Riots and Demonstrations (1967)

Duration: 22:02

Year Published: 1967

Sound: sound

Description: This unedited footage from Houston’s KPRC-TV contains a series of short news segments related to social unrest both at Texas Southern University and within the local African-American community between March and November 1967. The titles for each segment are the originals created by KPRC-TV. As with the rest of the country, the 1960s were a period of rising racial tension in Houston. This footage captures the events leading up to and following what is arguably the height of that unrest: the so-called “TSU Riot.” On the night of May 16, 1967, a standoff between students and police escalated into an hours-long shootout, resulting in the death of one rookie patrolman and the arrest of nearly 500 students. The confrontation followed months of campus protests against the university administration, also captured here. Proving that racial tensions remained exceedingly high, another civil disturbance occurred just three months after the incident at Texas Southern University.