University of New Hampshire University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository Doctoral Dissertations Student Scholarship Winter 2020 White Discipline, Black Rebellion: A History of American Race Riots from Emancipation to the War on Drugs Jordan C. Burke University of New Hampshire, Durham Follow this and additional works at: https://scholars.unh.edu/dissertation Recommended Citation Burke, Jordan C., "White Discipline, Black Rebellion: A History of American Race Riots from Emancipation to the War on Drugs" (2020). Doctoral Dissertations. 2544. https://scholars.unh.edu/dissertation/2544 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Scholarship at University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. White Discipline, Black Rebellion: A History of American Race Riots from Emancipation to the War on Drugs By Jordan C. Burke BA, English, La Salle University, 2004 MA, English, Rutgers University, 2009 MA, Sociology, University of New Hampshire, 2017 PhD, Sociology, University of New Hampshire, 2020 DISSERTATION Submitted to the University of New Hampshire in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology December, 2020 i DISSERTATION COMMITTEE This dissertation was examined and approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Ph.D. in Sociology by: Dissertation Director, Dr. Cliff Brown, Associate Professor of Sociology Dr. Michele Dillon, Dean, College of Liberal Arts and Class of 1944 Professor of Sociology Dr. Cesar Rebellon, Professor of Sociology Dr. Lucy Salyer, Professor of History Dr. Jason Sokol, Professor of History On November 2, 2020 Approval signatures are on file with the University of New Hampshire ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Dedication ………………………………………………………………………………. v Acknowledgments ………………………………………………………………………. vi List of Figures …………………………………………………………………………... vii Abstract …………………………………………………………………………………. viii Author’s Note …………………………………………………………………………… x INTRODUCTION: American Race Riots as Rituals of Expurgation ...………………. 1 PART I: WHITE DISCIPLINE I. FOREVER FREE, BUT ALWAYS UNEQUAL ……...…………………………….. 35 A Racial Cleansing in the City of Liberty ………………………………………. 37 A Racial Cleansing in a Riverboat Town ……………………………………….. 59 II. DEMOCRATIC MURDER CLUBS ………………………………………………… 82 White Terrorism: Louisiana’s Blueprint for Political Control ………………….. 86 ‘A Perfect Carnival of Released Rascality': The Redemption of Mississippi ….. 101 ‘Those Leading Rascals, We Intend to Put Them Out of the Way’ …………….. 113 III. THE SPECTER OF ‘NEGRO DOMINATION’ …………………………………… 132 ‘If We Have to Choke the Current of the Cape Fear with Carcasses’ ………….. 137 Disenfranchisement and the Atlanta Race Riot of 1906 ………………………... 162 IV. DISCIPLINARY VIOLENCE IN THE SUNDOWN STATE …………………….. 176 Black Progress and White Resentment in the Land of Lincoln ………………… 180 The Things They Carried: Two Riots, a Lynching, and an Exodus …………….. 194 Blood in the Water: Black Resistance and the Chicago Race Riot of 1919 …….. 212 V. WITHOUT RECOURSE …………………………………………………………… 228 Four Days of Terror in Arkansas: The Elaine Massacre of 1919 ……………….. 231 The Great Burning of Greenwood: The Tulsa Race War of 1921 ……………… 243 Seven Days of Terror in Florida: The Rosewood Massacre of 1923 …………… 265 iii PART II: BLACK REBELLION VI. FROM WHITE DISCIPLINE TO BLACK REBELLION ……...…………………. 276 Compensatory Rebellion: The Harlem Riot of 1935 …………………………… 283 Reciprocal Riot in Detroit, June 1943 ………………………………………….. 293 Compensatory Rebellion, Part II: Harlem and the New Social Structure of Riots 306 VII. REBELLION AS COMPENSATION ……………………………………………... 321 Two Rebellions, One City: New York Erupts for a Third Time ………………... 322 Fire, Blood, and Broken Glass: Black Insurrection in Los Angeles ……………. 344 VIII. A NATION EXPLODES …..……………………………………………………... 373 Five Days in Newark, July 1967: Black Rebellion and State-Sanctioned Terror 375 ‘It Looks Like a City That Has Been Bombed’: Black Rebellion in Detroit …… 401 CONCLUSION: The Forgetting ………………………………………………………... 426 REFERENCES ………………………………………………………………………….. 452 APPENDIX A. Results of the Presidential Election in Louisiana, 1868 ……………….. 471 APPENDIX B. Mississippi State Treasurer Elections by County, 1873 and 1875 …….. 472 APPENDIX C. African-American Residences Destroyed in Springfield Race Riot …… 474 iv DEDICATION My daughter Greta was born on August 18, 2014. In the weeks that followed, I realized that it was now or never. I would stop deferring my dream of earning a Ph.D. I would apply, once again, to graduate school. And so it was that I began anew as a graduate student, this time in sociology at the University of New Hampshire, on August 31, 2015. Greta had just turned one year old. Five years later, on December 14, 2020, I submit the final manuscript of my dissertation. I would like to thank Jaime Karnes, my beautiful wife—partner in parenting, teaching, and writing—for the sacrifices she has made for our family during these trying years. I would like to thank my daughter for being the catalyst: without her arrival, I may never have sacrificed five prime income-earning years to earn a doctorate. Finally, I would like to thank my mom and dad, Stephen and Joanne Burke, for their never-ending love and support. I have reached the end of a very long journey. Many thanks to all who helped me get here. v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This dissertation was made possible by two generous grants from the University of New Hampshire. I was awarded a stipend of $5,000 from the College of Liberal Arts to conduct research during the summer of 2019, a line of funding that assisted in covering expenses as I traveled to archives in New York, Michigan, and Illinois. I was also awarded a Dissertation Year Fellowship of $22,000 from the Graduate School for academic year 2019-2020, a line of funding that made it possible for me to write this book. This dissertation was made possible because of my wife, who assumed a larger financial burden to support our family during my studies; without her support, we would have been unable to raise our child off a yearly university stipend. I love you with all my heart, Jaime Karnes (or ‘Olive Juice,’ as we used to say). I would also like to thank my mentors for their support during this process. Professor Jeff Bolster offered his astute advice on writing about race riots—and historical writing more generally—during our two-student writing workshop in the fall of 2017. This project really began to germinate during that course. Dr. Cliff Brown, my dissertation committee chair, has been constant in his support throughout the entire writing process. His feedback helped guide the development of my manuscript and his revision notes kept pushing me forward. Dean Dillon, Class of 1944 Professor of Sociology and my professor for sociological theory at UNH, offered encouragement over lunch (her treat). Dr. Lucy Salyer took time from her busy schedule to write me detailed feedback, which will prove insightful during the next stage of the process, my ultimate goal: a published book. Cesar Rebellon and Jason Sokol served on my dissertation committee during a pandemic, and for their work I am grateful. In fact, I am fortunate to have had such wonderful professors while studying in the Sociology Department at the University of New Hampshire. Their teaching and mentorship have impacted me greatly; for their work I am grateful. vi LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. American Race Riots by Year, 1863 – 1972 ………………………...………. 22 vii ABSTRACT This dissertation is a comparative analysis of American race riots, within and across historical eras, from Emancipation (1863) to the War on Drugs (1972). I argue that changes in the status of African-American citizenship produced different forms of race rioting. Examining riot events across eras reveals how ethical principles at the core of democracy are undermined in specific socio-historical contexts—especially equality of participation in collective self-governance. Congressional testimony, state-sponsored riot investigations, and archival data indicate that riots have been used historically to structure racial inequality in both political institutions and economic relations. While race riots have proven instrumental in maintaining white supremacy, Black rebellion has largely proven detrimental for African-American communities. Racial collective violence has enduring consequences, especially for economic inequality. Part I examines how whites systematically employed disciplinary riots to ‘redeem’ state governments for the Democratic Party for more than seven decades following the Civil War, with enduring structural consequences for African-American political participation and economic progress. The first two chapters analyze white riot violence from Reconstruction and Redemption (1863 - 1877). Chapters 3 through 5 examine white-initiated riot violence around the turn of the 20th century through World War I, a period of intensifying racism known as the Nadir of American race relations. Several riot events of this era border on racial cleansing: violence employed to rob, intimidate, and expel Black Americans from the community. Property was often transferred to white ownership when Black refugees did not return, hence white riot violence has implications for the present wealth gap separating blacks from whites in