Black American Struggle: Riot or Revolution?

Dan Snow's History Hit

History Hit

History

4.7 • 12.9K Ratings

🗓️ 20 June 2021

⏱️ 23 minutes

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Summary

The 1960s and early 1970s saw civil unrest and violence in the United States on a scale not seen since the civil war between black residents and the police but was this simply rioting or a revolution? Dan is joined by Elizabeth Hinton associate professor of history, African American studies, and law at Yale University and Yale Law School. She argues in her new book America on Fire that rather than being a series of criminal acts, as it was often portrayed, this violence was more akin to an uprising against an unjust and overreaching state. Elizabeth and Dan discuss the causes and consequences of these uprisings including the militarization of the police and the failure to address the fundamental social injustices which were the root causes of the unrest. This is a fascinating episode that addresses vital issues that remain extremely current.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi everybody, welcome to Dan Snow's History Hit.
0:04.4	I've got Professor Elizabeth Hinton on the podcast today.
0:07.2	She is a Professor of African American Studies and Law at Yale University and she has published
0:12.6	one of those books.
0:13.6	One of these books that comes along every so often and changes the conversation.
0:17.6	Change of the conversation about the past, which obviously therefore has a profound impact
0:21.8	on the way we see and define things in the present.
0:26.8	I recently published books called America on Fire and it actually talks about black violence
0:31.9	in the 1960s and early 70s and the response from police authorities and government.
0:38.2	Actually, it goes further than authors I've read before.
0:41.6	She points out this was violence on a scale not seen in the USA since the Civil War of
0:46.6	the 1860s.
0:48.8	She argues very convincingly, these were not criminal, emotional outbursts.
0:53.6	This was an uprising.
0:55.4	This was a series what you might call rebellion against the unjust overreaching state and
1:01.2	it is best understood as such.
1:03.1	And also she points out that the reaction to it, the militarization of the police, the demonization
1:08.9	of legitimate black demands for rights and equality is something that has endured and
1:14.5	still shapes the conversation and shapes the official response to this day.
1:20.5	This is a huge subject.
1:21.5	It's a great honour to have a little bit of a sentence on the podcast talking about it.
1:25.4	If you want to listen to previous episodes we've done in this kind of area, we've talked
	...

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