When Whites Riot: Writing Race and Violence in American and South African Culture

183 Pages·2001·11.61 MB·English

by  Sheila Smith McKoy

When Whites Riot

When Whites Riot
WRITING RACE AND VIOLENCE
IN AMERICAN AND
SOUTH AFRICAN CULTURES
Sheila Smith McKoy
The University of Wisconsin Press
The University of Wisconsin Press
1930 Monroe Street
Madison, Wisconsin 53711
www.wisc.edu/wisconsinpress/
3 Henrietta Street
London WC2E 8LU, England
Copyright © 2001
The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System
All rights reserved
1 3 5 4 2
Printed in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Smith McKoy, Sheila.
When whites riot: writing race and violence
in American and South African cultures / Sheila Smith McKoy.
182 pp. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-299-17390-9 (alk.: paper)
ISBN 0-299-17394-1 (pbk.: alk. paper)
1. United States-Race relations. 2. Whites-United States-History
3. Riots-United States-History. 4. Racism-United States.
5. Mass media and race relations-United States.
6. South Africa-Race relations. 7. Whites-South Africa-History
8. Riots-South Africa-History. 9. Racism-South Africa.
10. Mass media and race relations-South Africa. I. Title.
E184.A1 S664 2001
305.8'00968-dc21 2001002077
For
the millions who have died as a result of racial violence
whose sacrifice must not be forgotten
my father, Raymond Smith, Jr.,
whose spirit will always guide me
my great uncle, Alfonso Faison,
whose memory inspires me
my son, Raymond Smith McKoy,
whose love and wisdom have always humbled me

Contents
Illustrations IX
Acknowledgments
Xl
Introduction: White Riot-Binding American and
South African Cultures 3
1 Riot-Making: Ululation, Resistance,
and Reclamation 11
2 Reading the Riot Act: The Teleology
of Charles Chesnutt's The Marrow of Tradition
and the Wilmington Race Riot of 1898 31
3 Rioting in a State of Siege: The Cultural Contexts
of Sipho Sepamla's A Ride on the Whirlwind and
the Soweto Uprising of 1976 71
4 Subverting the Silences: Historicizing White Riot
in Fiction and Film 93
Epilogue: The Tie That Binds-Los Angeles
and Mmabatho, White Riot on the Cusp
of a New Millennium 117
Notes 131
Works Cited and Selected Bibliography 149
Filmography 159
Index 161
VII

Illustrations
Remains of William Brown, who was beaten, shot, and burned
at the Douglas County Courthouse in Omaha, Nebraska,
28 September 1919 14
Two riot police clubbing a coloured man during racial unrest
in Cape Town, South Africa, 8 September 1976 22
Alexander L. Manly, editor of the Wilmington Daily Record 45
Dr. Thomas R. Mask's tombstone 57
Hector Peterson, the first victim of the violence in Soweto,
16 June 1976 77
Alfred M. Waddell's grave site in the Oak Dale Cemetery,
Wilmington, N.C. 99
Riot scene from No Way Out (1950) 112
White rioters pursuing a black man across Woodward Avenue
in Detroit during the rioting on 21 June 1943 113
Afrikaner resistance-movement supporters at the scene
of Mmabatho's white riot, 11 March 1994 125
tX