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May 31, 2020
Riot Control
fanning the flames of racial tension
The 50 Year Anniversary of the Augusta Riot has just passed on May 11th. I was called up to duty to serve as escort on the midnight bus line that connected downtown Augusta to the Fort Gordon Army post. The first spark of the riots but not the underlying cause was thought to be the crowd pulling down and burning of our Georgia State Flag which used the Confederate flag (composite photo above) at the time and an attack on a City bus. When looting and fires broke out the local City (Richmond County) Police killed six rioters shooting them in the back with double ought shotgun blasts. Those police later acquitted of any charges. The National Guard was called along with Military Police from my unit. I wore dress Kakis with a night stick and a 45 cal Browning Automatic pistol from the Company Arms Room. I believe our company issued me a clip of ammo with only instructions not to load it unless necessary. That was about the only instructions I got to ride the bus alone. We were all winging it during this spontaneous uprising (as well as other various bomb threats, Black Panther raids, escaped prisoner searches, burning of stockade buildings that required riot gear). Fixed bayonets a sign of trouble. Discouraged for crowd control by the Army Manual in '68 but allowed for violent conditions. Two students had been bayonetted during the Kent St massacre where 4 were killed by National Guardsmen just one week prior.
A month earlier at the August Masters Golf Tournament April 1970 there had been rumors of death threats to elite golfer Gary Player who sometimes supported his country's South Africa segregationist Aparheid policy. Although that did not transpire I wonder now if that had anything to do with my boss at the Corps of Engineers Office giving me his ticket for the Thursday session.
On May 10,1970 there was a meeting at the Augusta Tabernacle Baptist Church that had a long history of civil rights movements including Martin Luther King Jr (Apr 3, 1962). Included at the meeting were members of the recently formed Committee of Ten (all black former soldiers) who advocated for better race relations but also included Wilbert Allen who alternatively represented himself as the local head of the Black Panther Party and other times disavowed the connection. He was later charged with inciting a riot.
The insurrection resulted during the turbulent times of racial unrest and protest that had been ongoing over many years (slavery and cotton). It was just a few years since the passage of the Civil Rights Act of '64 that required integration at schools, lunch counters, movie theaters, and buses. Lack of education, jobs and poverty was prevalent in the black community. Tobacco Road book, play, song was written about Augusta. I drove my car on that exact Tobacco Road. The flash point then like todays riots across the country was similarly sparked by the murder of a black man in custody of the police. The details of exactly what led to the death were not entirely clear then nor are they still definitive. Head trauma, cigarette burns and fork stab wounds were found at autopsy. Authorities blamed the death on other black men in custody (one later convicted, others later acknowledged the sadistic beating games prisoners played ) but the public did not trust the official version. It has been called the largest riot in the "deep south" during the times of the Civil Rights Movement. It was just a short blip on my radar only lasting a few days. I remember one black fellow MP who had duty downtown during the day who boasted of going back at night to loot for a TV. Not sure if he was kidding as he was always joking around but I trusted him as he took me to an all black crowded night club juke joint in the poor part of town on one occasion. That probably was before the riots broke out at that location. Sometimes we'd go to Grovetown for a drink at the slummy RatHole in Grovetown after our 12 hour shift at 6am in the morning.
This protest to voice concern for better racial relations is thought to have resulted in some progress but the shame of it all is that the loss of life and destruction of the neighborhoods and businesses in the affected area still have NEVER RECOVERED from the violence of those nights.
We had riot control training in the MP school in Georgia and there was a specialized Riotsville training section on base at the time. Above I'm simply learning how to kill the enemy at the 8 week Fort Dix during basic training. At MP Military Justice school we were always preached to only use necessary force to quell the situation but lethal force could be authorized during a felonious act. Shoot to kill in looting - arson situations may be appropriate depending on conditions.
The Army was the most integrated social living experience I ever had. Perhaps more than 50% black. We all got along great but I know that was not always the case in other parts of the service. Outside our barracks on right our Third Army patch on one of the spec 5 Chaissen guy on right. Then Ron Jansen from Berlin NY, Eugene Pitts from Atlanta, Steve Moore, Peters, and Johnson. Where have they all gone to?
Invited 2 MP barracks buddies down to the house downtown Augusta I was able to rent. Both had been thru street riots in their prior civilian life Steve Moore at East St. Louis, Illinois, Missouri and Ed Hunter at Compton - Watts Los Angeles. Steve and I were arrested by the Augusta Police (Richmond County) one late night downtown for drinking in public but charges were dropped. Ed was a good friend who had the bunk bed above me for a year and a half throughout our tours of duty. We worked at the stockade together and played softball and socialized a lot. The house owner did not want blacks to rent but it was ok to have them visit as long as they were upstanding.
Moral of the story: the wheels of the bus go round and round, whatever...
Worth a look back for my understanding and in relationship to the current very similar situation of the George Floyd killing and subsequent race riots across the country. This coming in the middle of the pandemic an interesting sub plot. The months of lockdown, not having to go to a job, some resentment against the establishment rules and yearning for some excitement has to be a factor in bringing out the large number of protesters. The looters loving the cover of mass gatherings and co-opting their movement creating violence and mayhem to leave an indelible image and cause great harm and counterproductive result to harmonious racial relations.
Augusta Riot 1970 Corey Washington
Southern Regional Council 90 page Post-Analysis of Jackson State, Mississippi and Augusta, Ga shootings.
Interesting quote, " Broad Street glitters with flashing neon signs almost equally bright hair of the peroxide blondes, permanent temptations to the servicemen at nearby Fort Gordon who flood the city at night to sample the charms of the Go-Go dancers and the music and the booze at any of a dozen juke joint watering holes."
Lucy Craft Laney Museum of Black History
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