Watts became a living proclamation that this was not
true.
Early in 1967, violence began to reverberate throughout the ghettoes
all across the nation. The earliest disturbances occurred at three
Southern universities. Then, violence exploded in Tampa, Florida, in
June. The following day, June 12, Cincinnati, Ohio, experienced a
racial outburst. On June 17, violence began in Atlanta, Georgia.
The worst riots of that long hot summer occurred in Newark, New
Jersey, and in Detroit, Michigan, during the month of July. Racial
hostilities in Newark had been boiling for several months. In spite of
the black majority in Newark, a predominantly white political machine
still ran City Hall. Blacks were only given token recognition. The
event which actually triggered the riot was, again, a relatively
meaningless arrest. Bystanders assumed, probably mistakenly, that the
black taxi driver who was being arrested, was also being beaten by the
arresting officer. Bit by bit, again in a crazy pattern, the fires of
frustration flared throughout the city. At almost the same time,
ghetto violence began to rock several other northern New Jersey
communities: Elizabeth, Englewood, Plainfield, and New Brunswick.
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