Lombard Street Riot.
3 day race riot in Philly in 1834, this was the last in a 13 year period of frequent racial attacks in the city.
I wonder if anything like this will happen soon...?In the early decades of the 19th century, there were significant increases in the city's African-American population as large numbers of freed and fugitive slaves joined other immigrants in Philadelphia. During the twenty-five years prior to the run of riots, the city's African American population grew more than 50%. At the same time, there were increasing numbers of Irish immigrants, who were also separated from the larger society by their generally rural backgrounds, as well as by their Catholic religion. Given European political and religious tensions and the British occupation of Ireland, there had long been strong anti-Catholic feeling among many American Protestants.[3]During the years immediately before the riots, there were periodic outbreaks of racial, ethnic and religious violence among Irish Catholics, German Protestants, African Americans and even pacifistQuakers. These were the result of social and economic competition, especially between Irish Catholics and African Americans, who were generally at the bottom of the social hierarchy. Many Irish refused to work on labor teams with African Americans, adding to the difficulties of both groups in getting work.[2][3]
Irish Catholics, often competitors for the lowest-paying, unskilled and menial jobs, perceived the city's more successful African American residents as flaunting their success, setting the stage for the blacks to become targets for the immigrants' frustrations and jealous rage
On the morning of August 1, 1842, a parade was held by over 1,000 members of the black Young Men's Vigilant Association on Philadelphia's Lombard Street between Fifth and Eighth Streets in commemoration of the end of slavery in the British West Indies.As the paraders neared Mother Bethel Church, they were attacked by an Irish Catholic mob.[1][7][8][9] The rioters moved west, setting fires and attacking fire fighters and police as they went, heading for the home of African American leader Robert Purvis. Purvis and his home were saved from the Irish mob only through a Catholic priest's intervention.[7]
Requests to the Mayor and police for protection initially led to the arrest of several of the victims and none of the rioters. Over three days of attacks, the Second African American Presbyterian Church (on St. Mary's Street near 6th Street), the abolitionist Smith's Hall and numerous homes and public buildings were looted and burned, many of them destroyed.[9] The mayor had credible evidence of a plan to burn several local churches, which he ignored.
Eventually, as the rioting began to subside, the local militia was brought in to restore order
Well, not the Irish, and not for the same reasons, but I wonder if the media is trying to recreate something like this.
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Originally Posted by Gaffer
