1874 Tompkins Square Park riot

Riot and civil disorder in New York City the 1988 police riot Tompkins Square Park riot (1988) September 2026 September 2026 Tompkins Square Park riot 300px New York City January 13, 1874 Crowd driven from Tompkins Square by the mounted police USA New York City New York City 280 40 43 43 N 73 58 53 W type:landmark_region:US-NY inline,title Panic of 1873 labor relief Strikes, Protest, Demonstrations The Committee of Safety in New York City; Tenth Ward Workingmen's Association New York police Patrick Dunn; Joseph Hoefflicher; Samuel Gompers William F. Havemeyer; Abram Duryée Deaths: Injuries: Arrests: 46 Deaths: Injuries: Arrests, etc The Tompkins Square Park riot occurred on January 13, 1874, at Tompkins Square Park in what is now the East Village and Alphabet City neighborhoods of Manhattan, New York City. The riot started after the New York City Police Department clashed with a demonstration involving thousands of unemployed civilians.Gordon, Michael Allen The Orange Riots: Irish Political Violence in New York City, 1870-1871 Cornell University Press 1993 203 Background The riot occurred in the midst of the Panic of 1873, a depression that began in 1873 and lasted until 1877.Street Justice: A History of Political Violence in New York City Johnson, Marilynn S. Beacon Press 2003 30–31 Workers' movements throughout the United States had been making demands of the government to help ease the strain of the depression.Gutman 1965 44 Organizations rejected offers of charity and instead asked for public works programs that would provide jobs for the masses of unemployed.Wallace, Michael; Burrows, Edwin G., Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898 (Oxford University Press USA, 1998) p.1024 Formed in December 1873, The Committee of Safety in New York City tried to organize a meeting with city officials but was denied any such opportunity.Gutman 1965 44 The Panic of 1873 left workers impoverished and drove workers' demands and the subsequent riot. The Bureau of statistics in Massachusetts had found that the majority of working men then were unable to support their families from their earnings, and depended on the assistance of their children in order not to be in poverty and debt. Meanwhile, workers also had to deal with inflation as prices for rent, fuel and clothing didn't fall to meet decreased wages.Science and Society, Guilford Press (1956), Chapter: American Labor in the Great Depression, 1873-1878 by Samuel Bernstein, Vol. 20, No.1 Evictions had become widespread and people roamed the streets looking for food to eat. In New York City, there were over 90,000 homeless workers, almost half of them women, who were forced to sleep in police stations. They became known as "revolvers" because they could only stay in a police station for a few nights a month and therefore had to keep moving.Zinn, Howard. 2015. A People's History of the United States: 1492-Present. London: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group In response, the committee organized a demonstration for January 13, 1874 to meet in Tompkins Square Park, which had often been used as a gathering point for demonstrations,Gardner, Deborah S. "Tompkins Square: Past and Present". The Journal of American History77:1 (1990) p. 233 and planned to march to City Hall. Demonstrators would demand that Mayor William F. Havemeyer establish a public works program to generate employment opportunities by donating $100,000 to a Labor Relief Bureau to be established by the committee.Gutman 1965 45 A separate organization, headed by Patrick Dunn, then called for a more militant demonstration on January 5, urging workers to use direct action if the government did not respond to demands.Gutman 1965 45 Members of the Committee of Safety attended the protest, at first trying to discourage workers from marching to City Hall that day but then joining the committee that led the march once it became clear that the demonstration could not be prevented. The demonstrators' demands were turned down by Aldermen at City Hall, and Committee of Safety members encouraged people to return for another demonstration on January 8.Gutman 1965 46 Over 1,000 people showed up for the January 8th demonstration in Union Square.Gutman 1965 46 The police also sent one precinct's full reserve force.LOCAL MISCELLANY.; THE WORKING MEN'S DEMONSTRATION. IMPORTANT INSURANCE CASE. COURT OF GENERAL SESSIONS. KINGS COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS. REAL ESTATE ON LONG ISLAND. COL. BOUDINOT'S LECTURE. THE CARNIVAL SEASON. New York Times (1857-1922). New York, N.Y.: Jan 9, 1874. pg. 2 Dunn proposed for the crowd to march on City Hall again but was outnumbered by Committee of Safety supporters, who instead chose to march to Tompkins Square. At Tompkins Square, several demands, including the 8-hour day, were voted for, and the crowd was then encouraged to return again on January 13 for the original march organized by the Committee of Safety.Gutman 1965 46 Another precinct had its reserve force ready in Tompkins Square, but the police did not take any action that day. The Committee of Safety's attempts to pacify the movement did not bring them any sympathy however. Across the city, newspapers warned of the menace that the Committee represented. It was rumored that weapons had been bought with jewels stolen in Paris by Communards.Wallace, Michael; Burrows, Edwin G., Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898 (Oxford University Press USA, 1998) p.1025 The Police Board refused to allow the demonstration to come near City Hall, instead advising for the committee to march to Union Square.Gutman 1965 47–48 When asked, Governor John Adams Dix rejected the committee's pleas to intervene on their behalf in the matter.Gutman 1965 51 In the end, the Committee decided not to have a march at all but simply hold the meeting in Tompkins Square ParkGutman 1965 51 for which they had already received the permit from the Department of Parks. At the request of the Police Board, however, the Department of Parks revoked the permit the night before the meeting. The police claimed to have told the Committee of Safety organizer Peter J. McGuire about the change of decision, who claimed to have been out when the message was delivered.Gutman 1965 52 The Department of Parks decision certainly was not made known to the masses of protesters in time to cancel the demonstration the next morning. The riot Over 7,000 workers gathered in Tompkins Square Park on January 13, 1874, including about 1,200 workers from the German Tenth Ward Workingmen's Association. This was the largest demonstration that New York City had ever seen.Labor Movement in the United States International Publishers Co. Foner, Philip S. 1979 448 Roughly 1,600 policemen were stationed in the surrounding area. There were no notices in sight, however, to inform the crowd that the meeting's permit had been revoked.Gutman 1965 53 Shortly after 10 a.m., police entered the square and dispersed most of the crowd from the park, beating people with clubs. Other police on horseback cleared the surrounding streets.DEFEAT OF THE COMMUNISTS; THE MASS-MEETING AND PARADE BROKEN UP. ENCOUNTER BETWEEN THE MOB AND THE POLICE ARREST OF RIOTERS. THE "COMMITTEE OF SAFETY" BEFORE THE MAYOR. THE RIOTERS IN COURT. New York Times (1857-1922). Jan 14, 1874. p. 2 Men from the German Tenth Ward Workingmen's Association fought back, attempting to defend the square. One policeman was hit in the head with a hammer.Gutman 1965 53 Christian Mayer was arrested for the incident. Samuel Gompers described the events and his experiences: "mounted police charged the crowd on Eighth Street, riding them down and attacking men, women, and children without discrimination. It was an orgy of brutality. I was caught in the crowd on the street and barely saved my head from being cracked by jumping down a cellarway."Seventy Years of Life and Labor https://archive.org/details/seventyyearsofli0000gomp_a0u4 registration Gompers, Samuel E. P. Dutton & Company 1925 32–34 Panic spread across New York the rest of the day. One school was put under police protection as it was rumored that immigrants were planning to burn it down.Gutman 1965 55 City Alderman Kehr claimed that he had to jump off a street car to escape from protesters. Aftermath A total of 46 arrests were made in connection with the January 13 Tompkins Square meeting.Gutman 1965 55 Bail was set at $1000 for each arrestee (over $22,000 adjusted for inflation in 2022https://www.in2013dollars.com/us/inflation/1874?amount=1000 $1,000 in 1874 → 2022 | Inflation Calculator ). Mayer, along with as his fellow Tenth Ward Workingmen's Association member, Joseph Hoefflicher, received assault charges,Gutman 1965 55 and both went to jail for several months.Gutman 1965 60A TOMPKINS SQUARE RIOTER SENTENCED. New York Times (1857-1922). Jan 23, 1874. p. 8 Mayer was finally pardoned at the end of the summer by Governor Dix after a campaign led by a socialist newspaper.Gutman 1965 66 A third German worker, Justus Schwab, who had been arrested for carrying a red flag, was charged with incitement to riot.Gutman 1965 55 Schwab's East First Street saloon, a meeting place for radicals, was memorialized in 2012 with a plaque placed by the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation.Historic Plaque Unveiling and Celebration 30 May 2012 https://www.flickr.com/photos/gvshp/sets/72157629983708138 Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation 1 October 2014 The unemployed movement lost much momentum after the riot. Efforts to organize another march proved to be futile. With the exception of the campaign to pardon Mayer, support was not sustained for those who were injured or arrested in the riot. By the end of the month, the Committee of Safety dissolved itself to form the Industrial Political Party, which was then also dissolved later that year.Gutman 1965 55 Attempts were made to have members of the Police Board fired over the incident. John Swinton, editor at the New York Sun, described police actions as an "outrage" in statements made at the New York State Assembly's Committee on Grievances. These were later published as a pamphlet, The Tompkins Square Outrage, but the campaign to have the Board fired never succeeded.Gutman 1965 65 At the same time, the New York City Police Department increased their surveillance and harassment of political organizations. They were able to intimidate landlords into evicting radical groups and canceling meetings on their premises.Gutman 1965 60–62THE FREE THINKERS.; THE PROPOSED MASS-MEETING A FAILURE THE ACTION OF THE POLICE AT TOMPKINS SQUARE DENOUNCED. New York Times (1857-1922). Jan 24, 1874. p. 8 A church fire was wrongly blamed on radicals, and rumor of a Communist plot to kill the mayor was circulated, both in an attempt to justify police actions.Gutman 1965 60 See also List of incidents of civil unrest in New York City List of incidents of civil unrest in the United States References Bibliography 10.1080/00236566508583955 0023-656X 6 1 44–70 Gutman Herbert G. The Tompkins square “Riot” in New York City on January 13, 1874: A re‐examination of its causes and its aftermath Labor History 1965 Category:Riots and civil disorder in New York City Category:New York City Police Department Category:1874 in New York (state) Category:Police brutality in the United States Category:1874 riots Category:Political riots in the United States 1974 riot Category:19th-century political riots Category:1874 in American politics