Sunday, May 13, 2007

Call for emails

Was anybody out there in Washington, D.C., on May 10, 1975? Did you attend the “Human Kindness Day” festivities on the Mall?

Did you get your ass kicked? Or maybe do a little ass-kicking? (Don’t worry… statute of limitations been gone.) Perhaps you were just an eyewitness.

Anyone with personal recollections of Human Kindness Day ’75 – when black kids went bananas and beat up white people at random (resulting in 600 arrests) – I’d like to hear from you.

Please email me at the address on my profile page, and put “Human Kindness” in the subject line. I’m putting together a future post about this unforgettable day in the social history of Chocolate City.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I was 12, living in Oxon Hill (when there were still white people living in Oxon Hill).

It seemed to everyone I knew, black or white, adult or kid, that those ghetto mo'fo's had lost they minds.

You do like to delve into dark corners. I'll give you that. Damn.

Anonymous said...

While living in Maryland at the time, I saw a news report on a man who had lost an eye when attacked and stabbed at Human Kindness Day. There was little additional commentary on this, except that one reader said that the victim might have expected trouble by being in the area(it is the victim's fault, of course).

Unknown said...

Oh how well I do remember Human Kindness Day. I was 18 years old. I took one of my nieces with me who was 8. Well, I can remember hearing Graham Central Station afar off, we wanted to get closer, but as we started walking that way, all of a sudden the rush of the crowd of thousands were coming towards me and my niece. So, I did the smart thing. I grabbed her hand and we both ran from the Monument grounds to 14th & Clifton, and did not stop until we hit Clifton Terrece. A day I will NEVER forget. I watched in horror of the activities on the news and could not beleive what was happening On such a day as "Human Kindness Day". I did see some blacks beating white people up as we were running for our lives Thank God he got us safe.

Anonymous said...

Yes,i was there and remember that some young and stupid black youth ruined a nice yearly event for no reason at all...Free concert, outdoors,on the mounument grounds, ( are you kidding me ).Tear gas rained down and the mass confusion and panic will never be forgotten.Too bad,because it was a great idea at the time.