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On November 1, 1950, Oscar Collazo and Griselio Torresola, two Puerto Rican nationalists, attempted to assassinate President Harry S. Truman in Washington, D.C. Two days prior to the attempt, rioters had descended upon the Puerto Rican governor's mansion in San Juan at the urging of nationalist leader Albizu Campos, who advocated revolution as the only means of securing Puerto Rican independence.
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In Northern Ireland growing unrest between the Catholic minority and the Protestant majority erupted into violence in the late 1960s. Riots were common on the streets of Belfast, Northern Ireland's capital city, as a militant terrorist group known as the Irish Republican Army (IRA) rose to prominence, protesting discrimination against Catholics and demanding a unified Ireland. In response to the escalating violence, Britain sent troops to maintain...
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In 1946 six Alcatraz prisoners attempted to escape by taking nine prison guards hostage and releasing the other prisoners from their cells. The six conspirators had planned to use their hostages to get across the prison yard, into the prison ferry, and across the bay. Their plan was foiled when they could not find the right key for the door to the prison yard. Time ran out and they missed the ferry launch. The plot quickly unraveled as prison officers...
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In June 1943, Los Angeles erupted into the worse race riots in the city to date. For ten straight nights, American sailors armed with make-shift weapons cruised Mexican-American neighborhoods in search of "zoot-suiters" - hip, young teens dressed in baggy pants and long-tailed coats - symbols that blurred cultural lines and pushed the boundaries of race and class. Their posturing and self-assurance made Anglos nervous and soon a violent street battle...
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This program with Bill Moyers examines the status of black Americans, particularly in light of the rioting in Los Angeles that followed the Rodney King verdict. Featured in the program are rapper Sister Souljah; Robert Woodson, Chairman of the Council for a Black Economic Agenda; and Michael Cross, Director of the Male Responsibility Program of the Detroit Urban League. They are joined by Charles Hamilton (Columbia University), Jennifer Hochschild...
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In the summer of 1965, tensions in South Central Los Angeles exploded: high unemployment, poverty, and racism ignited a tinderbox of frustration after a routine traffic arrest. In 1991, the same conditions once again resulted in riots, violence, and looting after the acquittal of four white police officers in the beating of Rodney King. This program examines the socioeconomic conditions in Watts that have made it an ongoing hotbed of violence. Community...
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During the 1970s, Soweto was the scene of some of South Africa's worst antiapartheid violence. "People were not allowed to be on the streets at night," recalls former journalist Martin Mamlaba. "The army would beat them up..." Reacting to these brutal methods, the township united against the oppression - but now the generation that fought apartheid has been defined by its bloody past, and with no education or formal training, gangs have flourished,...
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Black activism is increasingly met with a sometimes violent and unethical response from local and federal law enforcement agencies. In Chicago, two Black Panther Party leaders are killed in a pre-dawn raid by police acting on information supplied by an FBI informant. In the wake of President Nixon's call to "law and order," stepped-up arrests push the already poor conditions at New York's Attica State Prison to the limit. A five-day inmate takeover...