# Race Riots "Race Riots" is the historical-analytical category designating the substantial pattern of coordinated anti-Black mob violence — predominantly white-mob violence against Black-population communities — across approximately a century of American history (substantial post-Civil-War through approximately 1968 civil-rights-movement-era period). The category substantially-includes substantial-documented events of coordinated mass-violence including destruction of Black-population residential-and-commercial infrastructure, mass-Black-population displacement, and substantial Black-population killing. The contemporary scholarly-and-historical-analytical literature substantially-distinguishes between "race riot" terminology (which substantially-misleadingly implies substantial-mutual political-cultural-violence between substantially-equivalent political-cultural-coalition parties) and "race massacre" terminology (which substantially-accurately describes the substantially-asymmetric political-cultural-violence pattern — overwhelmingly white-mob violence against Black-population infrastructure). The contemporary scholarly-and-historical-analytical literature substantially-uses "race massacre" terminology where the historical-documentary-record substantially-supports the substantively-asymmetric political-cultural-violence pattern. The framework matters for the KB substantially across multiple registers: 1. **Umbrella analytical category for substantial documented historical anti-Black mass-violence events.** Race Riots is the umbrella analytical category for substantial documented historical anti-Black mass-violence events including [[Tulsa Race Massacre]], Wilmington 1898, East St. Louis 1917, Chicago 1919 (part of Red Summer), Atlanta 1906, Rosewood 1923, and substantially-multiple adjacent documented events. Tracking the framework is essential to engaging with broader contemporary American racial-political-history analytical-literature. 2. **Paramilitary-impunity pattern documentary case.** Race Riots substantially-instantiate the broader paramilitary-impunity pattern documented across the [[Lynching]] / [[Greensboro Massacre]] / [[Charlottesville Unite the Right Rally]] analytical-framework. Tracking the framework is essential to engaging with broader contemporary American paramilitary-impunity analytical-literature. 3. **[[The Lost Cause]] memory-management documentary case.** Race Riots substantially-subject to [[The Lost Cause]] historiographic memory-management across approximately a century of American historical-cultural-environment. Substantial portion of documented race-massacres substantially-erased from mainstream American historical-cultural-environment until late-20th-and-early-21st-century scholarly-and-cultural-historical-recovery work. ## Principal Documented Events **Wilmington 1898 (Wilmington insurrection / massacre / coup).** Substantial coordinated white-supremacist-political-coalition overthrow of the Wilmington, North Carolina democratically-elected biracial city government and substantial coordinated mob-violence destruction of Black-population residential-and-commercial infrastructure. The substantial event is the only documented successful violent-political-coup against an American democratically-elected city government in modern American history. The substantial event substantially-erased from mainstream American historical-cultural-environment until substantial late-20th-and-early-21st-century scholarly-and-cultural-historical-recovery work. **Atlanta 1906.** Substantial coordinated white-mob violence against Black-population communities and businesses in Atlanta, Georgia. Substantial documented Black-population casualties; substantial Black-population residential-and-commercial infrastructure destruction. **East St. Louis 1917.** Substantial coordinated white-mob violence against Black-population communities in East St. Louis, Illinois. Substantial documented Black-population casualties (estimates range from approximately 40 to substantially-larger numbers); substantial Black-population residential infrastructure destruction. The substantial event substantially-coincided with substantial [[Great Migration]] Black-population labor-migration-into-Northern-industrial-employment-environment. **Chicago 1919 (part of Red Summer).** Substantial coordinated white-mob violence against Black-population communities in Chicago, Illinois. Substantial documented Black-population casualties; substantial multi-day continuous mass-violence environment. The substantial event was part of the broader "Red Summer" period of substantial coordinated white-mob violence against Black-population communities across multiple American cities during 1919. **Red Summer 1919.** Substantial coordinated multi-event white-mob violence across multiple American cities during 1919. Substantial documented Black-population casualties across approximately 25+ documented cities and rural communities. The substantial event substantially-coincided with substantial post-WWI Black-veteran political-cultural-environment-development. **[[Tulsa Race Massacre]] (1921).** The principal documented contemporary American race-massacre case. See [[Tulsa Race Massacre]] entry for analytical-content. **Rosewood 1923.** Substantial coordinated white-mob violence against the predominantly-Black-population community of Rosewood, Florida. Substantial documented Black-population casualties; substantial Black-population residential-and-commercial infrastructure destruction; substantial Black-population displacement (the substantial community substantially-permanently-displaced and the substantial community-infrastructure substantially-never-rebuilt). ## Common Pattern The substantial documented race-riot / race-massacre events substantially-share a common pattern across multiple substantively-distinct documented cases: - **Substantial precipitating-event substantially-substantively-or-falsely characterized as Black-population provocation.** Substantial coordinated white-mob mobilization substantially-organized around precipitating-event substantially-substantively-or-falsely characterized as Black-population provocation (typically alleged Black-population sexual-assault or other criminal-conduct against white-population individual). - **Substantial coordinated mass-mobilization through political-cultural-environment infrastructure.** Substantial coordinated mass-mobilization through political-cultural-environment infrastructure substantially-including substantial newspaper-network-and-political-coalition-organizational coordination. - **Substantial state-local-and-paramilitary-infrastructure complicity.** Substantial state-local law-enforcement-and-paramilitary-infrastructure complicity through deputization of mob-members, on-scene non-intervention, or substantial-active-participation. Substantial [[National Guard]] or federal-military-deployment substantially-organized-after-mass-violence to substantially-protect remaining white-population infrastructure rather than to substantially-prevent or substantially-suppress mass-violence against Black-population infrastructure. - **Substantial Black-population residential-and-commercial infrastructure destruction.** Substantial coordinated destruction of Black-population residential-and-commercial infrastructure substantially-organized as substantively-political-economic-and-cultural-destruction rather than substantively-spontaneous-violence. - **Substantial post-event impunity for white-mob participants.** Substantial post-event impunity for white-mob participants — substantial portion of documented race-riot / race-massacre events resulted in substantially-zero or substantially-minimal criminal-justice-system accountability for white-mob participants. - **Substantial post-event memory-management.** Substantial post-event [[The Lost Cause]]-style memory-management substantially-erasing the documented events from mainstream American historical-cultural-environment. ## Why It Matters for the KB **Umbrella analytical category for substantial documented historical anti-Black mass-violence events.** Race Riots is the umbrella analytical category. Tracking the framework is essential to engaging with broader contemporary American racial-political-history analytical-literature. **Paramilitary-impunity pattern documentary case.** Race Riots substantially-instantiate the broader paramilitary-impunity pattern. Tracking the framework is essential to engaging with broader contemporary American paramilitary-impunity analytical-literature. **[[The Lost Cause]] memory-management documentary case.** Race Riots substantially-subject to Lost Cause memory-management. Tracking the framework is essential to engaging with broader contemporary American historical-cultural-memory analytical-literature. ## See Also - [[Lynching]] — adjacent historical anti-Black violence-pattern (extra-legal individual-and-small-group-murder pattern) - [[Jim Crow Era]] — the broader political-legal-regime - [[The Lost Cause]] — the principal contemporaneous-and-subsequent historiographic memory-management project - [[Reconstruction and Its Overthrow]] — adjacent historical-political-period - [[Tulsa Race Massacre]] — the principal documented case-event - [[Greensboro Massacre]] — adjacent paramilitary-impunity case-event - [[White Supremacy]] — the principal political-philosophical-and-political-coalition-context - [[Second Ku Klux Klan]] — adjacent paramilitary-organizational-infrastructure