revolutionary action movement (ram) - Michael Schwartz Library

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August, 1965 brought the Watts Rebellion . The theory of Williams and
Malcolm X had become materialist reality .
Thousands of African-Americans
burned down buildings, looted, sniped at police and
helicopters bringing
Los Angeles to almost a standstill, with the masses chanting "Burn Baby
Burn" . The Watts Rebellion of 1965 has been considered by many political
scientists as the turning point in the black liberation movement in the
1960's . From 1965 to 1968, urban rebellion or urban geurrilla warfare,
was the major ideological tendency of the masses in northern cities . Urban
rebellions were seen as a legitimate form of protest against racial injustice
inside the United States . Among the street force (seasonably unemployed)
urban rebellions were considered part of the world black revolution .
Urban Rebellions
With greater intensity and
frequency each year during
the mid-60's,
the urban rebellions started in
northeastern cities, such as Philadelphia
and Newark on a small scale in 1964 and spread west to Los Angles and south
to Greensboro, North Carolina in 1965 . The Watts Rebellion in Los Angles
was considered the
turning point, because it was the first time that the
masses of black people unified for a
cause and implemented what they considered
to be a
protest through large scale burning and
sniping at police .
In the spring and summer of 1966, rebellions had spread to thirty-eight
cities . And by 1967, the Newark and Detroit rebellions had reached the
same intensity that Watts had .
The Detroit and Newark rebellions were part of the massive countrywide
wave of Black rebellion which began in 1964 and reached
high points in 1967 and 1968 . During the year of 1967 alone,
164 rebellions broke out, 103 of them occurring in the month of
July alone . 25
25,, Hail the 10th Anniversary of the great 1967 Afro-American Rebellions
in Detroit and Newark," The Workers Advocate , Vol . 7, (August 1977), p . 16 .