Race riot in Tampa, Florida, USA
The 1967 Tampa riots were a series of race riots during June 1967 in Tampa, Florida, as one of 159 such riots in the United States that summer.
The Tampa riots began after a 19-year-old black man named Martin Chambers, who was one of three people suspected of robbing a camera supply warehouse on 421 East Ellasme Street, was fatally shot by a white officer of the Tampa Police Department, Patrolman James Calvert. The riots began on the night of June 11 and ended on June 15, in the neighborhood that was then known as Central Park.
Background.
June 11.
A hydroplane race took place on the day of June 11, where the Tampa Police Department's anti-riot unit, the Selective Enforcement Unit, was covering the event during the afternoon. TPD Chief James P. Mullins would be absent that day.
Central Park neighborhood.
Central Park, previously known as "The Scrub", was Tampa's first African-American neighborhood located between downtown Tampa and Ybor City. The neighborhood grew with the arrival of Henry Plant's railroad in 1883 and the cigar industry two years later. Starting in the 1890s and lasting until the 1950s, it was the most significant black neighborhood in the city, with Central Avenue being called the "Harlem of the South".
Urban renewal.
In the 1950s and 1960s, Tampa underwent significant urban development.
The federal "Housing Act" of 1949 and subsequent amendments allowed cities to pursue urban renewal projects. However, a 1952 Florida Supreme Court case ruled that cities could not use eminent domain to sell the land to private companies to redevelop. Though, with this case, cities in Florida could not participate in the Act, the legislature passed laws allowing Tampa and Tallahassee to undertake urban renewal projects. Urban renewal in the Central Avenue neighborhood was seen as a way to increase tax revenue.
Renewal projects forced some residents to leave their homes. The circumstances were exacerbated by insufficient low-income housing. Even before displacement, public housing was often filled up and private housing did not have the same quality or prices as public housing. As part of a slum-clearance project, two public housing projects would be built in parts of its area during 1954: Robles Park Village and Central Park Village. During May 1958, the Urban Renewal Agency (URA) in Tampa's municipal government was created by Mayor Nick Nuccio.
Ybor City saw the practices of blockbusting and redlining in it. African-American residents in Tampa often had difficulty getting loans from insurance and mortgage companies. Many black residents' views were not factored in during urban renewal projects, especially as URA had no black members on its board. For the construction of Interstate 4 (finished in 1963), an estimated 2,544 homes were razed and a sizable amount of neighborhood would be demolished for it. During the freeway construction that was done in Tampa, the URA estimated that several hundred black families would be displaced with freeway construction between 1962 and 1963 along with roughly 400 others being relocated by code enforcement related reasons.
Civil Rights Movement.
During the Civil Rights Movement in Tampa, there was little violence in the city. Starting in February 1960, a series of sit-ins at several stores in the downtown area took place, leading to 18 stores in Downtown Tampa being integrated in September. During the sit-ins, the only time that the police intervened was when they had to remove two white people from a Walgreens who were being abusive to protesters. Martin Luther King Jr. visited Tampa on November 19, 1961, and gave a speech at Fort Homer Hesterly Armory to a crowd of 4,200 people. A false bomb threat led to King and the attendees being evacuated and the speech was delayed by 30 minutes.
By 1967, Tampa was described as having little visible legal segregation in it. The city practiced the "Tampa Technique" of desegregating in a slow and nonconfrontational manner. However, there was significant economical segregation. Many black residents in the city were denied jobs and didn't have access to civil service tests. Black residents were also dissatisfied with the rate at which low-cost housing was being built, the poor quality of policing, a shortage of recreational facilities, and being exploited by white business owners in black neighborhoods.
Initial incident.
Chase.
On June 11, 1967, three burglars—Martin Chambers (19 years old), John Dawson, and Calvin Moore (15)—broke into Tampa's Photo Supply Warehouse located at 421 East Ellasme Street at 5:30pm, stealing photographic and film equipment worth over $100. Chambers is known to have had a criminal record in the past.
Tampa Police Department (TPD) Patrolman R.L. Cloud and G.L. Hackney were both on patrol in their police cars on Nebraska Avenue at the time. At approximately 6:18pm, the two officers observed the three men near an alley that connected to Nebraska Avenue located between Zack and Twiggs Street, believing them to be suspects in robbing the camera supply warehouse. Once spotted on Nebraska Avenue, they broadcast over the police radio that the men were the likely suspects in the burglary and gave descriptions of them. Cloud and Hackney followed the suspects until they noticed the two officers. All 3 suspects fled from the police once being spotted. Monroe attempted to escape but would end up being arrested.
Chambers, who was unarmed, ran through the surrounding neighborhood while trying to escape from the police. With Chambers having lost the two officers, Cloud and Hackney sent a message over the radio asking for assistance. J.L. Calvert, a white police officer who was alone in his police cruiser at the time of the broadcast, would join in and chase Chambers. After all three suspects had split up, Chambers would encounter Edward Thomas at one point. Thomas later on took the blame for the robbery. Monroe said that he himself, Thomas and Chambers were the ones that had robbed the store and had done it together.
When black residents of the Central Park Village housing project became aware of the chase, they began to participate and some even tried to help officers in locating Chambers. R.C. Oates—one of seventeen black police officers among the total 511 officers in the Tampa Police Department—called for Chambers to surrender, but was ignored. Calvert yelled at Chambers to stop but was also ignored. Chambers was chased by Calvert until he reached the rear side of a home in an unknown location. The rear side was described as facing a southerly direction while the front faced the north. The chase went into an alley that was long and wide bounded by a chain-link fence and the home itself with Chambers entering from the southeast.
Shooting and immediate aftermath.
Still in the alley, near the intersection of Cass Street and Nebraska Avenue, Calvert fired his .38 revolver at Chambers' back once and the bullet passed completely through his body. As Chambers was a few feet away from exiting, Calvert claimed that if Chambers had left the alley, he would have lost him.
Witnesses, on the other hand, said that Chambers had stopped and that he was attempting to surrender. However, when the witnesses were brought to the crime scene, they said they were at the westerly side of the house, a viewpoint that the police deemed would be impossible to view what happened in those moments. Calvert also claimed that he was attempting to shoot directly above Chambers' back but that he had missed. At the time of the shooting, Patrolman Calvert was described as "not having any special qualifications in marksmanship."
A crowd gathered around where Chambers had been shot and were angered about what happened to him. An ambulance was sent for Chambers but ended up getting lost along the way. As such, Oates put Chambers into his car and drove him to the hospital. Shortly after putting him in his car, Chambers died. Close to the time of Chambers being put into the car, a rainstorm occurred and the crowd dispersed. The rainstorm itself is said to have lasted two hours, but it is unknown when it ended.
Events.
June 11.
At 7:30pm, a report was received by the TPD saying that 500 people were gathering in an unspecified location. A police car was sent there but did not find anyone. In the Central Park Village housing complex, hundreds of people left the apartments as soon as the rain stopped. They discussed the shooting and incidents of prejudice that they had faced. At some point, in an attempt to persuade the crowd into dispersing, Officer Oates went to the area and make an announcement that an investigation would be made into Chambers' shooting.
Appearing to make progress in calming down the crowd, Oates' words were outweighed when a woman came running down a street screaming about her brother who was killed by the police. It is said that this caused the immediate crowd to become galvanized. The crowd began stoning in general, with police cars in the area being hit by rocks. The police tried to replicate what they had done in a similar incident in the past by withdrawing all police units which resulted in the crowd dispersing. However, this time it did not work and resulted in the opposite effect. In commercial areas nearby, the patrons of bars and nightclubs joined in with the initial crowd. A group of rioters moved down Central Avenue where the first stores were hit and the first fire was set.
During the early period of the riots, there was a lack of intelligence from the police resulting in their slow reaction time. Officers began to arrive in the area between 11:00 and 11:50pm. After 11pm, a request for deputies from Hillsborough County Sheriff Malcolm Beard was made. The recall order that was made earlier that day was rescinded by 11:30pm. By 11:50, there was enough law enforcement officers to create an "assault line" to move into the area where they thought the civil disorder was happening. While assembling at Cass Street, they encountered sniper fire. As a result, Sherriff's Department deputies and police officers were placed on the roof of the Pyramid Hotel to give cover. The group of officers and deputies moved north along Central Avenue going from Cass Street to Harrison Street. By the time the police started their march to try and penetrate the area, there were falling power lines in the area, with electrical sparks flying in the air near the line of officer's marching on the street. Using a sound car, the police announced that anyone caught with weapons would be shot. After the announcement, the firing ceased.
Officers crossed an alley on Harrison Street from the northwest corner of Harrison Street and Central Avenue. After a building collapsed, flames shot out from it, blocking Central Avenue. Those who were firing at the police likely obtained their weapons after looting a gun store. Police using dogs moved in to seek them out.
June 12.
At 12:45am, law enforcement forces began an attempt to create a perimeter around the area where civil unrest had been encountered at so far. The Sheriff's Department was responsible for all entrances to the area from the eastern side of Orange Street going from Scott to Cass Street. While doing these maneuvers, Sgt. Donald Clark Williams, a deputy from the Sheriff's Department who was leading a squad, died of a heart attack. Williams, who had a previous medical history relating to the heart attack, was 52 years old and had been with the Sheriff's Departments for 6 years at the time of his death.
While the TPD was responsible for all entrances on Central Avenue spanning from Scott to Harrison Street, the perimeter later ended up being extended and prohibited traffic going in and out of the area. The new perimeter was bounded by Cass Street towards the south, Nebraska Avenue in the east, Henderson Avenue in the north and Orange Street in the west.
For the following 12 hours, it was tense in the area.
By 1am, firefighters began extinguishing the fires that had been set to 3 buildings and had spread to several nearby buildings by this point. Most fires were extinguished by 4am. Deputy Fire Chief Charles Wells claimed that over 100 firefighters responded that night and none were injured.
At 2am, Sherriff Beard called Governor Claude Kirk who was in West Palm Beach at the time. Kirk flew into the city for a two-hour-long conference with Mayor Nick Nuccio and other city officials, and left by dawn. During the early