In the early evening of Friday, July 24, 1964, the Rochester Police Department attempted to arrest an intoxicated black male at a street block party and dance. A member of the group "Mothers Improvement Association of the Eighth Ward" concerned with the male's behavior was the first to contact the Rochester Police Department. Police found 20-year-old Randy Manigault unruly and disorderly. They determined he was intoxicated and attempted to arrest him. Manigualt became combative and resisted arrest. Bystanders felt police were too forceful and began to interject themselves, and started throwing bottles and bricks at police. Other R.P.D. units were dispatched, including K-9 units. The riot broke out in two of Rochester's predominantly black wards, near the location of the intersection of Nassau Street and Joseph Avenue, as well as downtown.
Aftermath
Peace was restored after three days, and only after Governor Nelson Rockefeller called out the New York National Guard. By the time the disturbance was over, four were dead and 350 injured. Almost a thousand people were arrested and 204 stores were either looted or damaged. A police officer, Dominick D'Angelo, suffered a cut under his eye, but was able to remain on duty, and Dick Baumbach a reporter for ABC News was shot in the face, but it only grazed his facial structure. Although the riot was initially blamed on "outside agitators," almost all the rioters arrested were from the local area, with only 14 people arrested who resided outside Monroe County. Third Ward Supervisor Constance Mitchell stated, "I know the kids here. I know the hard ones and the good kids. And it was the good kids in my ward who first threw the bricks through the windows. Then the adults stepped in. This community just went insane." This led to a reappraisal of policies and practices which had not changed in face of a tripling of the black population in the previous 10 years. At that time, most blacks held low-pay and low-skill jobs and lived in substandard housing, and Rochester was the last city in the State of New York to implement a public housing program. Throughout the decade following the riot, the City of Rochester acquired the land blighted by the riot, leveled remaining buildings, and removed or repositioned many of the streets. One of the first housing projects built after the riots was the Chatham Gardens Apartments, which opened in 1965.
