The Untold History Of Police Violence And Black Rebellion Since The 1960s

Police violence and black rebellion have been deeply intertwined since the 1960s, but this reality has often been overlooked or downplayed in mainstream narratives. The civil rights movement of the 1960s was a watershed moment in American history, demanding an end to racial segregation and discrimination. However, alongside the inspiring stories of peaceful protests and marches, there exists a dark and untold history of police brutality and Black rebellion that has shaped the landscape of social and racial injustice in America ever since.

Roots of Police Brutality

It is essential to understand the roots of police brutality to comprehend its lasting impact. The origins of modern police forces in the United States can be traced back to slave patrols during the era of slavery. These patrols were responsible for enforcing laws and regulations governing the control and movements of enslaved people.

While slavery ended with the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, the practices of controlling and subjugating Black communities persisted through the Reconstruction era and beyond. The Jim Crow laws further institutionalized racial segregation and fueled a climate of violence and racism that extended to law enforcement.

America on Fire: The Untold History of Police Violence and Black Rebellion Since the 1960s

by Elizabeth Hinton(Kindle Edition)

4.6 out of 5

Language	:	English
File size	:	14317 KB
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Screen Reader	:	Supported
Enhanced typesetting	:	Enabled
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Print length	:	401 pages
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The 1960s: A Turning Point

The 1960s witnessed a surge in activism and civil rights initiatives by African Americans, demanding an end to racial discrimination. However, this period also saw a significant increase in police violence against Black communities. The Watts riots in 1965, sparked by an incident of police brutality, highlighted the deep frustrations and anger simmering within marginalized communities.

Similar incidents occurred across the country, including the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968, which led to widespread protests and unrest. The response from law enforcement often involved excessive force, further cementing the historical pattern of police violence during moments of Black rebellion.

The Crack Epidemic and the War on Drugs

The 1980s saw the rise of the crack epidemic, disproportionately impacting African American neighborhoods. The government's response was the implementation of harsh drug policies and the initiation of the "War on Drugs." While these policies purported to target drug dealers, they predominantly targeted Black individuals and communities.

The aggressive tactics employed by law enforcement during this era often led to excessive use of force, resulting in numerous cases of police brutality. Incidents like the Rodney King beating in 1991, captured on video, brought national attention to the issue but were just the tip of the iceberg.

The Modern Era: Black Lives Matter

In recent years, the fight against racial injustice and police violence has gained renewed momentum with the advent of the Black Lives Matter movement. The deaths of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and countless others have ignited widespread protests and demands for police accountability.

These incidents have exposed the deep-rooted issues that persist within law enforcement agencies, including racial profiling, excessive use of force, and systemic racism. Activists, communities, and organizations continue to push for comprehensive reforms and a dismantling of the systems that perpetuate police violence.

The Way Forward

It is crucial to acknowledge the untold history of police violence and its impact on Black communities. By examining this history, we can challenge the narrative that portrays Black rebellion solely as acts of lawlessness and understand the underlying causes leading to these uprisings.

Reforming police departments, investing in community programs and mental health resources, and promoting accountability are steps towards ensuring a safer and more just society for all. It is only by confronting and addressing this untold history that we can hope to create lasting change.

The untold history of police violence and Black rebellion since the 1960s is a crucial aspect of American history that demands our attention. By shedding light on this history, we can begin to dismantle the systems that perpetuate racial injustice and work towards a more equitable future.

America on Fire: The Untold History of Police Violence and Black Rebellion Since the 1960s

by Elizabeth Hinton(Kindle Edition)

4.6 out of 5

Language	:	English
File size	:	14317 KB
Text-to-Speech	:	Enabled
Screen Reader	:	Supported
Enhanced typesetting	:	Enabled
Word Wise	:	Enabled
Print length	:	401 pages
X-Ray	:	Enabled

FREE

A New York Times Notable Book

Best Books of 2021: TIME, Smithsonian

New York Times Book Review • Editors' Choice

“Not since Angela Davis’s 2003 book, Are Prisons Obsolete?, has a scholar so persuasively challenged our conventional understanding of the criminal legal system.” —Ronald S. Sullivan, Jr., Washington Post

From one of our top historians, a groundbreaking story of policing and “riots” that shatters our understanding of the post–civil rights era.

What began in spring 2020 as local protests in response to the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police quickly exploded into a massive nationwide movement. Millions of mostly young people defiantly flooded into the nation’s streets, demanding an end to police brutality and to the broader, systemic repression of Black people and other people of color. To many observers, the protests appeared to be without precedent in their scale and persistence. Yet, as the acclaimed historian Elizabeth Hinton demonstrates in America on Fire, the events of 2020 had clear precursors—and any attempt to understand our current crisis requires a reckoning with the recent past.

Even in the aftermath of Donald Trump, many Americans consider the decades since the civil rights movement in the mid-1960s as a story of progress toward greater inclusiveness and equality. Hinton’s sweeping narrative uncovers an altogether different history, taking us on a troubling journey from Detroit in 1967 and Miami in 1980 to Los Angeles in 1992 and beyond to chart the persistence of structural racism and one of its primary consequences, the so-called urban riot. Hinton offers a critical corrective: the word riot was nothing less than a racist trope applied to events that can only be properly understood as rebellions—explosions of collective resistance to an unequal and violent order. As she suggests, if rebellion and the conditions that precipitated it never disappeared, the optimistic story of a post–Jim Crow United States no longer holds.

Black rebellion, America on Fire powerfully illustrates, was born in response to poverty and exclusion, but most immediately in reaction to police violence. In 1968, President Lyndon Johnson launched the “War on Crime,” sending militarized police forces into impoverished Black neighborhoods. Facing increasing surveillance and brutality, residents threw rocks and Molotov cocktails at officers, plundered local businesses, and vandalized exploitative institutions. Hinton draws on exclusive sources to uncover a previously hidden geography of violence in smaller American cities, from York, Pennsylvania, to Cairo, Illinois, to Stockton, California.

The central lesson from these eruptions—that police violence invariably leads to community violence—continues to escape policymakers, who respond by further criminalizing entire groups instead of addressing underlying socioeconomic causes. The results are the hugely expanded policing and prison regimes that shape the lives of so many Americans today. Presenting a new framework for understanding our nation’s enduring strife, America on Fire is also a warning: rebellions will surely continue unless police are no longer called on to manage the consequences of dismal conditions beyond their control, and until an oppressive system is finally remade on the principles of justice and equality.