The Robert Charles riots of 1900, remain one of the most violent and racially charged events in New Orleans history. The conflict began after African-American laborer Robert Charles was confronted by police whose provocative tactics and heavy-handed enforcement led to a shootout in which Charles shot and wounded a white officer. This incident sparked a manhunt and widespread white mob violence targeting the city’s Black population.
Robert Charles, born around 1865 in Mississippi, was a self-educated activist committed to civil rights and the defense of the African-American community. A man of principle, Charles believed in self-defense and encouraged Black people to emigrate to Liberia to escape systemic discrimination and racial violence in the United States. By 1900, he had settled in New Orleans, a city with a complex racial history, where he worked as a laborer and became involved in advocating for Black autonomy.
At the turn of the century, New Orleans was a deeply segregated city with roughly 208,946 white residents and 77,714 Black residents, many of them Creoles of color, descendants of free people of color from the French and Spanish colonial era. After Reconstruction, white elites imposed a rigid racial hierarchy that marginalized Black and mixed-race residents. Louisiana’s 1898 constitution disenfranchised most African Americans, and Jim Crow laws enforced segregation in schools, public transport, and other facilities. The Police also frequently relied on heavy-handed tactics and excessive use of force against Black residents, creating a tense and dangerous environment for people like Charles.
On the night of July 23, 1900, Robert Charles and his teenage roommate, Leonard Pierce, were confronted by three white police officers in a predominantly white neighborhood. When questioned, Charles calmly explained that they were “waiting for a friend,” but when he stood up, the officers interpreted the movement as aggressive. A struggle broke out after Officer Mora grabbed Charles and struck him with a billy club. Both men drew guns, and shots were exchanged, wounding Charles and Mora in the legs. Charles fled the scene, leaving a trail of blood as he returned to his residence.
Early the next morning, several officers arrived at Charles’s home to arrest him. Charles, armed with a rifle, shot and killed two officers before fleeing on foot, triggering a massive manhunt. Newspapers like the Times-Democrat fanned the flames, blaming the entire Black community for Charles’s actions and warning of a “race war,” which encouraged mobs to take the law into their own hands.
Over the following days, Armed whites roamed the streets, attacking Black residents indiscriminately. On the night of July 25 alone, three African Americans were killed, six were seriously wounded, and dozens more suffered injuries. Five white men were also hospitalized in the chaos, and over fifty others were hurt in lesser confrontations. While all these were happening, Newspapers continued to stoke racial fears, blaming the Black community for Charles’s actions.
Charles himself had taken refuge at 1208 Saratoga Street, where he remained hidden from authorities for three days. His location was eventually revealed by an informant, and police surrounded the house on July 27. Charles defended himself fiercely, firing from the stairs and second-story windows, killing two more officers, and wounding several others. The standoff escalated as more officers arrived, supported by state militia units armed with machine guns.
Unable to enter the house under Charles’s precise fire, police and volunteers set a mattress ablaze to smoke him out. As he attempted to flee the burning house, he was shot by a special police volunteer and then riddled with bullets by the mob. After his death, white rioters continued attacking Black neighborhoods, burning schools, including the prominent Thomy Lafon schoolhouse, and killing several African Americans. The arrival of state militia and special police eventually restored order, bringing an end to the riots, which left at least 28 people dead, most of them Black, and more than 50 injured, marking one of the deadliest episodes of racial violence in New Orleans history.
Sources:
https://books.google.com.ng/books?id=ijJpC3EbuoIC&pg=PA177&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false
https://neworleanshistorical.org/items/show/1451?tour=91&index=12
https://veritenews.org/2024/05/22/bitd-robert-charles-riot-ida-b-wells/
https://robertcharlesproject.org/about-robert-charles
