On July 27, 1968, a riot erupted in Gary, Indiana, amid the racial and social tensions that marked the late 1960s in the United States. The unrest was part of a broader pattern of civil disturbances occurring in cities across the country, often fueled by issues such as racial inequality, police brutality, and economic disparity.

Gary, a city with a significant African American population, had been experiencing tensions related to civil rights and economic struggles. In 1967, Richard G. Hatcher was elected as one of the first Black mayors of a major U.S. city, a historic moment that highlighted both progress and deep-seated divisions. However, despite his election, systemic issues persisted, and frustrations within the community remained high.

The riot on July 27, 1968, reportedly involved clashes between residents and law enforcement, with incidents of looting, property damage, and confrontations with police. The National Guard may have been deployed to restore order, as was common in similar uprisings of the era.

On July 27, 1962, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was jailed in Albany, Georgia, during the Albany Movement, a civil rights campaign aimed at desegregating the entire city. The movement, which began in late 1961, was one of the first major attempts to challenge segregation on a broad scale in the Deep South.

Dr. King was arrested for leading a protest and was sentenced to 45 days in jail or a fine. Initially, he chose jail to draw attention to racial injustice. However, local authorities quietly paid his bail, preventing the movement from gaining further momentum through his imprisonment.

While the Albany Movement did not achieve all of its immediate goals, it provided valuable lessons for future civil rights campaigns, particularly in Birmingham (1963) and Selma (1965), where more focused strategies led to significant victories.

The Chicago Race Riot of 1919 was a significant and tragic event in American history. It was part of the larger “Red Summer” of 1919, during which racial violence erupted in numerous cities across the United States. The Chicago riot began on July 27, 1919, when a Black teenager, Eugene Williams, was killed after drifting into a whites-only section of a Lake Michigan beach. White men threw rocks at him, causing him to drown. When police refused to arrest the white perpetrators, tensions escalated into days of violent clashes between Black and white communities.

Over the course of about a week, 38 people were killed (15 white and 23 Black), more than 500 were injured, and thousands of Black residents were left homeless due to arson attacks. The violence was eventually subdued by the Illinois National Guard and additional law enforcement.

The riot highlighted deep racial divisions, housing discrimination, job competition, and systemic racism in Chicago. It also underscored the growing civil rights activism of the time, as Black leaders increasingly pushed back against racial injustices in the North.

Alexandre Dumas fils (1824–1895) was a French writer and playwright, best known for his novel La Dame aux Camélias (The Lady of the Camellias), which inspired Verdi’s opera La Traviata. He was the son of the famous novelist Alexandre Dumas père, who wrote The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo. Unlike his father, who focused on adventure novels, Dumas fils specialized in drama and works exploring moral and social themes, particularly about women and marriage.

On July 27, 1816, Fort Blount—more commonly known as Negro Fort—on the Apalachicola River in Florida was attacked by U.S. forces and their Creek allies. This was part of the U.S. military campaign to eliminate the fort, which had become a refuge for escaped enslaved people and allied Indigenous groups.

The Attack on Negro Fort

• Background: The fort had been abandoned by the British after the War of 1812, but formerly enslaved people and some Native Americans took control of it. The fort was seen as a threat by the U.S. and Southern plantation owners because it was a haven for those escaping slavery.
• Attack: On July 27, an American force, led by General Edmund P. Gaines and accompanied by Creek warriors, fired a red-hot cannonball into the fort’s powder magazine.
• Explosion: The cannonball ignited the gunpowder storage, causing a massive explosion that destroyed the fort almost instantly.
• Casualties: Out of around 300 people inside, nearly 270 were killed. Only a few survived, and many were captured and returned to slavery.

Aftermath

• The destruction of Negro Fort was a major event leading up to the First Seminole War (1817–1818).
• The U.S. built Fort Gadsden on the site to prevent any future uprisings.
• This event was an early example of the U.S. military enforcing slavery and territorial expansion in the South.