7/12/2020 FIGHT FOR FREEDOM - Philadelphia Inquirer - Philly Edition, 7/12/2020 CHAPTER 1 FIGHT FOR FREEDOM 1830-1899 Civil War soldiers in Company E, 4th U.S. Colored Infantry, at Fort Lincoln. Library of Congress x DECEMBER 1830 POLICING BEGINS The first police patrol starts in Philadelphia. The scope of the police quickly grows. x MAY 14-17, 1838 RESISTANCE TO ABOLITIONISM Antislavery groups open Pennsylvania Hall at Sixth and Haines Streets (between Arch and Race), to have a place to meet. A white mob breaks in, ransacks and burns the building, while the police stand by watching. Firefighters spray down neighboring buildings, but not the brand-new hall, which burns to the ground. The mob burns down the Shelter for Colored Orphans. Police do not arrest anyone for setting the fires. In October a new state constitution takes away the right to vote from Black Pennsylvanians. >MARCH 6, 1857 DRED SCOTT DECISION https://digital.olivesoftware.com/Olive/ODN/PhiladelphiaInquirer/PrintArticle.aspx?doc=PHQP%2F2020%2F07%2F12&entity=ar01400&ts=202007120… 1/3 7/12/2020 FIGHT FOR FREEDOM - Philadelphia Inquirer - Philly Edition, 7/12/2020 Scott, an enslaved Black man born in Virginia, sues for his freedom. His case goes to the Supreme Court, which rules that he is not a citizen and therefore cannot sue in federal court. The decision says that the framers of the Constitution believed Black people “had no rights which the white man was The Octavius V. Catto Memorial dedication in 2017. CLEM MURRAY / File Photograph bound to respect.” >APRIL 1865 END OF THE CIVIL WAR Gen. Robert E. Lee surrenders. >1865-1870 THE 13TH, 14TH, AND 15TH AMENDMENTS ARE ADOPTED A print of Pennsylvania Hall burning on May 17, 1838. Library of Congress The 13th Amendment, abolishing slavery, is adopted in December 1865. The 14th Amendment, giving equal protection under the law, is adopted in July 1868. The 15th Amendment, giving Black men the right to vote, is adopted in February 1870. x MARCH 31, 1870 POLICE KILL HENRY TRUMAN A police officer shoots 26-year-old Truman in an alley in Society Hill. At trial, the officer says the shooting is an accident that took place when he was ambushed by a crowd while chasing an accused shoplifter. Witnesses at trial say they saw the officer chase Truman into the alley, and when Truman turned and asked what he did wrong, the officer shot him. The officer is found guilty of manslaughter. x OCT. 11, 1870 ELECTION DAY VIOLENCE Police officers arrive at a poll at Fifth and Lombard Streets, where many Black men had been waiting for hours to vote. Some officers remove the ID numbers from their caps. The police confront and shove Black people waiting in line while white people vote. Those who complain are arrested or beaten. https://digital.olivesoftware.com/Olive/ODN/PhiladelphiaInquirer/PrintArticle.aspx?doc=PHQP%2F2020%2F07%2F12&entity=ar01400&ts=202007120… 2/3 7/12/2020 FIGHT FOR FREEDOM - Philadelphia Inquirer - Philly Edition, 7/12/2020 A month later, Black men trying to vote in Camden meet similar violence, intimidation, and arrest at the hands of groups of white men and police officers, who crowd around the polls. Federal authorities charge 23 men with violating the newly enacted 15th Amendment. Four are Philadelphia policemen, including a lieutenant. x OCT. 10, 1871 OCTAVIUS CATTO ASSASSINATED Catto, a Black political organizer and educator, is assassinated on Election Day. The busy South Street area — the institutional and emotional heart of the Black community — had been rocked by violence since the night before. White police officers and Democrats attack Black voters, sending dozens to the hospital. Catto is shot on his way home. A jury finds his killer not guilty at trial, despite evidence from six eyewitnesses. In 2017, almost 150 years after his death, the statue of Catto becomes the first public monument in Philly to honor a black person. >MAY 18, 1896 JIM CROW LAWS UPHELD In Plessy v. Ferguson, the Supreme Court rules that Jim Crow laws are constitutional, creating the “separate but equal” doctrine. Jim Crow laws, which begin in the late 19th century and enforce racial segregation, remain in effect until the court reverses this decision in 1954. x 1899 THE PHILADELPHIA NEGRO PUBLISHES W.E.B. Du Bois publishes his landmark book, The Philadelphia Negro. In it, he cites statistics that, before the Civil War, Black people made up 5% of the city’s population, but accounted for nearly a third of the jail population. Du Bois says Black people were “arrested for less cause and given longer sentences than whites.” https://digital.olivesoftware.com/Olive/ODN/PhiladelphiaInquirer/PrintArticle.aspx?doc=PHQP%2F2020%2F07%2F12&entity=ar01400&ts=202007120… 3/3 7/12/2020 FREE BUT UNEQUAL - Philadelphia Inquirer - Philly Edition, 7/12/2020 CHAPTER 2 FREE BUT UNEQUAL 1900-1962 >1915 FOP FOUNDED The Fraternal Order of Police is founded in Pittsburgh. It becomes a national organization three years later. x SEPT. 27, 1915 POLICE CRACK DOWN ON PROTESTERS D.W. Griffith’s film The Birth of a Nation, criticized by A group of workers who helped build the SS Marine Eagle at the all-Black Number 4 Yard at Sun Black ministers Ship in Chester in 1943. The Historical Society of Pennsylvania and civic leaders for its overt racism and demonization of Black people, is scheduled to open at the Forrest Theatre. The Black community unsuccessfully petitions Mayor Rudolph Blankenburg to ban the film. On opening night, a protest led by Black ministers marches to the theater, where they are assaulted by a crowd that includes police officers and theater workers. x 1917-18 BLACK PEOPLE ORGANIZE During World War I, rising police brutality against Black people leads a group in Philadelphia to form the Association for the Protection of Colored People. Members are given cards to show if they are attacked by police. The cards signal that they have the backing of the association’s well-funded legal team. x JULY 1918 https://digital.olivesoftware.com/Olive/ODN/PhiladelphiaInquirer/PrintArticle.aspx?doc=PHQP%2F2020%2F07%2F12&entity=ar01401&ts=202007120… 1/3 7/12/2020 FREE BUT UNEQUAL - Philadelphia Inquirer - Philly Edition, 7/12/2020 POLICE KILL RILEY BULLOCK Tens of thousands of Black people move into the city for war work, including into predominantly white neighborhoods like Grays Ferry. Residents attack the home of a Black woman; the police do nothing to stop the assault, and many participate, which leads to a riot. In the aftermath, two white cops arrest 38- year-old Riley Bullock, who is beaten and then shot while in custody. A letter to the editor of the Philadelphia Tribune from a Black pastor read: “Afro-Americans of this city are tired of legalized murder, we are sick at seeing death carried on by acts of legislation, we are heart-sick at seeing men killed with law, homes ruined, children robbed of comfort, love and affection by law, society outraged, morals under-minded by the law.” x 1924 CITY STUDIES RACE AND CRIME The city undertakes a comprehensive study of race and crime. The data confirm that unlawful arrests disproportionately affect the Black community and show a clear pattern of discrimination against Black people. Black people account for almost a quarter of arrests, while making up only 9% of the city’s population. Most who are arrested are young and picked up for petty crimes or vice-related offenses, and 20% of arrests are for vagrancy, disorderly conduct, concealed weapons violations, and “suspicious behavior.” x 1928 ARRESTS, BEATINGS, HARASSMENT Here are some ways that Black people in Philadelphia are treated by police in this year alone: In May, a police officer who is angry that young Black people are playing baseball on his street calls a patrol wagon to arrest every Black man they find on North 16th Street In June, police arrest a couple coming out of South Street’s Standard Theater when they mistake the woman as white. In July, a group orders a Black man off a sidewalk in North Philadelphia; he is then beaten by a mob and shot three times by the police. x MARCH 12, 1946 RIOTS IN SOUTHWEST PHILADELPHIA Fighting breaks out between Black students at Samuel Tilden High School in Southwest Philadelphia and white students from a neighboring school. On the first day of riots, police arrest 14 Black students and no white students. Riots continue. According to witnesses, the police protect white boys, some in military uniforms, who were attacking Black boys, and arrest the Black youth en masse. x 1952 UPENN LAW REVIEWS POLICE PRACTICES An article in the University of Pennsylvania Law Review says: “Negroes who assert their rights against the police apparently do so in some cases at the risk of arrest. According to the records of one organization, arrests of Negroes for disorderly conduct have been made solely for such reasons as: protesting, at the police station, an illegal entry and beating; objecting to an unauthorized search of the person and to being struck; or inquiring why a friend was in the police wagon.” >MAY 17, 1954 BROWN V. BOARD OF EDUCATION https://digital.olivesoftware.com/Olive/ODN/PhiladelphiaInquirer/PrintArticle.aspx?doc=PHQP%2F2020%2F07%2F12&entity=ar01401&ts=202007120… 2/3 7/12/2020 FREE BUT UNEQUAL - Philadelphia Inquirer - Philly Edition, 7/12/2020 The Supreme Court decision in the case Brown v. Board of Education rules state laws that racially segregated public schools are unconstitutional. x 1957 SHOTGUNSQUADS The police field “shotgun squads” 24 hours a day, especially through the largely Black north and central parts of the city, referred to in one paper as the “crime belt.” The patrols carry sawed-off shotguns as a show of force, to deter robberies.