Race riots of 1943
The Race Riots of 1943 were a series of violent racial conflicts that erupted in various American cities during the summer, largely fueled by tensions stemming from World War II. As urban populations swelled due to an influx of workers in wartime industries, competition for jobs and housing intensified racial animosities. Notable incidents included the Mobile Riots in Alabama, the Zoot-Suit Riots in Los Angeles, and severe unrest in Detroit and Harlem. In Mobile, violence erupted after the employment of African American welders, leading to attacks from white workers. The Zoot-Suit Riots were characterized by servicemen targeting Mexican American youths based on rumors of assaults, while the Detroit riots saw widespread fighting triggered by racial tensions at a local amusement park. Harlem's unrest was ignited by an incident involving police brutality, resulting in significant property damage and casualties. These riots highlighted the deep-seated racial issues in America, reflecting frustrations over systemic inequalities, lack of communication, and inadequate responses from authorities. The events of 1943 underscored the ongoing struggle for civil rights and social justice that would continue to resonate in the following decades.
Race riots of 1943
Significance: Racial tensions peaked as minorities and whites competed for jobs and social services during World War II.
The urban race riots in the summer of 1943 did not occur spontaneously. A pattern of violence throughout the nation, similar to the racial conflicts that occurred during World War I, had been escalating since 1940, as urban areas swelled with workers drawn to wartime industries. The lack of interracial communication, the failure of local, state, and federal agencies to comprehend the severity of the racial environment, challenges against established southern racial traditions, and extreme shortages of housing and social services created frustration, which manifested itself in racial violence.
The Mobile Riots
Tremendous growth in the population of Mobile, Alabama, caused severe problems in housing and city services. These shortages, combined with the competition for jobs, created racial tension. Whites jealously protected what they considered to be white-only, high-paying, skilled jobs. The largest wartime contractor in Mobile was ADDSCO, the Alabama Dry Dock and Shipbuilding Company. ADDSCO, like numerous other industries, employed African Americans only for unskilled or semiskilled positions. Unable to find enough skilled welders and to appease the local National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), led by John LeFlore and Burton R. Morley of the War Manpower Commission, ADDSCO agreed to employ African American welders. On May 24, 1943, black welders reported for work on the third shift at the Pinto Island Yard. No racial incidents occurred during the night, but the next morning, after additional black welders reported for work, violence erupted.
Between five hundred and one thousand whites attacked black workers and drove them from the yards. Governor Chauncey Sparks ordered the Alabama State Guard to intervene, and by noon the rioting had ended. Federal troops occupied the shipyards, and local city and county government ordered all bars and liquor stores closed until the tension eased. Mobile police eventually charged three whites with felony assault, intent to murder, and inciting a riot. On June 5, 1943, the Alabama State Guard pulled out and on June 10, 1943, federal troops returned to their base at Brookley Field.
The Zoot-Suit Riots
As emotions in Mobile calmed, racial tensions in Los Angeles exploded. On June 3, 1943, servicemen from area bases began attacking Mexican American youths known as “zoot-suiters” in response to rumors that the youths had assaulted female relatives of military personnel. Servicemen, accompanied by civilians, roamed the streets, sometimes in taxicabs, in search of zoot-suiters. Streetcars and buses were stopped and searched, and zoot-suiters found in stores and theaters were disrobed and beaten.
In retaliation, gangs of Mexican American adolescents attacked military personnel. Police arrested reported zoot-suit leaders Frank H. Tellez and Luis “the Chief” Verdusco in an effort to stop Mexican American violence against whites. Fighting reached a climax on June 7, 1943, when a mob of more than a thousand servicemen and civilians moved down Main Street in downtown Los Angeles to the African American neighborhood at Twelfth and Central, and then through the Mexican American neighborhood on the east side, looking for zoot-suiters. The Mexican ambassador to the United States lodged a formal complaint with Secretary of State Cordell Hull, and California governor Earl Warren appointed Attorney General Robert Kenny to investigate the riots. While the riots officially ended on June 7, violent incidents continued throughout the city for the rest of the summer.
As the zoot-suit riots in Los Angeles subsided, racial violence returned to the South. Beaumont, Texas, located between Houston and the Louisiana border, had experienced tremendous wartime growth because of its petroleum production facilities and shipbuilding operations. With emotions already frayed from an earlier suspected rape of a white woman by a black ex-convict, the reported rape of a young white woman by a black man on June 15, 1943, set off a violent reaction among white workers at the Pennsylvania Shipyards. In the early evening, approximately two thousand workers marched on downtown Beaumont. Police Chief Ross Dickey convinced the mob not to lynch any black prisoners.
Around midnight, mobs converged on black neighborhoods in north Beaumont and along Forsythe Street. At the Greyhound bus station, about three hundred whites assaulted fifty-two African American army draftees. Whites looted and burned local businesses and assaulted African Americans until the next morning. Killed during the evening’s violence were Alex Mouton and John Johnson, African Americans, and Ellis C. Brown, a white man. Local law enforcement tried diligently to stop the rioting. More than two hundred whites and six African Americans were arrested during the rioting. Martial law was declared on June 16 and lifted on June 20. Although calm had been restored to Beaumont, the violence compelled approximately twenty-five hundred African Americans to leave soon after the riots.
Detroit and Harlem
At the same time, race riots occurred in the cities of Detroit and Harlem. One of the worst riots in the summer of 1943 occurred in Detroit. On Sunday, June 20, 1943, more than one hundred thousand Detroiters, a large percentage of them African American, had gone to the Belle Isle Amusement Park. A group of black teenagers led by Charles “Little Willie” Lyon began attacking whites. A fight broke out between white sailors and young African Americans on the bridge connecting Belle Isle with the city. The fighting spread, and by 11:00 p.m., an estimated five thousand people were fighting on and around the Belle Isle Bridge.
Rumors of atrocities against African Americans circulated in the Paradise Valley ghetto. Black rioters stoned passing cars of whites and destroyed white-owned businesses. By early morning, whites along Woodward Avenue had retaliated by beating African Americans. Mayor Edward J. Jeffries asked Governor Harry F. Kelly to request federal troops, but Kelly hesitated until Monday evening, and federal troops did not arrive until Tuesday morning. As African Americans rioted along the east side of Woodward Avenue, whites continued congregating along Woodward Avenue. Detroit remained under a curfew and martial law for the following week, and federal troops remained for two weeks. After two days of intense rioting, the Detroit riots were over. Authorities reported thirty-four people, mostly African Americans, killed and more than seven hundred injured. Property damage estimates were around two million dollars.
As the situation calmed in Detroit, tensions were mounting in Harlem, New York. On August 1, 1943, in the late afternoon, Robert Bandy, an African American soldier on leave from the army, argued with James Collins, a white policeman, over the arrest of a black woman at the Braddock Hotel on West 126th Street. A fight ensued, and Collins shot Bandy, inflicting a superficial wound. Rumors quickly spread that a black soldier trying to protect his mother had been killed by a white policeman. Crowds of angry African Americans gathered at the Braddock Hotel and the twenty-eighth police precinct, and by midnight, rioting had started.
The rioting centered in Harlem and never directly involved confrontations between blacks and whites. Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia acted swiftly to confine the violence by using extra police, firefighters, black Office of Civilian Defense volunteers, and National Guardsmen. African American civic leaders such as Walter White worked alongside city officials to calm Harlem residents. The all-night looting and burning of white-owned businesses left Harlem looking like a war zone. By the time peace was restored, after twelve hours of rioting, six African Americans had been killed by police and National Guard troops, and almost two hundred people reported injuries. Property damage was estimated to be as high as five million dollars. The racial violence of the summer of 1943 had ended, but the problems that triggered riots and violence across the nation remained.
Bibliography
Blum, John Morton. V Was for Victory: Politics and American Culture During World War II. New York: Harcourt, 1976. Print.
Bruns, Roger A. Zoot Suit Riots. Santa Barbara: Greenwood, 2014. Print.
Capeci, Dominic J., Jr. The Harlem Riot of 1943. Philadelphia: Temple UP, 1977. Print.
Darden, Joe T., and Richard Walter Thomas. Detroit: Race Riots, Racial Conflicts, and Efforts to Bridge the Racial Divide. East Lansing: Michigan State UP, 2013. Print.
Lee, Alfred McClung Lee. Race Riot, Detroit 1943. 1943. New York: Octagon, 1968. Print.