mass racial violence in the united states, also called race riots, can include such disparate events as: * attacks on irish catholics, the chinese and other immigrants in the 19th century. * attacks on native americans and americans over the land. * attacks on italian immigrants in the early 20th century, and mexicans and puerto ricans in the later 20th century. * attacks on african americans that occurred, as in 1919, in addition to the lynchings in the period after reconstruction through the first half of the 20th century. * frequent fighting among various ethnic groups in major cities, specifically in the northeast and midwest united states throughout the late 19th century and early 20th century. this example was made famous in the stage musical west side story and its film adaptation. * unrest in african-american communities, such as the 1968 riots following the assassination of martin luther king, jr.. ==anti-immigrant and anti-catholic violence== riots defined by "race" have taken place between ethnic groups in the united states since as early as the pre-revolution era of the 18th century. during the early-to-mid- 19th centuries, violent rioting occurred between protestant "nativists" and recently arrived irish catholic immigrants. these reached heights during the peak of immigration in the 1840s and 1850s in cities including new york, philadelphia, and boston. during the early 20th century, riots were common against irish and french-canadian immigrants in providence, rhode island. the san francisco vigilance movements of 1851 and 1856 are often described by sympathetic historians as responses to rampant crime and government corruption. but, recent historians have noted that the vigilantes had a nativist bias; they systematically attacked first irish immigrants, and later mexicans, chileans who came as miners during the california gold rush, and chinese immigrants. during the early 20th century, racial or ethnic violence was directed by whites against filipinos, japanese and armenians in california, who had arrived in waves of immigration. during the late 19th century and early 20th century, italian americans were subject to racial violence. in 1891, eleven italians were violently murdered in the streets by a large lynch mob. in the 1890s a total of twenty italians were lynched in the south. anti-polish violence also occurred in the same time period. ==19th century events== like lynchings, race riots often had their roots in economic tensions or in white defense of the color line. [[image:east-st-louis-massacre
Hate_crime History_of_racism_in_the_United_States Lists_of_disasters_in_the_United_States Race_riots_in_the_United_States