Talk:Benton Harbor riots

Soliciting article help
I have only provided the link to the official report as part of the article which I created, just to provide information where there has been none. I don't feel comfortable, however, writing prose for it, because of the contentious nature of the subject, so I'm going to leave that mostly to others. Mapsax 19:10, 12 October 2007 (UTC)


 * I copied relevant text from the Benton Harbor, Michigan article (see edit, with attribution). Mapsax 16:13, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

Possible 1966 source
According to this page at the current time, Andrews University undergraduate Kelly A. Chichester wrote a research paper this year entitled "We Got to Leave Now! The Riot of Benton Harbor in 1966 and its Effects on White Flight" and presented it at Purdue University. Unfortunately, since it's unpublished, it isn't available anywhere on the Web (assuming that she or her school have thought about doing that), except for this summary:

Upon beginning the research for my topic, I realized that many historians who research the US urban race riots of the 1960's focus on black issues and how African-Americans related to local authorities like the police. Little attention is given to how these riots affected whites. My paper focuses on the Riot of 1966 in Benton Harbor, a small city in southwest Michigan. However, instead of focusing on blacks, I chose to pay more attention to how the riot affected whites. I found that, based on census data, whites in Benton Harbor went from being the majority to 1960 to being a minority in 1970. Various local and national news articles on race riots in other major cities helped me conclude that the Riot of 1966 was the catalyst that influenced whites to leave Benton Harbor for the suburbs.

Mapsax (talk) 22:06, 21 December 2007 (UTC)

"Small minority"
I'd change it myself but I'm not in the in-crowd on Wikipedia and therefore always wrong in my expereinces, but I feel that the phrase "a small minority" is not encyclopedia material. "Small" is really undefined and undefinable in this sense. It was indeed a minority, but I don't think 300+ police are required to deal with "Small" crowds. Perhaps some real numbers or estimates would be better, and not give off the air of "scared to offend people" which is not what encyclopedias are about. Facts, not opinions. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.236.185.72 (talk) 20:26, 25 February 2012 (UTC)

External links modified
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I don't feel like this page needs to exist at all
Benton Harbor MI is a very small city, and this "list" is two entries long. It would be more apt as a subsection in an article about civil unrest in Michigan or something, not an entire page.

JBrahms (talk) 01:28, 23 January 2023 (UTC)


 * The article is classified as a stub, it can be expanded. If you wish, propose a merge. Mapsax (talk) 01:06, 27 February 2023 (UTC)

Requested move 27 February 2023



 * The following discussion is an archived discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

Moved as proposed. After much-extended time for discussion, discussion on the merits of the proposed move itself is in support of the proposition. BD2412 T 19:47, 26 March 2023 (UTC)

List of riots in Benton Harbor, Michigan → Benton Harbor riots – Needs revert, not a list article Mapsax (talk) 01:03, 27 February 2023 (UTC) — Relisting. BilledMammal (talk) 13:50, 6 March 2023 (UTC)
 * Relisting comment: Is this article a list article, and if it is should it be a list article? BilledMammal (talk) 13:50, 6 March 2023 (UTC)


 * This needs a WP:AFD and/or WP:SPLIT rather than editing, since it mixes apples and oranges. The only thing that the 1966 and 2003 riots had in common is the place, and I doubt one will find a source that discusses them together. And only when taken apart, one should judge notability based on the sources (my gut feeling says that none of the events listed rises above the WP:LASTING bar, but that's a matter for AFD). No such user (talk) 15:05, 8 March 2023 (UTC)
 * Multiple articles about the 2003 riot mention the 1966 one; in fact, one is already a reference. The riots are all of the same type in the same location so there's consistency. Maybe if the title were "History of civil unrest in Benton Harbor, Michigan" it would have clearer context. If this is merged into another article, it likely would need to be split again sometime. There is already a possibility of expansion per other sources mentioned above and elaboration of the existing references. Mapsax (talk) 19:43, 8 March 2023 (UTC)
 * Support. Article isn't currently written as a list article, and doesn't look like it would benefit from being rewritten as one. (I also concur with No Such User's skepticism about whether the riots have WP:LASTING significance, but that question should probably be handled after the RM is closed.) ModernDayTrilobite (talk • contribs) 15:00, 15 March 2023 (UTC)
 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.