{{Short description|Racial conflict between American soldiers in Bristol, England}} {{Use British English|date=March 2018}} {{Use dmy dates|date=March 2018}} {{Infobox civil conflict | title = Park Street riot | image = File:Park Street, Bristol - geograph.org.uk - 1756895.jpg | caption = Park Street, where the riot started | date = 15 July 1944 | map_type = Bristol#United Kingdom | map_caption = Location of park Street | place = [[Park Street, Bristol|Park Street]], Bristol, United Kingdom | coordinates = {{coord|51.4569|N|2.6058|W|display=inline, title}} | side1 = US Military Police | side2 = Black US servicemen from segregated labour companies | causes = Racial tensions | fatalities = 1 | injuries = Several }} The '''Park Street riot''' occurred in [[Park Street, Bristol|Park Street]] and George Street [[Bristol]], England, on 15 July 1944 when many black [[G.I. (military)|US servicemen]] (GIs) refused to return to their camps after [[Military Police Corps (United States)|US military policemen]] (MPs) arrived to end a minor fracas. More MPs were sent, up to 120 in total, and Park Street was closed with buses. In subsequent confrontations an MP was stabbed, a black GI was shot dead, and several others were wounded.<ref name="Wynn 2006">{{Cite journal|last=Wynn|first=Neil A.|date=November 2006|title='Race War': Black American GIs and West Indians in Britain During The Second World War|issn=0261-9288|journal=Immigrants & Minorities: Historical Studies in Ethnicity, Migration and Diaspora|volume=24|issue=3|pages=324–346|doi=10.1080/02619280701337146|s2cid=144592893 }}</ref>
==Background== During [[World War II]], [[African-American]]s formed 10 per cent of [[US Army]] servicemen in Britain, a total of about 150,000 in 1944.<ref name="Wynn 2006" /><ref>{{Cite book|title=D-Day|last=Ambrose|first=Stephen E.|publisher=Pocket Books|year=1997|isbn=978-0-7434-4974-8|location=London|pages=147}}</ref> Most were in labour companies, engineers, stevedores and transport units. Many were based in the [[Bristol]] area because of the docks there. They had their barracks in [[Bedminster, Bristol|Bedminster]], [[Brislington]], [[Henleaze]], [[Shirehampton]] and the [[New Orphan Houses, Ashley Down, Bristol|Muller Orphanage at Ashley Down]].<ref name="Wynn 2006" />
The [[Racial segregation in the United States Armed Forces|US Armed Forces were still racially segregated]], and the soldiers of the labour companies were almost entirely black, while most of their officers were white, as were the MPs. Military commanders tended to treat these service units as "dumping grounds" for less competent officers, and leadership in the labour companies was poor.<ref name="Nalty">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B13CGJMiyOIC&pg=PA412 |pages=154–157, 228 |title=Strength for the Fight: A History of Black Americans in the Military |first1=Bernard C. |last1=Nalty |isbn=9780029224113 |publisher=[[Simon and Schuster]], Free Press |date=1 January 1986}}</ref>
Racial discrimination was codified by law in the United Kingdom and in some ways more restrictive than that of the U.S.{{efn|The officer core was limited to white Europeans only.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bourne |first=Stephen |url=http://archive.org/details/underfireblackbr0000bour |title=Under Fire: Black Britain in Wartime 1939-45 |publisher=The History Press |year=2020 |isbn=978-0-7509-9583-2 |location=Gloucestershire |pages=48}}</ref>}}<ref>{{Cite news |date=2013-08-26 |title=What was behind the Bristol bus boycott? |language=en-GB |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-23795655 |access-date=2022-03-09}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2020-06-04 |title=3. Settling In |url=https://www.readingmuseum.org.uk/3-settling |access-date=2022-03-10 |website=Reading Museum |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last1=Pegg |first1=David |last2=Evans |first2=Rob |date=2021-06-02 |title=Buckingham Palace banned ethnic minorities from office roles, papers reveal |url=http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/jun/02/buckingham-palace-banned-ethnic-minorities-from-office-roles-papers-reveal |access-date=2022-03-15 |website=The Guardian |language=en}}</ref> However while racial segregation was both legal and commonly practiced,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Waters |first=Rob |date=2017-04-03 |title=The rise and fall of the drinking club |url=http://www.blacklondonhistories.org.uk/uncategorized/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-drinking-club/ |access-date=2022-03-09 |website=Black London Histories |language=en}}</ref> in contrast to the U.S., it was not mandated by the state, nor implemented at public or state run facilities, including British military bases.<ref>{{Cite thesis |last=Wild |first=Rosalind Eleanor |title='Black was the colour of our fight.' Black Power in Britain, 1955–1976 |date=August 2008 |url=https://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/3640/1/489059.pdf |publisher=University of Sheffield |page=54 |archive-date=16 April 2022 |access-date=16 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220416150717/https://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/3640/1/489059.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref>
The British government did not approve of American style segregation but resolved not to interfere in the treatment of African-Americans enlisted in the US Army.<ref name="Wynn 2006" /> However UK authorities refused to organise segregated facilities or enforce segregation in non-US Army facilities. In response the US Army administration encouraged separate days during the week for black and white troops to have leave passes.<ref name="Wynn 2006" /> The US military actively developed a policy that involved the segregation of many facilities in Britain.<ref name="Wynn 2006" /> Two separate Red Cross centres existed in Bristol: St George Street for coloured GIs; and [[Berkeley Square, Bristol|Berkeley Square]] for whites.<ref name="Wynn 2006" />
===Earlier incidents=== There were frequent clashes between black and white GIs.{{blockquote|Fist fights almost always broke out when black and white GIs were drinking in the same pub. There were some shootings, most by whites against blacks. (Major General [[Ira Eaker]], commander of the [[Eighth Air Force]], declared that white troops were responsible for 90 per cent of the trouble), and a few killings — all covered up by the army.<ref name="Ambrose 1997 148">{{Cite book|title=D-Day|last=Ambrose|first=Stephen E.|publisher=Pocket Books|year=1997|isbn=978-0-7434-4974-8|location=London|pages=148}}</ref>}} A US survey of soldiers' mail during the war revealed that white troops were particularly indignant about the public association of white women with black soldiers, which was unremarkable in Britain.<ref name="Ambrose 1997 148">{{Cite book|title=D-Day|last=Ambrose|first=Stephen E.|publisher=Pocket Books|year=1997|isbn=978-0-7434-4974-8|location=London|pages=148}}</ref>
In June 1943 a significant racial incident, the [[Battle of Bamber Bridge]], led to one death, 7 wounded and 32 [[court martial]]led; this followed the [[Detroit race riot of 1943|riots in Detroit]] earlier that week.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.lep.co.uk/lifestyle/nostalgia/when-the-american-military-said-sorry-to-bamber-bridge-1-4440360|title=When the American military said sorry to Bamber Bridge|date=12 April 2012|access-date=2 June 2017|newspaper=[[Lancashire Evening Post]]|archive-date=2 July 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180702093526/https://www.lep.co.uk/lifestyle/nostalgia/when-the-american-military-said-sorry-to-bamber-bridge-1-4440360|url-status=dead}}</ref> In September 1943 at [[Launceston, Cornwall|Launceston]] in [[Cornwall]] there was another armed confrontation between black GIs and MPs which left two MPs wounded; 14 black GIs were court martialled.<ref name="Wynn 2006" />
The days before the Park Street Riot saw an increase in tension between the black and white GIs. On 10 July at the Muller Orphanage, where some of the black troops were billeted, several white paratroopers arrived.<ref name="f3">{{Cite web|url=http://brisray.com/bristol/briot2.htm|title=Riots (2)|first=Ray|last=Thomas|website=brisray.com|access-date=2018-02-12}}</ref> The black soldiers claimed that they were insulted and then beaten by the paratroopers.<ref name="f3" />
===545th Port Company mutiny=== On the night of 12–13 July the 545th Port Company, an all-black segregated unit that was billeted at [[Sea Mills, Bristol|Sea Mills]], mutinied. On the morning of 13 July the company refused direct orders to report for duty and remained in the barracks.<ref name="f3" /> They demanded better treatment from their officers, better accommodation for the soldiers in the guardhouse, and a halt to the paratroopers chasing black GIs through the streets of Bristol.<ref name="Judge Advocate General's Department 1946" /> The mutiny ended the same evening, without violence.<ref name="Judge Advocate General's Department 1946" /> One black soldier, Robert Davis of 542nd Port Company was accused of inciting the mutiny, and was court martialled on 6 September 1944 in [[Newport, Wales|Newport]]. He was sentenced to hard labour for life.<ref name="Judge Advocate General's Department 1946">{{Cite book| url=https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/service/ll/llmlp/ETO-BOR_Vol-11/ETO-BOR_Vol-11.pdf |title=Board of Review|last=Judge Advocate General's Department |publisher=Office of Judge Advocate General |year=1946 |volume=11 |location=Washington |pages=81–90 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20151112010233/https://www.loc.gov/rr/frd/Military_Law/pdf/ETO-BOR_Vol-11.pdf |archive-date=2015-11-12 |access-date=2024-01-12}}</ref>
==Riot== On the evening of Saturday 15 July approximately 400 black GIs gathered in the area of Park Street.<ref name="f3" /> Some of them were accompanied by British women and a US military policeman stopped them.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk|title=City Inquiry into main street shooting match between rioting troops|date=19 July 1944|work=Daily Mirror|access-date=19 February 2018}}</ref> This caused a minor disturbance which prompted the deployment of more policemen. In total 120 armed military policemen attended.<ref name="Wynn 2006" /> The black soldiers were gathered to march back to the trucks that were to drive them to their barracks. The MPs tried to disarm some of them who had knives. The black soldiers refused to hand them over, their colleagues intervened and in the resulting confrontation one policeman was stabbed and his attacker shot dead. The MPs restored control by closing off the street with buses and shooting several GIs in the legs.<ref name="f3" /> Many black GIs were arrested and several were sent to the local hospital. A curfew was established in Bristol for many days afterwards.<ref name="f3" />
==See also== * [[Urban riots]]
==Notes== {{notelist}}
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== * {{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-bristol-32681824|title=Bristol's little-known role in US civil rights movement|work=BBC News |date=11 May 2015 |access-date=16 February 2018}}
{{Riots in England}}
[[Category:1944 riots]] [[Category:1944 in England]] [[Category:Black British history]] [[Category:Crime in Bristol]] [[Category:Race riots in England]] [[Category:1940s in Bristol]] [[Category:1944 crimes in the United Kingdom]] [[Category:July 1944 in the United Kingdom]]