I was living in Philadelphia in Aug 1964 when riots broke out in North Philadelphia. The alleged genesis was a couple argued in a car and stopped in the middle of 23rd St and Cecil B. Moore Ave. It must have been quite an argument, the Philadelphia cops tried to get them to move and when they would not tried to remove the driver from the car. A bystander threw something and rumors said she was pregnant and the cops beat her.
It did not take much more. It was a very hot summer and no one was happy. Air Conditioning was a dream for this neighborhood. People fought over a little bit of space on the front stoop. The night air was very warm, but the old houses were impossible.
Why did they torch their homes? For most, it was not their home but owned by a distant landlord who squeezed every penny out of the property and put nothing back. Yes the homes did not have a live in maids and some were filthy. So what. It was simply a place to lay your head down and if you could buy a fan you might be cooler.
What the homes and neighborhoods did not provide was hope. You might get a job operating a shovel but little else. Some did not finish High School, those who did finish learned nothing useable. Let's not kid one another, they did not have the means or opportunity for College they just went through the machine.
This is a deep seeded cycle that must be interrupted. I'm a white 65 year old male who went to Murrell Dobbins Vocational Technical High School. My family was not privileged by any means, College must wait. I graduated in 1967 and studied Electronics. We were all offered jobs or went to College. My classmates worked at RCA and several Electronic industries and became specialist, and some repaired TV's. The school also had "majors" in all of the building trades, machinist, foundry, architectural studies, graphics, culinary skills and more. I always waited for that class to walk in selling whatever they made.
What I want to emphasize is that the school was at 22nd and Lehigh, in the North Philly ghetto. Whites in school numbered 15%.
Why work hard in school? We saw and it was reinforced that they could find a job when they graduated. Think of it, they graduated not in anticipation of College but into a good paying job. A friend told me that a heavy equipment manufacturer was critically short of certified welders. What would that pay? Some curriculums provided enough credits to go to College when ready. I have my Masters degree. Some would argue you can learn a trade attending a private post graduate school or the local Community College. What about a Trade Union? How many never made it to graduation or could not afford the costs? Why train them in High School, are they too young? No, the worst issue is a mid-life change of career but you had a solid foundation to build on.
Go to Google Earth and look at the neighborhood where we had our riots around 23rd and Cecil B. Moore Ave. The green spaces are not parks, but the scars.