Report on the Arthur McDuffie Riots in Miami. Footage of National Guardsmen on trucks in deserted streets with smoke rising in the distance, charred buildings and cars, a man being treated for a head wound, another man loaded onto a stretcher after being shot, a man with a bandaged hand being arrested, firefighters working to put out fires.
The 1980 Miami riots were race riots that occurred in Miami, Florida, starting in earnest on May 18, 1980,[1] following an all-White male jury acquitting four Dade County Public Safety Department officers in the death of Arthur McDuffie (December 3, 1946 – December 21, 1979), a Black insurance salesman and United States Marine Corps lance corporal. McDuffie was beaten to death by four police officers after a traffic stop. After the officers were tried and acquitted on charges including manslaughter and evidence tampering, a riot broke out in the Black neighborhoods of Overtown and Liberty City on the night of May 17. Riots continued until May 20, resulting in at least 18 deaths and an estimated $100 million in property damage.
In 1981 Dade County settled a civil lawsuit filed by McDuffie’s family for $1.1 million. The 1980 Miami riots were the deadliest urban riots in a single city since the 1967 Detroit riot and remained such until the 1992 Los Angeles riots twelve years later.
