with tanks and machine guns.{{sfn|McLaughlin|2014|pp=1–9; 40–41}} Residents reported that police officers and National Guardsmen shot at black civilians and suspects indiscriminately.Hubert G. Locke, The Detroit Riot of 1967 (Wayne State University Press, 1969).{{sfn|McLaughlin|2014|pp=1–9; 40–41}}

At an August 2, 1967 cabinet meeting, Attorney General Ramsey Clark warned that untrained and undisciplined local police forces and National Guardsmen might trigger a "guerrilla war in the streets," as evidenced by the climate of sniper fire in Newark and Detroit.{{cite book |last1=Hinton |first1=Elizabeth |title=From the War on Poverty to the War on Crime: The Making of Mass Incarceration in America |date=2016 |publisher=Harvard University Press |page=108}}{{cite book |last1=Flamm |first1=Michael W. |title=In the Heat of the Summer: The New York Riots of 1964 and the War on Crime |date=2017 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |page=276}}{{cite news |last1=Bigart |first1=Homer |title=Newark Riot Deaths at 21 As Negro Sniping Widens; Hughes May Seek U.S. Aid |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/library/national/race/071667race-ra.html |agency=The New York Times |date=July 16, 1967}}{{cite news |last1=Roberts |first1=Gene |title=Troops Battle Detroit Snipers, Firing Machine Guns From Tanks; Lindsay Appeals To East Harlem; Detroit Toll Is 31 Rioters Rout Police-- Guardsmen Released To Aid Other Cities |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1967/07/26/archives/troops-battle-detroit-snipers-firing-machine-guns-from-tanks.html |agency=The New York Times |date=July 26, 1967}} Snipers were a significant element in many of the riots, creating a dangerous situation for both law enforcement and civilians, with shooters often targeting from rooftops and other concealed locations.[https://books.google.com/books?id=1lUEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA17&dq=1967+life+magazine+newark+snipers&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwizzOfjxpiKAxXwkYkEHfRfG9AQ6AF6BAgKEAI#v=onepage&q&f=false LIFE Magazine, July 28, 1967][https://books.google.com/books?id=51UEAAAAMBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=1967+life+magazine+detroit&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiLpLyDyJiKAxXsrYkEHavxEjAQ6AF6BAgEEAI#v=onepage&q=1967%20life%20magazine%20detroit&f=false LIFE Magazine, August 4, 1967]

It is in the context of having been through the "long, hot, summer" that in December, Miami police chief Walter E. Headley uttered the now-infamous phrase, "When the looting starts, the shooting starts", after which Frank Rizzo, Richard Daley and George Wallace also spoke out in favor of a hardline approach towards looters and rioters.{{cite magazine |last=Purna Kambhampaty |first=Anna |title=How American Power Dynamics Have Shaped Perceptions of Looting, From the Boston Tea Party to Today |url=https://time.com/5851111/protests-looting/ |magazine=Time |date=June 11, 2020}}

In early July, the Justice Department met with local media to ask for "restraint in reporting".{{cite news |last=Graham |first=Fred P. |title=Restraint urged in race riot news; U.S. Officials Seek Delays Pending Police Action|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1967/07/08/archives/restraint-urged-in-race-riot-news-us-officials-seek-delays-pending.html |quote=Washington, July 7-- Officials of the Justice Department have been quietly meeting with news media representatives in racially tense cities to urge restraint in reporting racial outbursts, a department spokesman said today. |newspaper=The New York Times |date=July 8, 1967 |access-date=June 1, 2020}} In December, The New York Times asked a psychologist about "deterrents" and was told that the riots would continue.{{cite news |last=Burnham |first=David |title=New urban riots foreseen in U.S.; Psychologist Contends No Effective Deterrent Exists |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1967/12/30/archives/new-urban-riots-foreseen-in-us-psychologist-contends-no-effective.html |quote=There is no effective deterrent or antidote for the kind of Negro riots that have swept through the North in recent years, and such outbursts will continue "until the well of available cities runs dry," a research psychologist said yesterday. |newspaper=The New York Times |date=December 30, 1967 |access-date=June 1, 2020}}

The FBI blamed the misery of ghetto life, oppressive summer weather, and Communist agitation. President Lyndon B. Johnson was convinced that inner-city poverty and despair were the principal ingredients behind the summer upheavals.Dallek (1998), p. 412. Johnson publicly denounced the violence and looting occurring during the riots, calling on citizens to reject lawlessness and work towards peaceful solutions.{{cite web |title=July 27, 1967: Speech to the Nation on Civil Disorders |url=https://millercenter.org/the-presidency/presidential-speeches/july-27-1967-speech-nation-civil-disorders#:~:text=%E2%80%94You%20will%20learn%20that%20there,their%20miserable%20virus%20of%20hate. |website=Miller Center |access-date=9 December 2024}}

Throughout the summer that year, both the Republican and Democratic parties were split on how to handle the riots. In both parties two factions existed: one that advocated for law and order, and another that supported an approach based on social justice. Democrats held the majority of seats in both Houses of Congress while the Republicans held the minority. Despite common historiographical perceptions that depict the Republicans as being entirely in favor of a "law and order" styled approach to the riots, there was division in the party. President Johnson's popularity levels decreased that summer because of the riots.{{Sfn|McLay|2018}}

During July, conservatives in the Republican Party dominated its response to the riots. Republicans believed this would be an opportunity to attack President Johnson and his "War on Poverty" initiative. Many Republicans would end up blaming Johnson for what happened that summer and many supported cutting back on programs that benefited urban areas.{{sfn|McLay|2018|pp=1096–1097}} In the Senate, Republicans took a largely different approach that month than those who were in the House with most Republican Senators supporting Johnson's anti urban poverty programs.{{Sfn|McLay|2018|p=1100}}

In the 1968 presidential primaries, the Republican candidates split into two factions. Ronald Reagan aligned himself with the law and order faction; Nelson Rockefeller sided with the social justice faction; and Richard Nixon catered to both factions. Nixon emerged victorious. Nixon called for policies to control crime, scale back the War on Poverty and encourage black capitalism as a way to "restore urban areas".{{Sfn|McLay|2018|p=1109–1110}}

File:President Lyndon Baines Johnson with some members of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders (Kerner Commission) in the Cabinet Room of the White House, Washington, D.C..jpg with some members of the Kerner Commission in the Cabinet Room of the White House]]

The riots confounded many civil rights activists of both races due to the recent passage of major civil rights legislation. They also caused a backlash among Northern whites, many of whom stopped supporting civil rights causes.Mackenzie and Weisbrot (2008), pp. 337–338 President Johnson formed an advisory commission, informally known as the Kerner Commission, on July 28, 1967 to explore the causes behind the recurring outbreaks of urban civil disorder.Mackenzie and Weisbrot (2008), p. 335{{cite web|url=http://www.africanaonline.com/reports_kerner.htm |author=Toonari |title=Kerner Report |website=Africana Online |access-date=23 November 2009 |archive-date= 7 January 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100107022536/http://www.africanaonline.com/reports_kerner.htm |url-status=usurped }} The commission's scope included the 164 disorders occurring in the first nine months of 1967. The president had directed them, in simple words, to document what happened, find out why it happened, and find out how to prevent it.{{cite web |last=Johnson |first=Lyndon B. |author-link=Lyndon B. Johnson |date=July 29, 1967 |editor1-last=Woolley |editor1-first=John T. |editor2-last=Peters |editor2-first=Gerhard |title=Remarks Upon Signing Order Establishing the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders |url=https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/238046 |website=The American Presidency Project |publisher=University of California |location=Santa Barbara, CA}}

The commission's 1968 report identified police practices, unemployment and underemployment, and lack of adequate housing as the most significant grievances motivating the rage.{{cite web|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/1968-kerner-commission-got-it-right-nobody-listened-180968318/|title=The 1968 Kerner Commission Got It Right, But Nobody Listened|author=Alice George}} It suggested legislative measures to promote racial integration and alleviate poverty and concluded that the nation was "moving toward two societies, one black, one white—separate and unequal."{{cite web| title="Our Nation Is Moving Toward Two Societies, One Black, One White—Separate and Unequal": Excerpts from the Kerner Report| url=http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6545/| publisher=American Social History Productions| work=History Matters: The U.S. Survey Course on the Web| others=Source: United States. Kerner Commission, Report of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1968)| access-date=July 12, 2017}} The president, fixated on the Vietnam War and keenly aware of budgetary constraints, barely acknowledged the report.{{harvnb|McLaughlin|2014|pp=1–9; 40–41}}

On August 10, the Kerner Commission would recommend in a letter to President Johnson that they should substantially and immediately increase the amount of African Americans serving in the National Guard and Air National Guard. The reason being they thought with more African Americans serving in the National Guard it could be a more effective force at preventing civil disorder.{{Cite news |last=Semple Jr. |first=Robert B. |date=August 11, 1967 |title=RIOT PANEL URGES GUARD TO STEP UP NEGRO RECRUITING; Johnson Commission Calls Percentage Low and Asks 'Deficiency' Be Corrected PENTAGON IS INFORMED President Sends Report to McNamara as Matter for His Immediate Attention |pages=1 & 34 |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1967/08/11/archives/riot-panel-urges-guard-to-step-up-negro-recruiting-johnson.html |access-date=March 18, 2023}}

In a March 1968 Harris poll reported in The Washington Post, 37% of Americans agreed with the Kerner Commission's report that the 1967 race riots were brought on mainly by inequalities; 49% disagreed. A majority of whites (53%) rejected the idea, with just 35% agreeing. In contrast, 58% of blacks supported it, and only 17% disagreed.{{cite web |title=The Long Hot Summer: Riots in 1967 |url=https://ropercenter.cornell.edu/blog/long-hot-summer-riots-1967 |website=ropercenter.cornell.edu |publisher=ROPER Center for Public Opinion Research |date=August 28, 2017}}

Some of the riots include:

• United States racial unrest (2020–2023)
• Ferguson unrest
• George Floyd protests
• King assassination riots
• List of incidents of civil unrest in the United States
• Red Summer

{{reflist|30em}}

• {{cite book |last=McLaughlin |first=Malcolm |title=The Long, Hot Summer of 1967: Urban Rebellion in America |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |date=2014 |isbn=9781137269638}}
• {{Cite journal |last=McLay |first=Mark |title=The Republican Party and the Long, Hot Summer of 1967 in the United States |date=2018 |journal=The Historical Journal |publisher=Cambridge University Press |volume=61 |issue=4 |pages=1089–1111 |doi=10.1017/S0018246X17000504 |s2cid=159854923 |doi-access=free }}

• Michael Omi and Howard Winant, Racial formation in the United States: from the 1960s to the 1990s (1994)
• Walter C. Rucker and James N. Upton, eds. Encyclopedia of American Race Riots (2007) 930 pages –

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Category:1967 riots

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Category:Riots and civil disorder in the United States

Category:Lyndon B. Johnson administration controversies