Hundreds Of Chicano Miners Deported After Strike, Including Citizens

 

Mural in Gallup depicting the strike by Andrew Butler,

June 29, 1936, today 100 miners suspected of being Communist activists were deported to Mexico for being “undesirable aliens”. The men and their families had all been active in the strike against the Gallup American Coal company in 1934 and the violence that followed a partial settlement of the strike in 1935 when the miner's homes in what was known as Chihuahuita were sold by the mine, however, Gallup American had not reopened and with the sale of the property indicated they would not.

Among the deportees was controversial strike leader Jesus Pallares. Pallares had organized 8,000 Spanish-speaking mine workers into the Liga Obrera de Habla Espanola (League of Spanish-Speaking Workers) who supported the National Miners Union. The strike had led to six months of Marshall Law under New Mexico’s Governor Andrew Hockenhull.

Local political leaders including the mayor of Gallup along with John Lewis the head of the United Mine Workers accused Pallares of being a Communist organizer. The UMU held the position that rival unions were all Communist and in 1935 the NMU collapsed under the weight of the accusations and loss of members.

While there was no evidence that Pallares was a Communist the was no doubt he was a labor agitator. For the White people of Gallup and the business leadership, Pallares was too active and a threat to their position in the community. A few years before they had tried blackballing him from the entire region, including southern Colorado.

Deportation was one of the weapons authority and the establishment used to end the threat individuals like Pallares represented and although he had been in the United States for more than 20 years and was likely to have been a native-born citizen it was easy for the Immigration Service to deport him and other workers as they had no support from the majority White business interests.

Lynching Of Black Man Announced In The Newspaper Before It Happens

 

June 26, 1919, the White people of Ellisville, Mississippi convicted a Black man and authorized his death on this day. His only crime was that he had a girlfriend who was also a White woman.

This was the Jim Crow South where the greatest crime was a Black man looking at a White woman so, one can imagine the rage White people felt knowing that a Black man was enjoying a relationship with a White woman.

The newspapers of the day attempted to make the lynching a perfectly justified action by writing that John Hartfield’s girlfriend Ruth Meeks was an 18-year-old innocent who had been ravished by a brute, but the facts were that two White men had seen Meeks and Hartfield together at the hotel he worked at in the town of Laurel. Meeks was in her mid-20s as well.

Initially, the men chased Hartfield and with the help of the sheriff in Laurel put Hartfield on the run. For ten days he avoided capture by the mob but when Sheriff Harbison of Ellisville requested bloodhounds and they were provided it ended the chase.

Hartfield was shot in the shoulder and then dragged back to Ellisville. The newspapers reported that a White doctor had cleaned his wound and ruled him fine to be jailed. Except there was no plan for him to be jailed as newspapers from Louisiana to Alabama had the headline, “Hartfield Toi Be Lynched At 5 O’Clock” Another said “3,000 Will Burn Negro”

That is what happened along with other heinous torture. Reports from witnesses state that Hartfield was drug behind a horse to a gum tree outside of town. There he was lifted into the air and riddled with bullets before being set on fire.

To give an idea of how vicious and brutal the period was there were postcards printed with images of Hartfield and his toes and other parts were cut off as souvenirs.

When contacted before the lynching Mississippi Governor Theodore Bilbo, an avowed member of the Klan, stated there was nothing his office could do. “We’re powerless,” Bilbo said ahead of the murder. “We don’t have troops and furthermore excitement is at such a high that if we tried to interfere doubtless it would end with hundreds of deaths. We cannot stop the inevitable.”

No one was ever arrested for the violent murder of Hartfield and there was of course no investigation.

 

Sources:

https://www.newspapers.com/image/737984011/?match=1

https://theclio.com/entry/22740

https://eji.org/news/lynching-survivor-mamie-lang-kirkland-returns-to-mississippi/

 

 

 

Buffalo City Council Punishes Black Neighborhoods After Uprising

 

June 26, 1967 – For many residents of the Lakeview Projects on the east side of Buffalo, New York the was only one thing authorities paid attention to and that was violence.

As in so many cities across America Buffalo was generally segregated and for the Lakeview residents this meant the standard problems of economic inequality and police repression. This had been the situation for residents in the post-war years as Buffalo went through a process of deindustrialization with plants built for war production closed and this led to the closure of other businesses. Also as in many American cities, there was "White Flight" as White residents moved out to the suburbs further disrupting business taking retail and service jobs from the city.

On the afternoon of the 26^th police attempted to intervene in a dispute between two Black adolescents. This sparked an explosion as 250 to 300 Blacks quickly surrounded the two officers demanding they leave the boys alone and making accusations of unnecessary force. The group quickly became a mob when they picked up bottles, clubs, or anything that they could throw.

Soon more police arrived and this escalated the tensions and the violence. Soon the mob swelled to at least 1,000 and they began destroying storefronts and city property. As the violence escalated Mayor Frank Sedita reached out to the Black leaders and met with Reverend Milton Williams the local head of the NAACP.

Williams tried to talk to the mob, made primarily of youth but as there really were no organizers he had a difficult time. He added, “For these young people living in these conditions they know that violence is the only language authorities understand.”

The violence carried over for the next four nights with up to 400 police officers trying to quell the violence and making arrests. After the 3r^d night New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller requested retired baseball star Jackie Robinson to go and try and speak to the youth, Robinson was Rockefeller’s Special Assistant for Urban Affairs. Robinson met with the mayor for over 6 hours to try and plan and coordinate activities to quell the violence but whatever the plan was it failed. Robinson stated that what he had heard in a meeting with some of the youth and social workers was that the economics was the fuel for the unrest in the city not just the rioting.

“One social worker told me she had been to some 600 meetings with business owners and had secured 310 jobs,” said Robinson. “I hear the same thing all over, ask a young man if he’d like to work it’s always yes. These things happen when people have nothing to do.”

Once things had calmed down on the morning of July 1, and the uprising ended there was $250,000 in damage, 81 injuries, and 600 arrests. Fortunately, in this riot, there were no deaths.

The Buffalo Common Council (city council) met on July 5^th four days after the uprising and apparently felt that the violence was not something to discuss as they didn’t mention the rioting in their meeting. The disdain for the Lakeview neighborhoods continued at the next council meeting where they ended with a resolution praising the police for not needing outside help to stop the violence.

As summer turned to fall the council did finally focus on the uprising but as so often happens, they focused not on the root causes but on suppression. They appealed to the state to change firearm regulations allowing police to carry heavier weapons and allow homeowners to arm themselves. They increased police patrols in the Eastside neighborhoods.

The biggest thing the council did was a complete revision of the disorderly conduct code for the city expanding it to include making street baseball illegal and allowing the mayor to close taverns and restaurants if he felt the presence of these businesses might impact the peace of the city. The new laws also limited the size of gatherings and made flying anything but the American flag illegal.

There was no action by the council to remedy the economics and recreation issues Black leaders spoke about, instead, it seemed that the focus was on punishing the Black neighborhoods with increased surveillance and profiling. Passing laws that helped to break up the community rather than push it together. 

Sources:

https://www.newspapers.com/image/80150395/?match=1&terms=%22Buffalo%20riots%22%20&clipping_id=58646062

https://face2faceafrica.com/article/when-black-new-yorkers-decided-to-unite-for-their-own-buffalo-race-riots-of-1967

https://medium.com/@schafer.benjamin.j/weve-yet-to-heal-from-buffalo-s-last-riot-what-makes-you-think-this-one-is-any-different-afc1753efe6c

Ongoing Police Brutality Leads To Riot By Latinos In Albuquerque

June 13, 1971 – Albuquerque, NM Festering resentment over police harassment and brutality toward the Chicano residents led to a riot in Roosevelt Park that escalated downtown with looting and buildings being damaged. Eventually, the New Mexico National Guard was called in to quell the violence.

On this Sunday there was to be a series of concerts in Roosevelt Park and both uniformed and undercover officers mixed with the crowd of nearly 1,000. This happened while the activist group Black Berets met with the police chief and city officials.

Even though top officials spoke to the crowd that morning regarding changes they recognized needed to occur the police presence appeared to make any promises outright lies.

Through the afternoon police made many arrests for underage drinking. “Officers started putting on strong pressure, and some of the guys got fed up,” said Richard Moore, minister of justice for the Black Berets. So when undercover officers attempted to arrest a Latino teen for selling a joint the brewing anger spilled over with bottle and rock throwing and shouts of “Chicano Power!”

The Black Berets then tried to calm the crowd and speak to the police and try and calm the situation, but it hots into the air and called for dispersal, when the crowd then began to edge near the police shots were fired into the crowd. Nine people were wounded, and the police were quickly overwhelmed by the crowd as they flipped over and set fire to a police car. The crowd moved from the park and headed downtown towards the newly constructed Police-Municipal Courts Building.

When the crowd reached the police headquarters Police Chief Dan Byrd agreed to meet with representatives to see if the situation could be cooled off. The crowd was now running on anger and began splintering off with several hundred going down on Central Avenue where they began breaking glass on store fronts and looting the stores. Store owners arrived armed to defend their property. This reaction caused Chief Byrd to call Governor Bruce King and request the aid of the National Guard.

As the night progressed a liquor store was burned to the ground, the Radio Shack and Woolworth’s heavily damaged. The Police and Courts building had all the windows smashed out. Throughout the riot Chief Byrd and City Manager Richard Wilson attempted to negotiate and end to the chaos to no avail.

National Guardsmen arrived to support the police on Monday morning as the violence continued with more businesses looted and burned. The school district offices were also burned.

Slowly the combined efforts of peaceful negotiations and the National Guard support quelled the riot. Nearly 600 people were arrested in the violence with 35 hospitalized, including the 9 shot by police initially at Roosevelt Park. The riot caused an estimated 5 million dollars in damage in the business district and another million at the school district offices. There was no report on the cost of damage to the municipal building.

The riot did lead to some reforms at the Albuquerque Police Department, led by Lt. Gov. Robert Mondragon, “I know we have police brutality in Albuquerque,” he said. “Police brutality is not alleged—it is factual.”

However, whether these reforms worked or not is in serious question as 50 years later the Albuquerque Police Department is still operating under a federal consent decree to reform and independent monitors have questioned the culture of the police department.

Sources: have

https://www.axios.com/2021/06/17/albuquerque-50th-anniversary-of-police-riot

 

https://www.newspapers.com/article/albuquerque-journal-albuquerque-nm-riot/4935102/

 

https://www.newspapers.com/image/156329073/?clipping_id=14469339&fcfToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJmcmVlLXZpZXctaWQiOjE1NjMyOTA3MywiaWF0IjoxNzE4MzMyMTI3LCJleHAiOjE3MTg0MTg1Mjd9.NAf4RoCSeDmWJ9oBneLQjOYZPxE0rqUagAi1r1TRIZk

 

Judge Orders Black Mother To Whip Her Son In The Courthouse Square

Lexington, KY Jun 13, 1904, during the Ante-Bellum era slave owners and plantation overseers made the whipping of slaves a common disciplinary practice. Surprisingly this didn’t carry over into reconstruction, of course during reconstruction they decided to not waste time and effort and just murdered Black people.

However, on this Wednesday in June, a judge decided whipping was the best way to let a 15-year-old boy learn his place in the system. The boy, Simon Searce, had been jailed and convicted of assaulting a White boy by hitting him with a rock. Judge John J Riley might not have been racist, at the time of this sentencing he stated he thought this was the best way to handle juvenile crime, still, there is no record of Riley ever similarly sentencing White juveniles.

Adding to the indignity Riley ordered Searce’s mother to carry out the sentence of 20 lashes. “Aunt” Mandy Searce took her son to the public square accompanied by two policemen, she was given a buggy whip to whip her son with. A crowd that appeared to be made up of all Whites converged on the square to witness the whipping. The boy cried out in pain and begged her to stop but she finished the 20 lashes, knowing that with the large crowd, they both might have been lynched.

Although no Blacks had been allowed to attend court, except Ms. Searce, and none were reported to be in the town square at the time of the whipping the Lexington Herald-Leader tried to give the impression that the Blach community was in full support of further whippings to keep other juveniles on the right side of the law.

 

Sources:

 

Southern Governors Meet And Resolve To Ignore The Supreme Court Degegregation Order

Richmond, VA Jun 10, 1954, in the weeks after the Supreme Court had handed down the Brown vs Board of Education decision ordering an end to racial segregation in all public schools in the United States there was turmoil and anger, especially of course in the Southern states.

In response on June 10, the governors of 15 southern states met collectively in Richmond to attempt to develop a united front to respond to the court’s order. There was virtually no consideration in voluntarily complying and desegregating their schools.

Along with the 15 governors, were the state's Attorney Generals and other legal counsel and staff. The conference was opened by the host Virginia Governor Thomas B. Stanley stated that his commitment to Virginia was to find a legal way to keep segregation and the “Separate but Equal” status in place since reconstruction.

Early in the conference the three border states of West Virginia, Maryland, and Kentucky bowed out of any resolution or activity that would defy the court. “Our problem is a little different from these fellows,” said West Virginia Governor William C. Marland. “Our issue is administrative while theirs is philosophical.”

This conference in many ways is one of the seeds of the modern issue of school choice and Nixon’s 1968 Southern Strategy. In fact, Georgia’s infamous governor Herman Talmadge spoke publicly and all but guaranteed that this would cost Eisenhower several states in 1956. “The decision will guarantee that every Southern state will go Democratic,” Talmadge said. “While there are 7 Democrats and only two Republicans on the court it is Earl Warren from California that Mr. Eisenhower appointed Chief Justice and he somehow wrote a decision that he pressured them to all go along with.” This reasoning is part of the reason Talmadge was so strongly connected with segregation and racism in his career. He had already gone so far as to say that it was possible Georgia would close schools rather than comply, the governors of South Carolina and Mississippi agreed with him on this.

This meeting was just the first in an ongoing series where the traditional Southern states confirmed their absolute commitment to segregation. Virginia’s Attorney General, Lindsay Almond Jr. had argued for Separate but Equal but even a loss did not deter him. “I believe much was accomplished,” said Almond “There were no differences between the states as to the difficulties we face, Virginia was a litigate before the court and we will continue to be until this is settled.” Eventually one of Virginia's ways of handling it was to shut down public and private schools from 1959 to 1964.

These high-profile leaders coming together to commit to racist policies in their states and using both their legal power and the political pulpit to create a climate of fear and intimidation both in real physical terms and in economic ways that would harm Black Americans and their children well into the 1970s far beyond the south. 

 Sources: 

The Roanoke Times ● Roanoke, Virginia ● Fri, Jun 11, 1954

The Daily Review ● Clinton Forge, Virginia ● Thur. Jun 10, 1954

False Reports Lead To Brutal Death Of A Black Man In Tennessee

 

Knoxville, TN Jun 10, 1894, rumors can kill, and in James Perry’s case it was a terrible and terrifying death. It was reported that Mr. Perry, a Negro, was a carrier of smallpox and had introduced it to the city of Knoxville. The strange thing is that there was no smallpox outbreak in the town.

James Perry was killed by fear and hate. Fear of the dreaded disease and of it spreading, hate of Black people. Perry was a known regional gambler and occasional railroad worker. He had been in jail in Knoxville from November 1893 until the first week in February. He apparently fell sick when he returned to a cabin on Cherry Creek northeast of the city. This cabin is part of Mr. Perry’s problem because it was close to where the creek entered the Tennessee River, where the town got its water.

Reports quickly spread and soon officials had a doctor go and examine Perry. On February 7^th a doctor and the head of public works visited Perry and while he was sick the doctor believed it was the result of chickenpox combined with syphilis which Perry was known to have.

After the visit, it was reported that the doctor didn’t diagnose Perry with smallpox and was certain that there was no disease to worry about because Perry had been in jail for four months. No one else, prisoner or sheriff’s deputies had gotten sick.

Still, rumors continued to spread even as the public works department started vaccines for anyone who couldn’t afford it and there were no other reported cases of smallpox.

By March 20^th the rumors of an outbreak of Smallpox dissipated since there were no cases in and around Knoxville. However, Perry still seemed to be sick.,

Months passed and June arrived, and Perry had gotten better but it was noticed he seemed to be scarred with areas of his skin looking like he had been burned. For a doctor, this might have been proof of the syphilis diagnosis but to the people of Knoxville, it was proof that the scare they received in winter was real, although there were never any other cases.

On the night of June 10, Perry’s cabin was surrounded and set on fire by a white mob. They also shot the cabin up to make sure Perry could not escape. The cabin burned to the ground and a body was found by the sheriff a few days later when the fire had cooled.

No one came forward to put out the fire and no one was ever charged with killing Perry he was killed by unknown hands. A small press release was sent out to papers all around the county and was published as far north as Buffalo, NY, and as far west as Tulsa, OK and it simply said that "a Negro, James Perry, was killed near police headquarters for introducing Smallpox into Tennessee."

Two Black Men Shot To Death For Walking Home

Orange, TX Jun 5, 1910, it appears that two Black men were shot to death overnight while they were walking home from a festival in the Negro Section last night. Douglas Lemon and Rankin Moore were reported have had a confrontation with three white men after midnight.

Tensions have been high in Orange County since the killing of Deputy Constable Sam Combs by a Black man named Jack White on April 18. Law officers promised the community that if they remained calm there would be swift justice for White, but that had not happened as there were multiple delays in White’s trial.

It seems the resentments of White residents of Orange overflowed last night as shots rang out into the Negro district apparently killing Rankin and then Lemon. Rankin took the bulk of the anger as his body was riddled with bullets. A few hours later Lemon’s body was found.

The investigation has not turned up any clues about who might have shot and killed the two men and fired other warning shots into the Negro section. Although they are continuing to interview people, the sheriff’s office feels there isn’t much hope they will find the shooters.

As always during the Jim Crow era the county coroner listed the deaths as killing by the hands of persons unknown.

 

Racial Memory: The Tulsa Race Massacre - Why Critical Race Theory is important

 

Tulsa, Oklahoma Jun 1, 1921

This is the date and place that are now infamous for Whites destroying the Greenwood neighborhoods. 

Racial tensions were a constant in Tulsa in the early 20th Century. There was a great deal of resentment by the White businessmen of Tulsa who often had to conduct business with the Black businessmen in Greenwood, colloquially known as the “Black Wall Street” because of the prosperity of Black businessmen and merchants.

The simmering resentment was sparked into a riot when a 19-year-old Black man was in an elevator in downtown Tulsa with White 17-year-old Sarah Page who was working as an elevator operator. The Black man, Dick Rowland, was accused of rape after Miss Page had screamed. She tried to convince the police that nothing happened she was just startled when he had touched her shoulder.

As so often happens in these cases after Mr. Rowland was arrested a White mob gathered at the courthouse to take Rowland and lynch him. However, this mob was shocked when they met with resistance. 30 Black men armed with guns appeared at the courthouse stopping the lynching. In response, the White mob doubled in size and came back heavily armed.

Violence on a terrible scale consumed the Greenwood District for the next 24 hours businesses were burned and looted, and the district was even bombed by a crop-dusting plane. In the end, 35 square blocks of the Greenwood District lay in ruin. It isn’t known exactly but most historical researchers believe 300 Blacks were killed while another 800 were injured and it is credibly estimated that 1,256 homes were destroyed along with almost every other structure in the Greenwood District.

I first learned of the Tulsa Riot in James W. Loewen’s book “Lies Across America” where the historian wrote about how during Jim Crow atrocities such as this one were swept under the rug, which is very true for Tulsa. No White man was ever charged with any crime. In fact, many of the rioters were under the banner of law as sworn deputies in an emergency.

It wasn’t until 2001 that Oklahoma finally began to look at its own terrible history when the Race Riot Commission was formed to examine the evidence.

The investigation continues even now as alleged mass graves are being searched for and any other documentation gathered.

To see an online collection of everything the commission gathered got to https://tinyurl.com/ymuje54y