User:Melissa Lambey/sandbox

Ex servicemen's riot (1919 riot)
On June 22, 1919, Belize City underwent what commentators would soon describe as a "race riot." The riot was triggered by a contingent of (Black) Creole ex-servicemen recently returned from service in World War I, who systematically smashed the store windows of white elites. They were quickly followed by approximately four thousand members of the general, working-class Creole population that took advantage of the opportunity to voice their protests and loot stores.

Samuel Haynes had led the 1919 riot who had disagreed with racial discrimination among his home. After arriving at home in Belize in 1919 from the war, the soldiers' expectations of increased status and respect was denied and also the failure of colonial authorities to secure them land, jobs and benefits. Their own dissatisfaction was echoed by that of the Creole population at large.