American Race Riots and Racial Violence Timeline

Compiled for reference purposes. Terminology for these events is contested among historians. Many incidents described historically as "riots" are now more accurately characterized as massacres or pogroms perpetrated by white mobs against Black communities, rather than two-sided civil unrest. Dates and details below reflect commonly cited historical accounts. Some figures, especially for the 19th century, remain estimates due to incomplete or suppressed contemporary records.

Section 1

General Timeline, 17th-21st Century

This timeline spans documented race riots, massacres, and related episodes of racial violence across U.S. history, from colonial-era slave revolts through the 2020 George Floyd protests. It is not exhaustive, particularly for the Reconstruction era, where the scale of localized violence vastly exceeds what is captured in any single timeline.

Date	Location	Event and Explanation
1712	New York City	Slave revolt and violent suppression.
1741	New York City	"Negro Plot" conspiracy trials and executions.
1739	South Carolina	Stono Rebellion and violent suppression.
1829	Cincinnati, OH	Anti-Black mob violence.
1834	New York City	Anti-abolition riots.
1834	Philadelphia, PA	Race riot.
1835	Washington, D.C.	Snow Riot.
1836	Cincinnati, OH	Anti-abolitionist riot.
1838	Philadelphia, PA	Pennsylvania Hall Riot.
1842	Philadelphia, PA	Race riot on August 1.
1849	Cincinnati, OH	Race riot.
1862	Detroit, MI	Race riot in March.
1863	New York City	Draft Riots, July 13-16.
1865	Norfolk, VA	Riot on April 16.
1866	Memphis, TN	Massacre, May 1-3.
1866	Charleston, SC	Riot in May.
1866	New Orleans, LA	Riot on July 30.
1868-1876	Multiple Southern states	34 documented Reconstruction-era mass lynchings and massacres. The detailed breakdown appears below.
1898	Wilmington, NC	Insurrection and massacre on November 10.
1899	Lake City, SC	Riot.
1900	New Orleans, LA	Riot in July.
1903	Evansville, IN	Riot in July.
1904	Statesboro, GA	Riot in August.
1906	Atlanta, GA	Race riot, September 22-24.
1906	Brownsville, TX	Brownsville Affair on August 13.
1908	Springfield, IL	Race riot, August 14-16.
1910	Slocum, TX	Massacre, July 29-30.
1910	Multiple cities	Riots following the Jack Johnson fight on July 4.
1917	East St. Louis, IL	Riot, July 1-3.
1917	Houston, TX	Riot / Camp Logan Mutiny on August 23.
1919	Multiple cities ("Red Summer")	Charleston, Longview, Washington D.C., Chicago, Knoxville, Omaha, Elaine, Bisbee, Norfolk, and dozens more.
1920	Ocoee, FL	Massacre on November 2.
1921	Tulsa, OK	Race Massacre, May 31-June 1.
1923	Rosewood, FL	Massacre, January 1-7.
1930	Sherman, TX	Riot in May.
1935	Harlem, NY	Riot on March 19.
1943	Detroit, MI	Race riot, June 20-22.
1943	Harlem, NY	Riot, August 1-2.
1943	Los Angeles, CA	Zoot Suit Riots, June 3-8.
1943	Beaumont & Mobile	Riots in May-June.
1946	Columbia, TN	Race riot, February 25-26.
1949	Peekskill, NY	Riots in August-September.
1951	Cicero, IL	Race riot in July.
1956	Mansfield & Clinton, TN	Desegregation riots.
1963	Cambridge, MD	Riot in June.
1964	Harlem, Rochester, Philadelphia, Jersey City	Riots in July-August.
1965	Watts, Los Angeles, CA	Riots, August 11-17.
1966	Chicago, Cleveland (Hough), Omaha, San Francisco	Riots.
1967	Newark, NJ	Riots, July 12-17.
1967	Detroit, MI	Riot, July 23-28.
1967	Plainfield, Milwaukee, Cambridge, Tampa, Atlanta	Riots.
1968	Washington D.C., Chicago, Baltimore, Kansas City	Holy Week Uprising, April 4-11.
1969	York, PA	Race riot in July.
1970	Asbury Park, NJ	Riot in July.
1980	Miami, FL	Riots related to the McDuffie case, May 17-19.
1989	Miami, FL	Riots related to the Lozano case in January.
1991	Crown Heights, Brooklyn, NY	Riot, August 19-21.
1992	Los Angeles, CA	Riots related to the Rodney King verdict, April 29-May 4.
1996	St. Petersburg, FL	Riot in October.
2001	Cincinnati, OH	Riots, April 9-13.
2014	Ferguson, MO	Unrest in August and November.
2015	Baltimore, MD	Riots related to Freddie Gray, April 25-May 3.
2016	Charlotte, NC; Milwaukee, WI	Protests and riots in August-September.
2017	Charlottesville, VA	Unite the Right rally violence, August 11-12.
2020	Minneapolis and nationwide	George Floyd protests and unrest beginning May 26.

Section 2

Reconstruction-Era Mass Lynchings and Massacres, 1865-1876

Background

The Equal Justice Initiative, in its 2020 report Reconstruction in America: Racial Violence after the Civil War, 1865-1876, documented at least 2,000 Black lynching victims during the 12-year Reconstruction period. That was nearly three times the per-year rate of the 1877-1950 era covered in EJI's earlier landmark report. Within that violence, EJI identified 34 distinct mass lynching events: acts in which white mobs killed three or more Black people in a single episode of racial violence, often in the context of suppressing Black political participation.

EJI's own report stresses that this list represents a documented floor, not a comprehensive count: "It is certain that many more mass lynching events than those listed here took place during Reconstruction, and it is likely that hundreds or thousands more people were killed in mass violence during this period than can be documented today."

The 34 Documented Mass Lynchings

Location	Date	Description
Mobile County, AL	1865	An estimated 138 Black people killed by white mobs over several months.
Duplin County, NC	1865	Six Black men lynched after demanding a white landowner pay them for their work.
Memphis, TN	1865	Approximately 20 Black Union soldiers attacked and killed.
Bell County, TX	1866	KKK attacks left approximately seven Black people dead.
Pine Bluff, AR	March 1866	24 emancipated Black men, women, and children in a refugee camp found dead, hanging from trees.
Memphis, TN	May 1866	White mobs killed at least 46 people and destroyed homes, schools, churches, and businesses.
New Orleans, LA	July 1866	White mobs attacked voting-rights marchers, killing an estimated 33 Black people.
Millican, TX	July 1868	An estimated 150 Black people killed by armed white mobs.
Camilla, GA	September 1868	White mobs attacked Black residents protesting disenfranchisement, killing at least seven.
Opelousas, LA	September 1868	An estimated 200 Black people killed over several days after participating in the political process.
Caddo Parish, LA	October 1868	At least 53 Black people killed by white mobs suppressing the Black vote.
New Orleans, LA (Canal St.)	October 1868	White mob killed 14 Black men.
St. Bernard Parish, LA	October 1868	White mobs killed at least 35 Black people to discourage voting.
Algiers, New Orleans, LA	October 1868	White mobs killed at least seven Black people to suppress the vote.
Bossier Parish, LA	October 1868	White mobs killed at least 162 Black people leading up to election day.
McDuffie County, GA	November 1868	Perry Jeffreys, his wife, and four sons lynched for voting.
Moore County, NC	February 1869	Mob lynched Daniel Blue's wife and five children after he testified against racial violence.
Henderson, TX	April 1869	White mob hanged five Black men, including two preachers, without trial.
Tiptonville, TN	November 1869	White mob seized five Black men from jail and lynched them without trial.
Harrodsburg, KY	August 1870	White mobs lynched four Black people to suppress the vote.
Eutaw, AL	November 1870	White mobs attacked a political meeting, killing four Black people.
Union County, SC	1871	White mobs lynched up to 12 Black men during Klan terrorism.
Colfax, LA	April 1873	White mobs killed at least 150 Black people to disenfranchise voters.
Grant Parish, LA	November 1873	White mob lynched six Black men without trial.
Bryan, TX	March 1874	White mob lynched six Black men without trial.
Trenton, TN	August 1874	White mob abducted 16 Black men from jail and lynched them without trial.
New Orleans, LA ("Battle of Liberty Place")	September 1874	Three days of violence left 11 dead after the White League attempted to overthrow the state government.
Eufaula, AL	November 1874	Armed white men attacked Black voters at the polls, killing at least six.
Vicksburg, MS	December 1874	White mobs killed an estimated 50 Black people protesting removal of an elected Black sheriff.
Clinton, MS	September 1875	Armed white mobs killed an estimated 50 Black people after a political meeting.
West Feliciana Parish, LA	May 1876	White mobs lynched at least 17 Black people to suppress the vote.
Edgefield County, SC	May 1876	White mob lynched six Black men without trial.
Hamburg, SC	July 1876	White mob attacked Black men at the National Guard Armory, killing at least six.
East Feliciana Parish, LA	1875-1876	White mobs lynched at least 30 Black people over several months.

Key Legal Context

Three years after the Colfax Massacre, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in United States v. Cruikshank (1876) that the Fourteenth Amendment does not protect citizens from attacks by private individuals, only from state action. This decision blocked federal prosecution of the Colfax perpetrators and effectively shielded the perpetrators of most Reconstruction-era mass violence from federal accountability, contributing to the unchecked continuation of racial terror through the end of Reconstruction and into the Jim Crow era.

Selected State Snapshots from EJI's Report

Louisiana: Site of repeated massacres including Colfax, Opelousas, New Orleans, St. Bernard Parish, and West Feliciana Parish. EJI documented more than 1,000 lynchings and other racial violence incidents in Louisiana during Reconstruction alone, exceeding the number documented in the state for the 80 years that followed.

South Carolina: In Abbeville County alone, Freedmen's Bureau records document 77 acts of racial violence within seven months in 1868, roughly one whipping, rape, shooting, or lynching every three days.

Texas: Violence documented across more than 45 counties, including the Millican massacre, where scholars estimate 150 Black people were killed, though the exact toll remains unknown.

Tennessee: More than 200 documented incidents, including the 1866 Memphis Massacre and the 1874 lynching of 16 Black men in Trenton.

Virginia: More than 120 documented incidents across 40 counties, more than the number of racial terror lynchings documented in the state between 1877 and 1950.

Violence also occurred outside the South, including in Michigan, Indiana, Kansas, Illinois, New York, Ohio, and elsewhere, though less frequently than in former Confederate states.

Sources Listed in the Document

Equal Justice Initiative, Reconstruction in America: Racial Violence after the Civil War, 1865-1876 (2020), eji.org/report/reconstruction-in-america/
Equal Justice Initiative, Lynching in America: Confronting the Legacy of Racial Terror (2015), eji.org/reports/lynching-in-america/
Eric Foner, Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877 (Harper, 2014)
Leon F. Litwack, Been in the Storm So Long: The Aftermath of Slavery (Vintage Books, 1979)