On April 29, 1981, a grand jury in Buffalo, New York indicted U.S. Army Pvt. Joseph G. Christopher on charges related to a string of racially motivated murders. The indictment included the killing of three Black men in September 1980, part of a broader wave of racially driven violence across the Northeast. Christopher, later connected to over a dozen attacks on Black men—known in the press as the “Midnight Slasher”—sparked national outrage and heightened awareness of racially charged hate crimes. His case underscored systemic failures in law enforcement responses to racially motivated violence and became a grim chapter in America’s civil rights struggle of the 1980s.
© 2025 KnowThyHistory.com. Know Thy History
