The Riots of 1965–67 (Edexcel GCSE History): Revision Note

Summary

Despite Martin Luther King’s call for nonviolence, hundreds of American cities exploded in violence, murder and looting between 1965 and 1967. This resulted in the Kerner Report which concluded America was and becoming ever more divided nation.

Causes & patterns of the riots of 1965-1957

• Between 1965 and 1967 there were hundreds of separate riots across American cities

• The riots:

  • Left hundreds dead

  • Thousands injured

  • Cost billions of dollars in damage

Long term causes

• The long term causes were frustrations within Black communities over issues including: 

  • Unemployment

  • Poor housing 

  • Access to lower standards of education

  • Discrimination and violence at the hands of the police

  • Lower standards of living and fewer life opportunities than White Americans

Short term causes

• Short-term causes were often due to a local event or in response to events in the wider civil rights struggle

• Short-term causes included: 

  • Black Americans being shot by police

  • The Freedom Summer where civil rights campaigners were killed by the KKK

  • The brutal police response to the march in Selma 

• Although each riot was unique, they mostly shared the same pattern of escalation

The Kerner Report, 1968

• The response of President Johnson to the widespread violence was to order a report to investigate its causes

• The Kerner Report was completed in 1968 

  • Over 2 million copies of its conclusions were purchased by the American public

Kermer Report Conclusions

• Many Black Americans lived in terrible conditions and their complaints were ignored

• Money that was supposed to improve living conditions was all too often given to the police

• Responses to the riots by police often escalated the violence and made things worse

• Approaches to policing had to change because Black communities did not trust the police

• The media had played a role in exaggerating the riots

• Rather than becoming more equal, America was becoming more divided

Quote from the Kerner Report