The Draft Riots: Black Mark on Our History: "Over the course of three days of rioting, killing, and lynching, 3,000 African-Americans--one-quarter of [New York's] free black community--saw their homes and businesses destroyed.".

• Author: Scott, Dakota
• Position: USA YESTERDAY

TOO OFTEN, New Yorkers look with horror at Oklahoma's 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre or the 1923 Rosewood Massacre in Florida and allow themselves a bit of inner relief that our city has a different, less brutal history when it comes to racial injustice. The Draft Riots should give them pause.

On July 14, 1863, a mob burned down the Colored Orphan Asylum at 43rd Street and Fifth Avenue. Some 237 young residents fled to safety but lost their home. That same day, an African-American man named William Jones was lynched on his way to buy bread. A day later, James Costello, a black shoemaker, was stoned by a mob of more than 200 people and hung from a tree on 32nd Street. Rows of homes owned by black families were burned to the ground; dance halls, boarding houses, and tenements known to cater to both black and white residents were attacked. These only are a handful of the recorded occurrences during three days of violent rioting that ended up officially killing 119, though estimates of the actual number of deaths range up to 1,200.

The Civil War Draft Riots began as a reaction to the Conscription Act, which called up 300,000 men to fight for the Union Army. The draft lottery would pull the names of 26,000 men between the ages of 20 and 45 in New York. African-Americans were exempt because legally they were not citizens, but recent immigrants who had elected to become citizens (a 60-day process) were told their only option to escape the draft was to leave the country or pay a $300 fine, nearly a year's wages for laborers. Some past exemptions from military services, such as being a volunteer firefighter with one of the notorious Five Points engine companies, were rolled back.

After the first lottery drawing on Saturday, July 11, 1863, many people were angered by the number of working class citizens being called up to the Union militia while wealthy residents purchased their own release. By Monday, hundreds of protesters were out on the streets. The protests quickly turned to rioting, first bombarding the draft office and then setting the building on fire. The Metropolitan police tried to quell the crowd but ended up escalating the violence, injuring multiple people. Police Inspector Daniel C. Carpenter clubbed and killed a man he believed to be the leader of a mob.

Although violence initially was directed at the draft office and city officials, as the rioting spread throughout Manhattan, the assaults became racially motivated. Attacks on the black...