Madeleine Arenivar

A brief history of the Chicago Race Riot of 1919, inspired by the politics surrounding the Occupy protests and its relationship with policing.

"This pamphlet illustrates how police violence in fact engendered resistance from Blacks in cities like Harlem. Harlem became the epicenter of black New York and perhaps even black America at the turn of the 20th century. In Harlem, tensions with the police were a permanent part of life. In 1943, a riot was triggered by a police officer's mistreatment of a young woman. In 1957, Malcolm X came to a national prominence following an incident of police brutality. In 1964, Harlem once again went up in flames after another incident of police mistreatment of local residents. This pamphlet will focus on these three episodes to provide some perspective about the history of police violence in New York City and particularly in Harlem in the mid-20th century. The topics are covered in an introductory manner and additional information is provided at the end for those who want to focus more in-depth." (Abstract taken from page 1).

As this pamphlet begins, "Police violence is unfortunately not new." Because of this, the series revolves around "The Mississippi Black Papers: Testimonials of Police Violence in the South" with images to accompany these testimonies from the mid 1960's.