New York Draft Riots

On this morning a mandatory draft called the "Enrollment Act" was enacted. The exemption of the wealthy led to summer draft riots in New York and other major northern cities. A mob of over 50,000 go wild, burning buildings including a Black orphanage, leaving 3,000 Blacks homeless, between 1,500 and 2,000 civilians dead (most of them Black) and at least 8000 wounded.

One in very five Black New Yorkers moves away after the riot.

Of the hundreds arrested only 19 are convicted for their roles in the riot.