How Riots and Civil Rights Go Hand in Hand Sophie Hunka, Year 13, Gellhorn “A system cannot fail those it was never designed to protect” is a quote credited to an American civil rights activist in the early to mid-1900s — William Edward Burghardt Du Bois. I came across this quote during the height of the Black Lives Matter protests in the US and thought of the irony that something said in the 1950s would still be so relevant today. The quote identifies a flaw in the status quo as the law in the US is based on a time when people of colour (POC) were considered to be inferior in the eyes of the law. An example of this is the ‘Jim Crow’ laws which were the legal segregation between black and white Americans These laws were meant to marginalise African Americans, denying them civil rights such as the right to vote or education. The Black Lives Matter Movement has been criticised by notable public figures such as the President of the United States Donald Trump and the Attorney General William Barr due to the violent nature of its ‘riots’. However, although the movement condemns and discourages such actions, I thought it would be impactful to highlight the importance of riots in history and civil rights. For this purpose, a riot is defined as a “violent public disturbance against authority figures”. A movement may turn violent for an array of reasons, such as being provoked by said authority or frustration due to a lack of response. There are three civil rights movements that I want to highlight in this article: the women’s suffrage movement in the UK, the Stonewall Riots, and the Soweto Uprising. They have all occurred in the last hundred years, are relatively well known, and were violent movements that led to change or acted as catalysts for change.
The women’s suffrage campaign in the UK was a civil rights movement where women protested and rioted for their right to vote. It began in the year 1832 and lasted for another 96 years until 1928 when women at the age of 21 could finally vote without the need to own property, be married, or hold a position in the local government. The first petition was made by Mary Smith in 1832, arguing that women should ‘have a voice in the election of Members [of Parliament]’. This was the catalyst that started the ever-so-slow progress for women’s rights. It began with the Married Women Property Act, which allowed married women to manage their property and money. By 1894, women could vote for their county officials. However, this was still not true equality as women were still largely viewed as inferior and did not have a say in government matters, with their role being limited to caretaker and homemaker. In 1897, there was a peaceful protest that proved unsuccessful in changing legislation. Later, in 1903, the Women Social and Political Union was formed to campaign for women’s suffrage. A protest was able to be organised by the union to protest women’s rights but a riot broke out. Some acts included the breaking of windows, throwing of rocks, and women chaining themselves to the railings of the House of Commons. Women who were arrested for these acts endured hunger strikes which caused authorities to force-feed protesters in custody. The motto ‘deeds, not words’ took over the movement and acts such as burning churches, attacking politicians, and disrupting parliament became commonplace, though they eventually died down.
It is speculated that the riots would have escalated had women not been encouraged to support the war effort. During this time, Prime Minister David Lloyd George was elected, and strides were made for the rights of women when he passed a bill in 1918 to allow women to vote at age 30, and 10 years later, in 1928, when another bill was passed to allow women to vote at age 21. It has been less than a hundred years since women have been allowed to vote equally in the UK, and although women’s rights have gone a long way, there is still progress to be made. Currently, women make up 34% of MPs in the UK’s parliament (the highest it’s ever been), despite making up 51% of the population. In the late 1960s, the US was not widely accepting of the LGBT community, with LGBT activity being banned in almost every state. Businesses would be shut down for having staff who identified as LGBT and bars and nightclubs would be frequently raided for LGBT members. The Stonewall bar was no different. On June 28 1969, plainclothes police officers came to the stonewall bar and began arresting people in the club, including drag queens ‘masquerading’ as the opposite sex which was considered illegal. The police arrested a transgender woman named Storme DeLarverie, who resisted the arrest and is widely recognised as the catalyst for the riots. How Riots and Civil Rights Go Hand In Hand
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