[Oe List ...] Lessons from the Riots of 1968

[Herman Greene]

I just submitted this letter to the editor of the Raleigh News & Observer

*Lessons from the Riots of 1968*



In 1968, I lived in the East Garfield Park neighborhood of Chicago, which
was to be the center of the riots following Martin Luther King, Jr.’s death
on Thursday, April 4. I was part of a community that was engaged in
community reformulation in a 22-square block area. We lived in a
one-square-block seminary campus; the seminary had moved to the suburbs as
part of white flight. On the evening of April 5th (it was Good Friday), I
watched out of a third-floor window as fires were lit one after another.
They came closer and closer and eventually our building was set on
fire—thankfully, we were able to put the fires out. Organizers had
identified white-owned businesses, and these were the targets. The only
grocery story in the neighborhood was burned—it would not be replaced for
10 years. Looting was rampant. The National Guard was brought in. It was
surreal.



Protests and riots are related but different. Riots it is said are the
voice of the voiceless, but what a confusing and often destructive voice.
Protest comes from anger, riots from rage and the desire for payback
against a generalized other. In the 60s the civil rights movement, the Viet
Nam war, and the intolerable deterioration of inner-city urban life tore
into the American soul. Today pandemic, economic collapse, and blatant
racism torch our collective anxiety and despair. Then Richard Nixon called
on the “moral majority” to put down anarchy. There is little doubt in my
mind that the chaos of the riots and protests or the late 60s led to the
conservative turn in our nation, which began with Nixon.



Protests barely make the news these days, but riots and violence do. Along
with riots and violence come the widely divergent responses of the people.
Compared with Trump, Nixon was a healer—he appealed to a mythical majority
to restore order and decency. Trump appeals only to his base and incites
rage to counter rage, division to counter division, and distraction to
avoid addressing the serious problems we face.



It will take a miracle for our country to come together, for decency and
tolerance to reign. May those who engage in senseless violence cease, and
those who take what is not theirs stop. May we give up our carefully
constructed culture wars. May those who foment anger for gain come to their
senses. We cannot afford another 50-year detour into us versus them. We are
the *United *States and there is so much we need to do together.



Herman Greene

Chapel Hill, NC

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__________________________________________________
Herman F. Greene
2516 Winningham Road
Chapel Hill, NC 27516
919-942-4358 (ph & fax)
hfgreenenc at gmail.com
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