On this day, August 15, in 1900

Rioting erupted in New York City as the city's white residents went on a violent rampage, chasing and beating anyone they identified as black. Two days earlier, a black man, Arthur J. Harris, had confronted a plain-clothes police officer who was harassing his friend, and after a fight ensued, the white policeman was killed. Rumors quickly spread that a black man had killed a cop, increasing paranoia in the white community. When another fight broke out in front of the murdered cops house, the atmosphere quickly shifted to chaos and the rioting began. The rage-filled rioters, including both the white citizens and policemen, terrorized New York's black population well into the next day, stopped only by bad weather.