In the Heat of the Summer: The New York Riots of 1964 and the War on Crime

by Michael W. Flamm

On the morning of July 16, 1964, a white police officer in New York City shot and killed a black teenager, James Powell, across the street from the high school where he was attending summer classes. Two nights later, a peaceful demonstration in Central Harlem degenerated into violent protests. During the next week, thousands of rioters looted stores from Brooklyn to Rochester and pelted police with bottles and rocks. In the symbolic and historic heart of black America, the Harlem Riot of 1964, as most called it, highlighted a new dynamic in the racial politics of the nation. The first "long, hot summer" of the Sixties had arrived.

In this gripping narrative of a pivotal moment, Michael W. Flamm draws on personal interviews and delves into the archives to move briskly from the streets of New York, where black activists like Bayard Rustin tried in vain to restore peace, to the corridors of the White House, where President Lyndon Johnson struggled to contain the fallout from the crisis and defeat Republican challenger Barry Goldwater, who had made "crime in the streets" a centerpiece of his campaign. Recognizing the threat to his political future and the fragile alliance of black and white liberals, Johnson promised that the War on Poverty would address the "root causes" of urban disorder. A year later, he also launched the War on Crime, which widened the federal role in law enforcement and set the stage for the War on Drugs.

Today James Powell is forgotten amid the impassioned debates over the militarization of policing and the harmful impact of mass incarceration on minority communities. But his death was a catalyst for the riots in New York, which in turn foreshadowed future explosions and influenced the political climate for the crime and drug policies of recent decades. In the Heat of the Summer spotlights the extraordinary drama of a single week when peaceful protests and violent unrest intersected, the freedom struggle reached a crossroads, and the politics of law and order led to demands for a War on Crime.

Genres: History, Race, Nonfiction

368 pages, Hardcover

Published November 17, 2016

Reviews

[B.L. Aldrich · Rating 5 out of 5]

You want to talk demonstration of history repeating itself, read this book. From television rising to bring an issue previously localized to global promince (in 2020, social media), to the media bickering over how to frame the ensuing violence, to the aftermath and the scramble for who to blame and how to frame it. The essential difference is that the birth of "law and order" as a political refrain and calling card (common practice in 2020) has its roots in this tumultuous summer of 1964. The best part about of the text is how comprehensive it is. The author interviewed people who lived through the violence in the streets, residents of Harlem, buisness owners, cops, students, civil rights activists, politicians, journalists, you name it. It's an inclusive piece that does its best to avoid softpedalling or pandering to a specific point of view. I picked this up years ago as background research for a novel. Re-reading it in 2020 made it feel like a completely different book. Having the historical lens this provides has actually made the present pull focus and feel less baffling. I encourage anyone interested in truly working towards a better future for all Americans and interested in lessening their own ignorance to read this book. It was useful, comprehensive, and enlightening.

[Julene · Rating 5 out of 5]

In The Heat of The Summer, by Michael W. Flamm recounts the day to day actions around the 1964 Harlem Riot that spread into Bedford-Stuyvesant (Bed-Stuy). Thomas Gilligan, a white police officer, shot and killed James Powell, claiming he had a knife. James was a Black fifteen year old attending summer school at Robert F. Wagner Junior High School on East 76th Street in Manhattan. Of course there was controversy about what happened in the moment and of the boy's character, who had several scraps with the law. Students gathered in protest, they were already upset about prior police violence. This book is heavily documented, and he interviewed 35 people; the only person who refused to be interviewed was the police officer. His history of twenty-one years on the police force included nineteen citations for outstanding service; he retired from the police force in 1968 after a year's leave of absence for a back injury, he died at age 88 in 2014.

The location of the start of the upset, in the Prologue, was a surprise; in the late 1970s, until I moved from New York, I lived on East 76th Street, a block from that school. I had no idea of this history. However, I was aware of racial tensions as a teen growing up in Queens, bussing had started where I attended Junior High School.

In the Epilogue we learn James Powell was buried in Ferncliff Cemetery in Westchester County next to his father; it is a non-sectarian cemetery, so does not permit headstones, so he is in an unmarked grave. This cemetery has many famous people also without headstones: Paul Robeson, Thelonious Monk, James Baldwin, Malcolm X, Oscar Hammerstein, Judy Garland.

The title of the book is from a Phil Ochs song of the same title, and a verse from the song is used at the beginning of the first nine chapters that track the riots day by day and the actions of political players at that time. Senator Barry Goldwater had received the nomination to run for President and had predicted riots. He was fear mongering in his campaign. President Johnson was trying to push through a Civil Rights Bill. The Mayor of New York, Robert Wagner, and Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, were out of town. Both cut their trips short. Harlem was overcrowded with poor services, due to deindustrialization and the impact of automation on cities there were no jobs for young black men, and due to redlining there was nowhere to move to, the conditions were part of the cause of the riots.

There were six main Black movement leaders:
Martin Luther King,
A. Phillip Randolph of the A. Phillip Randolph Institute which Bayard Rustin started to strengthen ties between progressive labor unions and civil rights organizations,
Roy Wilkins of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP),
James Farmer head of The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE),
Whitney Young of the Urban League,
and John Lewis of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC);
These people and groups were involved to try to keep the peace.

Other organizations were The Harlem Youth Opportunities Unlimited (HARYOU) project, and the Tenants Rights organization led by Jesse Gray.
There was the influence of Malcolm X who was in Cairo at the Organization of African Unity conference during the riots.

I admire the scope of this book, how the white politicians of the day wanted to believe that communist influence aggravated the riots, untrue, but it was after the cold war and easier for white politicians blame outside agitators. In fact, our government facilitated the killing of King and Malcolm X, which is not in the scope of this book. The narrow focus of the riots in Harlem, Bed-Stuy, Watts in 1965, and Newark and Detroit in 1967, provide an in depth look at the activities of the politicians and people on the ground, showing facts so we see how and when the militarization of the police began, and the beliefs that keep our society in the grip of racism. It also shows the amount of work black leaders have done to make progress and the frustration of how slow that progress is. I applaud this book.

[Bohdan Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

My lower rating should take anything away from the merits of this book. It was far more academic than I was expecting or wanting, so I did find it quite challenging to get into.

I think the author made good choices which sections got the most detail and provided a level and clear account of what happened. He did a good job of providing context and facts when presenting contemporary political statements.

The most interesting part to me was the lines that can be drawn from the period of racial unrest that forms the subject of the book to the world we live in today. So much societal backsliding and resistance to progressive policies caused by fear and racism. The book also shows how the modern militarized police came to be.

[Bobbi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book on a significant time - seems quite relevant today.

[Jordan Maloney · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books I've read this year.