Christian Socialism in California

Abstract

or lionized the white vigilantes and policemen who hunted down and killed Charles, destroyed Black institutions, and solidified white New Orleanian’s grip over the city. In the aftermath of the riot, African Americans faced draconian laws that segregated streetcars by race, for instance. African Americans who broke segregation laws faced a $1,000 fine or nine months in the notorious Parchment Prison, and there is evidence that policemen patrolled African American barrooms, music clubs, and neighborhoods more thoroughly and punitively. Over the following decades, many refused to confront the historical legacy of the riot. As late as 2015, Democratic Mayor Mitch Landrieu had not acted on calls for a historical marker commemorating the riot’s victims. Black New Orleanians kept alive the memory of the riot, however. African American jazz and blues musicians portrayed Charles as a heroic Black defender and a “seemingly harmless little fellow” (183). Their songs fingered the police officers “who didn’t like coloured people” (183) as culprits. But present activism can awaken old memories. Following the rise of Black Lives Matter and widespread protests in the aftermath of the George Floyd murder in the summer of 2020, Mayor LaToya Cantrell issued a formal proclamation apologizing to the victims of the Charles Roberts Riot and unveiled a new historical marker designed to keep alive the memories of the violence for generations to come.