Racial Riots Erupt In Chicago

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31111, 14 July 1966, Page 15

Racial Riots Erupt In Chicago

f.V.Z.PA. Reuter—Copyright) CHICAGO, July 13. Roving bands of Negroes rioted and looted through an area of southwest Chicago early’ today smashing windows and hurling rocks and Molotov cocktails at police.

The rioting began last night when policemen shut down a fire hydrant that Negro children were using to cool themselves from oppressively hot, humid weather.

A police spokesman acknowledged that the situation was serious, but he said: “This is not a Watts.” Some of the worst racial rioting in American history erupted last summer in the Watts section of Los Angeles. The spokesman added, however: “We don’t know what’s going to happen tonight. Nobody knows.” The plate-glass windows of every store in one large shopping plaza were shattered and the shelves of a food supermarket emptied before police arrived. Gangs broke into stores, broke windows and street lights as they roamed the area. One police squad car was set afire by a flaming Molotov cocktail and police in another car said they were the target of five fire bombs. Three squad cars were hit with bricks. Shattered glass fragments littered the sidewalks and streets. “LID OFF” Police said that the rioting tapered off slightly in the early morning hours from a peak near midnight. But the frequent sound of breaking glass continued during the night. “The lid has been off, but we're in the process of putting it back on,” the police spokesman said. Dr. Martin Luther King, the Negro civil rights leader, conferred with police during the night, and then headed off into the darkened streets with a large group of his lieutenants to try to halt the violence.

He also went to a police station where six arrested Neeroes had been taken.

King, accompanied by Al Raby, head of a Chicago civil rights organisation, persuaded police to release the youths on the recognisance of the Rev. Columbus Ewing, a civil rights figure in the area.

Dr. King took the halfdozen freed youths with him to a church.

Dr. King and other civil rights leaders pleaded for calmness and then encouraged members of the audi-

ence to speak from the floor “to relieve the tension.” A number of Negro youths I scoffed at Dr. King and walked out of the building. Police estimates of the rampaging crowd ranged from several hundred to more than 1000 roaming the area in small bands. The fire-hydrant disturbance itself resulted in the arrest of eight Negroes. Later police said a total of 41 persons had been arrested. About 300 policemen were on I the scene. Dr. King said the main reason for the disturbance following the incident over the fire hydrants was the belief ! by residents that the eight arrested were the victims of

police brutality. Police denied the charges. In New York four policemen were injured when officers moved in to break up a street fight between Negro and white youths who attended a dance in the Coney Island resort area.

Police said the officers were struck by debris hurled at them from the group, but none was seriously hurt. Fourteen Negro youths were arrested. Police said about 40 other Negroes gathered outside the police station house after the youths were taken into custody. But the crowd later dispersed without incident. The fight apparently followeo a dispute between two unidentified youths at an integrated dance at the Young Men’s Hebrew Association, Coney Island branch.

Trimaran At Darwin. Lieutenant • Commander George Cole and family, including his 92-year-old mother, today sailed into Darwin harbour after crossing the Indian Ocean from Mombasa, Kenya, in the 40ft trimaran Galinule on their way to New Zealand. Darwin, July 13.