Scene of the Pine Street Fire in Cambridge: 1967
Destroyed buildings on Pine Street in Cambridge Md July 25, 1967 after someone set fire to the Pine Street School and the town fire department refused to fight the blaze following fighting between black and white residents during the night.
The previous evening, Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee chair H. “Rap” Brown gave a fiery speech on black pride, a critique of U.S. white society and willingness of black people to fight for a better life.
Following the speech, Brown was shot at and slightly wounded by a shotgun pellet. Gunfire between black and white residents broke out and someone set fire to the Pine Street School in the African American section of town.
The fire engulfed two square blocks of the black neighborhood while white firefighters refused to quell the blaze.
Maryland Gov. Spiro Agnew sent in the National Guard, came to town calling for authorities to arrest Brown and “throw away the key.” He called African American residents of the town “thugs” and subsequently cut off federal aid to the town.
Agnew went on to make a political career of attacking “radical liberals” and calling for “law and order” before he was forced to resign as U.S. vice president while facing corruption charges.
Brown’s speech, the subsequent fire and occupation by the Guard marked the end of a four year mass movement in the town seeking an end to segregation, better jobs, schools, housing and health care.
For more images of the Cambridge civil rights protests 1962-67, see flic.kr/s/aHsk3Pe6xA
For a background story on the Cambridge civil rights struggle, see washingtonspark.wordpress.com/2015/05/31/raging-civil-rig...
For an account of the 1937 Phillips Packing Co. Strike in Cambridge, see washingtonspark.wordpress.com/2014/09/18/1937-phillips-pa...
Photo by Paul Schmick. Image courtesy of the D.C Public Library Washington Star Collection © Washington Post.
Scene of the Pine Street Fire in Cambridge: 1967
Destroyed buildings on Pine Street in Cambridge Md July 25, 1967 after someone set fire to the Pine Street School and the town fire department refused to fight the blaze following fighting between black and white residents during the night.
The previous evening, Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee chair H. “Rap” Brown gave a fiery speech on black pride, a critique of U.S. white society and willingness of black people to fight for a better life.
Following the speech, Brown was shot at and slightly wounded by a shotgun pellet. Gunfire between black and white residents broke out and someone set fire to the Pine Street School in the African American section of town.
The fire engulfed two square blocks of the black neighborhood while white firefighters refused to quell the blaze.
Maryland Gov. Spiro Agnew sent in the National Guard, came to town calling for authorities to arrest Brown and “throw away the key.” He called African American residents of the town “thugs” and subsequently cut off federal aid to the town.
Agnew went on to make a political career of attacking “radical liberals” and calling for “law and order” before he was forced to resign as U.S. vice president while facing corruption charges.
Brown’s speech, the subsequent fire and occupation by the Guard marked the end of a four year mass movement in the town seeking an end to segregation, better jobs, schools, housing and health care.
For more images of the Cambridge civil rights protests 1962-67, see flic.kr/s/aHsk3Pe6xA
For a background story on the Cambridge civil rights struggle, see washingtonspark.wordpress.com/2015/05/31/raging-civil-rig...
For an account of the 1937 Phillips Packing Co. Strike in Cambridge, see washingtonspark.wordpress.com/2014/09/18/1937-phillips-pa...
Photo by Paul Schmick. Image courtesy of the D.C Public Library Washington Star Collection © Washington Post.