Shooting, Raping In U.S. Cities

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30511, 5 August 1964, Page 17

Shooting, Raping In U.S. Cities

-Reuter—Copyright) JERSEY CITY (New Jersey), August 4.

Two Negroes were shot and half a dozen injured last night as racial rioting hit Jersey City on the second successive night.

Early today a mob of more than 100 Negroes had been subdued but window breaking, looting and stone throwing in various parts of the city continued.

From Knoxville, Tennessee, it was reported yesterday that several young Negroes repeatedly raped a white woman in a playground while nearby residents ignored her screams for help.

The two injured Negroes in Jersey City were reported in fair condition in hospital.

Two policemen were reported injured, one burned by a Molotov cocktail (petrol bomb). The hospital said about six people were treated for minor injuries.

Police took at least five Negroes into custody. The trouble began shortly after 8 o’clock last night when Negroes threw stones at cars being driven by white people at Grand and Prior streets—scene of the previous night’s violent outbreak.

Nearly 40 police armed with riot guns and revolvers went to the scene. They fired shots into the air as they faced a barrage of Molotov cocktails and stones. LIGHTS OUT

Policemen began shooting out street lights so that the rioters would have difficulty in spotting their targets. The police contingent was later increased to between 150 and 220—some on horseback. Towards midnight they reported that the main rioting mob of about 100 had been contained in the glass-littered trouble streets in a predominantly Negro section of the city. Reports of window-

breaking and looting continued to come in. Jersey City is just over the Hudson river from New York City whose Harlem Negro quarter was recently the scene of violent clashes between rioters and police. On Sunday night Negro youths in Jersey City went on a rampage of windowsmashing and looting. About 30 people were injured and 13 Negroes were -arrested. Last night’s disturbance began as Negro and city leaders conferred on the tense situation. A Negro rally had earlier been called off. Clergymen and civil rights leaders walked through the streets trying to calm young Negroes. The police were already on a special alert and the Mayor, Mr Thomas Whelan, had warned that ‘Yorce will be met by force.” The meeting between the clergymen Negro leaders and the Mayor broke up as soon as it was known that the riot was taking place. Mr Raymond Brown, president of the local branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People, said: “Nothing of any value happened at the meeting. There was no point in continuing with the trouble going on.” About three dozen helmeted policemen armed with riot guns and .38-calibre revolvers stood at the street intersection firing volleys of shots in the air. The youths grouped in the middle of one glass-littered street. Asked if his men would move in on the Negroes, a police lieutenant said: “You never move in—you’d get killed if you did.” He said the police would let the Negroes stay there, hoping they would expend all their energy and leave. FOUR CHARGED After the Knoxville raping four Negroes have been charged, two others are implicated and two more are to be questioned. The assault took place on Friday night and early Saturday in the Lyons View Negro community in West Knoxville.

“Some people told us that they heard the woman

screaming, but they didn’t do anything about it or even call the police,” said a police spokesman. He quoted one of the alleged assailants as telling the woman not to scream or protest, and ordering her to submit or “they’ll kill you.” The woman, a mother of four, had been to a political rally.