List of incidents of civil unrest in the United States

Listed are major episodes of civil unrest in the United States. This list does not include the numerous incidents of destruction and violence associated with various sporting events.[1]

This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.
This article is about incidents of civil unrest, rioting, violent labor disputes, or minor insurrections or revolts in the United States. For incidents occurring before the Declaration of Independence, see List of incidents of civil unrest in Colonial North America.

18th century

19th century

1800–1849

1850–1859

1860–1869

1870–1879
The New York Orange Riot of 1871, between Irish Catholics and Irish Protestants.

1880–1889

1890–1899

20th century

1900–1909

1910–1919

1920–1929

1930–1939

1940–1949

1950–1959

1960–1969
1968 Washington, D.C., riots

1970–1979

1980–1989

1990–1999

21st century

2000–2009

2010–2019
  • 2010 – Springfest riot, April 10, 200 police disperse crowd of 8,000 using tear gas, pepper spray, rubber bullets, and bean bag rounds, near the campus of James Madison University; dozens injured. 30–35 arrested; Harrisonburg, Virginia.
  • 2010 – Santa Cruz May Day riot, May 1, 250 rampage through downtown Santa Cruz attacking 18 businesses, causing an estimated $100,000 in damages. 1 arrested. Santa Cruz, California.
  • 2010 – Oakland protest riot, November 5, Police made more than 150 arrests as a crowd broke windows and knocked down fences, protesting sentence of former BART officer in shooting of Oscar Grant on New Years Day 2009; see BART Police shooting of Oscar Grant. Oakland, California
  • 2011 – Madison Occupation. Protestors storm and occupy the Wisconsin state capitol building for 18 days.
  • 2011 – Occupy Wall Street (Brooklyn Bridge protests). Demonstrators blocked the bridge and more than 700 people were arrested. New York, New York
  • 2011 – Occupy Oakland Oakland protests riots. October. Protesters shattered windows, set fires, and plastered buildings with graffiti. Riot police fired heavy amounts of tear gas on the protesters.
  • 2012 – Kentucky Wildcats supporters in Lexington, Kentucky[7]
  • 2012 – NATO 2012 Chicago Summit, May. Conflict between riot police and protesters. Dozens of demonstrators clubbed and arrested.
  • 2012 – Anaheim police shooting and protests, July 28. Violence erupted after multiple shootings in the neighborhood by police that included unarmed Manuel Diaz. 24 people were arrested.
  • 2013 – Flatbush Riots, March 11, Riots in Brooklyn, New York after the death of Kimani Gray who was shot and killed by NYPD.
  • 2014 – Bundy Standoff, April 5–May, an armed confrontation between supporters of cattle rancher Cliven Bundy and law enforcement following a 21-year legal dispute in which the United States Bureau of Land Management (BLM) obtained court orders directing Bundy to pay over $1 million in withheld grazing fees for Bundy's use of federally-owned land adjacent to Bundy's ranch in southeastern Nevada.
  • 2014 – Ferguson unrest, Ferguson and St. Louis, Missouri, August 10 and November 24. Following the shooting death of Michael Brown by a Ferguson police officer, protests erupt in the streets. Police respond with riot gear, tear gas, sound canons, police dogs, concussion grenades, rubber bullets, pepper balls, wooden bullets, beanbag rounds, tasers, pepper spray, and armored vehicles. Unrest occurred continuously for weeks in August, and sporadically through December, with nearly daily protests throughout the period and rioting following the non-indictment announcement on November 24. Unrest again occurred on the one year anniversary in August 2015, with dozens of arrests.
  • 2014 – St. Louis, Missouri – October 8, police vehicle windows broken as rage at the killing of Vonderrit Myers Jr. Protests continued for days afterward, during the nearby and ongoing Ferguson Unrest.
  • 2014 – New York, New York, and Berkeley, California – After prosecutors and a grand jury refused to indict a police officer in the death of Eric Garner, protests erupted in New York City and other cities.
  • 2014 Oakland riots, November–December, A series of riots and civil disturbances that took place in Oakland and the surrounding area, in reaction to the events involving the Shooting of Michael Brown and later, the death of Eric Garner, Oakland, California
  • 2014 – Berkeley, Missouri, December 23–24. Antonio Martin is shot to death by police in a St. Louis suburb nearby to Ferguson, leading to violent conflict with police, and looting.
  • 2015 – 2015 Baltimore protests, April 25–28. Days of protests break out following the death of Freddie Gray while in police custody. 34 people are arrested and 15 Officers injured after rioting and looting break out. Gray's funeral was held on April 27 and followed by further protests and looting. Governor Hogan had preemptively activated the Maryland National Guard, while the Maryland State Police had activated at least 500 officers.
  • 2015 – St. Louis, Missouri, August 19. Conflict with police following fatal shooting by St. Louis police officers of black teenager Mansur Ball-Bey leads to deployment of tear gas then burned car, buildings, and looting. Protests continue in subsequent days with tensions remaining high.
  • 2016 – Occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, January–February 2016. 1 killed and several dozen arrested at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Oregon.
  • 2016 – 2016 Donald Trump Chicago rally protest, March 11. Five people arrested and two police officers injured during a demonstration at the UIC Pavilion.
  • 2016 – Democracy Spring rally in April. March to Washington D.C. and sit-ins lead to arrests.
  • 2016 – 2016 Sacramento riot, June 26, A confrontation between white nationalists and left-wing counter protesters at the California State Capitol. Ten people were hospitalized for stabbing and laceration wounds.
  • 2016 – Widespread protests erupt in response to two deaths at the hands of police, the Shooting of Alton Sterling and shooting of Philando Castile. At least 261 people were arrested in protests in New York City, Chicago, St. Paul, Baton Rouge, and other cities.
  • 2016 – 2016 Milwaukee riots, Sherman Park, August 13–15. Milwaukee, Wisconsin, sparked by the fatal police shooting of 23-year-old Sylville Smith.
  • 2016 – 2016 Charlotte riot, September 20–21, Protests and riots break out in response to the shooting of Keith Lamont Scott by a Charlotte police officer.
  • 2016 – Dakota Access Pipeline protests, 411 protesters arrested. Multiple skirmishes with police, with vehicles, hay bales, and tires set on fire.
  • 2016 – Anti-Trump protests, November 9–27. As a result of Donald Trump elected as 45th President of the U.S., thousands protested across twenty-five American cities, and unrest broke out in downtown Oakland, California, and Portland, Oregon. In Oakland, over 40 fires started and police officers were injured.
  • 2017 – Berkeley, California, February 1, civil unrest ensued at UC Berkeley as Milo Yiannopoulos was scheduled to speak on the campus.[8][9]
  • 2017 – 2017 Anaheim, California protests, February 21, protesters demonstrate after police officer grabs boy and fires his gun. Protesters damage property and throw bottles and rocks at police.
  • 2017 – May Day, in Olympia, Washington and Portland, Oregon, protestors demonstrated for workers rights. Protestors damaged property and confronted law enforcement.
  • 2017 – 2017 Unite the Right rally, Charlottesville, Virginia, August 11–12. At a Unite the Right rally of white nationalists and white supremacists opposing the removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee, rally attendees and counter-protesters clashed, sometimes violently. A woman, Heather Heyer, was killed and 19 other injured when a rally attendee drove his car into a crowd of counter-protestors. Two law enforcement officers also died in a helicopter crash while monitoring the event.
  • 2017 – 2017 St. Louis protests, beginning September 15, large protests erupted when police officer Jason Stockley was found not guilty of murder in the shooting death of Anthony Lamar Smith on December 20, 2011. Some of the protests turned destructive and the police became violent. Windows were broken at Mayor Lyda Krewson's house and in the Central West End business district on the first night, many windows were broken in the Delmar Loop on September 16, a few were broken downtown on September 17 after police drove swiftly through a crowd following a peaceful march. Police conducted a kettling mass arrest operation of nonviolent protesters and bystanders, beating and pepper spraying many, including journalists, documentary filmmakers, and an undercover officer. Protests and sporadic unrest continued daily for weeks.
  • 2019 – Memphis riot, June 13, following the fatal shooting of Brandon Webber by U.S. Marshals, Memphis, TN.

2020–2021
  • 2020 – New York City FTP protests, January 31, Anti-Transit Police and MTA protest resulting in hundreds of arrests over the three separate days of demonstration. Vandalism and violence on train stations were reported.
  • 2020 – 2020–2021 United States racial unrest begins.
  • 2020 –
    Protesters surround a police precinct in Minneapolis during the George Floyd protests, part of a larger wave of civil unrest in 2020 and 2021.
    Protests began on May 26 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and spread around the world after the killing of George Floyd. Derek Chauvin, the policeman who held his knee on Floyd's neck for nearly eight minutes, was fired along with the three other officers involved. Chauvin was charged with manslaughter and second-degree murder. The other three policemen were charged with aiding and abetting murder. Protests spread to other American cities and then to other countries with Floyd's murder garnering international condemnation.[10] Protest tactics included peaceful occupation and resistance, but was overshadowed by widespread looting and damage of private and public properties. In the Seattle neighborhood of Capitol Hill, an occupation protest and self-declared autonomous zone was established on June 8, 2020 covering six city blocks and a park after the Seattle Police Department left their East Precinct building. The area was cleared of occupants by police on July 1, 2020.
  • 2020 – Kenosha unrest, Aug. 23–28, On August 23 Jacob Blake was shot in the back by a police officer while not complying with their attempt to arrest him. Protests and rioting occurred after the incident. A State of Emergency was declared and police used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse the crowd. During several days of rioting, Government buildings were damaged, businesses were looted and set on fire, and vehicles were firebombed, including 100 cars burned at a car dealership. On the third day of unrest an armed teenager, from out of state, shot three rioters, wounding one and killing two others. By August 28, almost 1000 Wisconsin National Guard troops were on the streets, backed by National Guard troops from Michigan, Alabama and Arizona. Nearly 100 buildings were damaged with the cost of damage to City property close to $2 million and the cost to private property damaged near $50 million. Kenosha, WI
  • 2020 – Minneapolis false rumors riot, Aug. 26–28, On August 26 a false rumor that police shot a man in Minneapolis, started riots that set four buildings on fire and damaged 72 more.
  • 2020 – Jewish Protest, October 7–8 Brooklyn, New York, Members of the Orthodox Jewish community protested over new Covid restrictions. Minor fires were set, masks were burned, and journalist Jacob Kornbluh was attacked. Heshy Tischler was taken into custody for inciting a riot.[11]
  • 2020 – Philadelphia riot, Oct 26 – Ongoing, Caused by the Killing of Walter Wallace by Philadelphia police.
  • 2020 – 2020–2021 United States election protests begin on November 5. There were multiple violent incidents in Washington DC. Clashes between pro-Trump supporters and counter protestors occurred on multiple nights, including November 14 and December 12. There were multiple stabbings and over 23 people arrested on the night of December 12.
  • 2021 – Storming of the United States Capitol, January 6, U.S. Capitol stormed by pro-Trump supporters in an attempt to stop electoral vote certification by U.S. Congress. The Capitol was vandalized, including doors, windows, and offices of various members of Congress. Five people died during the event. One person was shot and killed by police, a police officer died in hospital two days later, one died from non a related stroke, one died from a heart attack, and another from being crushed during the events, and nearly 140 police officers were injured.[12]The Chief of the Capitol Police resigned under pressure.

See also

References
  1. see Ronald Gottesman, and Richard Maxwell Brown, eds. Violence in America: an encyclopedia (1999).
  2. "The Boston Mob of 1835". www.bpl.org. Retrieved 2020-05-29.
  3. Detroit Free Press' "The Detroit Almanac", 2001
  4. Journal, John Gomez/For The Jersey (2017-04-24). "Woman's arrest led to uprising in Jersey City in 1964". nj. Retrieved 2020-05-29.
  5. Taylor, Alan. "1964: Civil Rights Battles – The Atlantic". www.theatlantic.com. Retrieved 2020-05-29.
  6. Stevens, William K.; Times, Special To the New York (1985-05-14). "Police Drop Bomb on Radicals' Home in Philadelphia". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-09-02.
  7. https://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2012/04/kentucky-students-riot-after-ncaa-championship-win/
  8. "Milo Yiannopoulos talk at UC Berkeley cancelled after protests erupt". KTVU.
  9. "Riot Forces Cancellation Of Yiannopoulos Talk At UC Berkeley". KPIX 5.
  10. "UN condemns US police killing of George Floyd | DW | May 29, 2020". Deutsche Welle. Retrieved 2020-05-30.
  11. JTA, TOI staff and, et al. “Brooklyn Anti-Lockdown Protest Leader Arrested for 'Inciting Riot'.” The Times of Israel, 12 Oct. 2020, www.timesofisrael.com/brooklyn-anti-lockdown-protest-leader-arrested-for-inciting-riot/.
  12. Landale, James (2021-01-07). "Capitol siege: Trump's words 'directly led' to violence, Patel says". BBC. Retrieved 2021-01-07.

Further reading
  • Gottesman, Ronald, and Richard Maxwell Brown, eds. Violence in America: an encyclopedia (1999).
  • Graham, Hugh Davis, and Ted Robert Gurr, eds. Violence in America: Historical and comparative perspectives (1969).
  • Gurr, Ted Robert, ed. Violence in America: Protest, rebellion, reform (1979).
  • Hofstadter, Richard, and Michael Wallace, eds. American violence: A documentary history (1971).
  • Victor, Orville J. History Of American Conspiracies: A Record Of Treason, Insurrection, Rebellion, &c. In The United States Of America. From 1760 To 1860 (1863) online
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