On this day.... Recent American history

Recent history, at that.  And not far away.

On the evening of July 11, 1951, one of the biggest riots in U.S. history began after a young black couple moved into an apartment in all-white Cicero, IL, west of Chicago. The husband, Harvey Clark, was a World War II veteran who migrated to Chicago from Mississippi and was working as a bus driver. He and his wife Johnetta had been crammed with their two children in a two-room tenement with a family of five on the city's overcrowded South Side.

The couple found more space and cheaper rents in Cicero, closer to his work, but the sheriff turned them away when they first tried to move in. With a court order in hand, the couple finally moved their belongings into the apartment on July 11, as a mob formed around them, heckling and throwing rocks. The mob, many of them eastern European immigrants, grew to as many as 4,000 by nightfall. The couple fled, unable to stay overnight in their new apartment. 

That night, the mob stormed the apartment and hurled the family's belongings out of a third floor window: the sofa, the chairs, the clothes, the baby pictures. The mob tore out the fixtures: the stove, the radiators, the sinks. They smashed the piano, overturned the refrigerator, bashed in the toilet. They set the family's belongings on fire and then firebombed the building, leaving even the white tenants homeless. The rioters overturned police cars and threw stones at firefighters who tried to put out the fire. 

The Illinois Governor, Adlai Stevenson, had to call in the National Guard for the first time since the 1919 race riots in Chicago. It took more than 600 guardsmen, police officers and sheriff's deputies to beat back the mob that night and three more days for the rioting over the Clarks to subside. 

The Clarks were prevented from spending a single night in Cicero. A total of 118 men were arrested in the rioting but none were indicted. Instead, the rental agent and the owner of the apartment building were indicted for inciting a riot by renting to the Clarks in the first place. The Cicero riot attracted worldwide attention and became a symbol of northern hostility to the arrival of millions of African-Americans during the Great Migration. 

-- From the book, The Warmth of Other Suns www.thewarmthofothersuns.com

America.  You make us all so proud.

Remember the 60's?

Remember the riots of the 60's? 1967, 1968, 1969. Remember those? Watts. Chicago. The 1968 Democratic National Convention riots in Chicago. All those? I would nearly bet that this Summer is going to be full of similar demonstrations and riots nearly nationwide, if not totally. Between the election year and the "Occupy" groups and the general breakdown of different society issues, especially of the very rich vs. the very poor, I expect there will be clashes, almost certainly. Cities are already changing their laws so they can act more forcefully against demonstrations. That, and watch Europe, too. With Greece's likely default on their debt and both the extreme debts across Europe, along with deep cuts in so many public programs, look for demonstrations and riots to break out all across Europe, too. I think it is likely to be the 2nd "long, hot Summer." We shall see. I'd be happy--very happy--to be mistaken.

How long until the riots start here, if ever?

News today tells of England suffering its third straight day of riots and looting and that it's spreading to other cities, now, too. This on top of other riots across Europe from Greece to Israel (over costs of living), and on. It's an odd thing, isn't it? It makes me wonder if we have that much in common with Europe or not. It makes me wonder how bad things have to get, how much joblessness, how little health care availability, how high the price of gas or food until the US begins such things, if ever. I wonder what it will take and then I hope, whatever that is, that we never get it, that we never get that bad, that low, that desperate. Link: http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/647683/london_riot_turns_district_into_war_zone%3A_%26quot%3Bthe_system_is_cracking_and_it%27s_starting_to_show%26quot%3B

Let's get responsible, Senator McCain

Keith gets a bit overheated and sanctimonious but he's right, of course, and the sins of the Senator are pretty serious and irresponsible.