In July 1964, after a white police officer shot and killed an African
American teenage boy, unrest broke out in Harlem and then
Bedford-Stuyvesant. Protests rose up to call for an end to police
brutality and the unequal treatment of Black people in a city that
viewed itself as liberal. A week of upheaval ensued, including looting
and property damage as well as widespread police violence, in what would
be the first of the 1960s urban uprisings.
Christopher Hayes examines the causes and consequences of the uprisings,
from the city's history of racial segregation in education, housing, and
employment to the ways in which the police both neglected and exploited
Black neighborhoods. While the national civil rights movement was
securing substantial victories in the 1950s and 1960s, Black New Yorkers
saw little or uneven progress. Faced with a lack of economic
opportunities, pervasive discrimination, and worsening quality of life,
they felt a growing sense of disenchantment with the promises of city
leaders. Turning to the aftermath of the uprising, Hayes demonstrates
that the city's power structure continued its refusal to address
structural racism. In the most direct local outcome, a broad,
interracial coalition of activists called for civilian review of
complaints against the police. The NYPD's rank and file fought this
demand bitterly, further inflaming racial tensions. The story of the
uprisings and what happened next reveals the white backlash against
civil rights in the north and crystallizes the limits of liberalism.
Drawing on a range of archives, this book provides a vivid portrait of
postwar New York City, a new perspective on the civil rights era, and a
timely analysis of deeply entrenched racial inequalities.
