Rodney King & Newark Riots

Introduction

~Newark Riots of July 13th-17th 1967 were a series of events that steamed from the arrest of a local cab driver by the name of John Smith who was arrested for driving around a cop car and parking illegally. He was beaten by the officers and the city of Newark went into flames. The event lasted 4 days, but it ruined the reputation of an entire community to this day.

~Rodney King Riots of 1991 lasted longer than the Newark Riots , but was triggered by the same event of a black man being beat by officers.

A Little More In Depth

Many websites such as, Black Past.org do. The Newark riots started 8pm the night of the arrest and Rodney King riots didn’t officially start until a L.A gang member beat up a truck driver in broad daylight. Both situations caused a major uproar but nothing compared to the aftermath of the Rodney King Riots. Newark riots made a suburb become known as violent , but L.A was already a city known not to be reckoned with. Back in the 60s while the Newark Riots occurred L.A was rioting police brutality to the fullest extent with the Black Panther movement.

The main difference was the Rodney King riots ended with King himself asking “can’t we all just get along” even though the officers that beat on him were found docent in a court of law which made the black community flabbergasted because it was as if he didn’t appreciate that people were fighting for him. This cause a media lash out and it confused a whole generation.

Today

To this day social media makes memes and tweets spur on “black twitter” about the Rodney King Riots. Whenever there is police brutality we always find our way back to the King beatings no matter the year The Newark Riots on the other hand are very low key and most people do not even know they existed. For example I only know about them because of my junior year U.S.History Honors class.

Simply just type #RODNEYKINGRIOTS and BOOM ! There ya go !