The 1970 Augusta Riot
The 1970 Augusta Riot Observance Committee strives to cultivate awareness, recovery and justice for the community through education, conversation and creative experiences.
The Augusta Riot was a collective rebellion of Black citizens and the largest urban uprising in the Deep South during the Civil Rights era.
Fueled by long-simmering grievances about racial injustice, it was sparked by white officials’ stonewalling in the face of Black citizens’ demand for answers about the beating death of Black teenager Charles Oatman. At its height on the evening of May 11, 1970, two to three thousand people participated, ransacking and setting fire to white- and Chinese-American-owned businesses, damaging $1 million of property over a 130-block area.
White police officers violently suppressed the riot…
…with the endorsement of the governor, shoot-to-kill orders from their captain, and reinforcements by the National Guard and State Patrol. Police shotgun blasts wounded at least 60 people and killed 6: Charlie Mack Murphy (age 39), William Wright, Jr (18), Sammy McCullough (20), John Stokes (19), John Bennett (28), and Mack Wilson (45). All six were unarmed. All six were shot in the back, and three of the men were shot multiple times.
Despite the suppression, the riot fundamentally shook the status quo…
…galvanizing a new wave of activism that opened doors for Augusta’s Black citizens. The fears it generated gave Black activists new leverage in their demands for change, and Black voters began to make substantive gains in local politics. The six victims were memorialized with the four students killed at Kent State University a week earlier and the two students killed at Jackson State University three days later. Here, SCLC concludes a 110-mile “March Against Death” protesting the shoot-to-kill mindset gaining traction in the country, and carrying six empty caskets to mourn the six victims of Augusta’s police violence.