Lockefield Place Riots

In June of 1969, the Lockefield Place neighborhood of Indianapolis erupted in violent protests in response to an alleged incident of police brutality. Lockefield Place, located northwest of downtown, was the most prominent African American neighborhood in Indianapolis. At the center of this residential area stood Lockefield Gardens, a large public housing complex built by the Public Works Administration during the Great Depression. Lockefield Gardens served Indianapolis’ African American community as a social hub, cultural center, and place of residency for many families. During the early-to-mid twentieth century, Indianapolis enforced discriminatory public policies that resulted in decades of inadequate housing, segregation of public facilities, and the lack of educational and employment opportunities for African Americans.[1] By the 1960s, the glaring issue that plagued Indianapolis’ African American residents and the Lockefield Place neighborhood was the growing friction between the African American population and the police.[2] Throughout the 1960s, this tension would mount until it exploded in a violent riot at the end of the decade.

Racial unrest tore throughout the United States during the 1960s, sparking both peaceful and violent demonstrations. Fearing violent clashes in Indianapolis, officers of the Indianapolis National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) called on Mayor John Barton and other city officials to train police officers in effective riot control, identify potential hot spots where unrest was most likely to break out, and create a program of action in the event of violence in 1966. The NAACP’s efforts to improve relations among African Americans and police officers and prevent riots proved ineffective, as city leaders failed to implement their demands. The Indianapolis Police Department had looked on black militarism with great suspicion since the beginning of the Civil Rights movement, and as the Black Panthers arrived in Indianapolis following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., police presence was increased in Lockefield Gardens.[3]

In June 1968, three members of the Indianapolis Black Panther chapter were arrested on charges of burglary and conspiracy to murder Indianapolis police chief Winston L. Churchill and head of the police vice squad Richard Jones.[4] The three men were arrested while stealing ammunition from the Marine Corp Training Reserve. According to prosecution, they were planning to use the weapons to incite a “racial outbreak.” The three were held under bonds of $20,000 a person- almost ten times the normal bond amount for this type of offense- for almost a year. In March 1969, two of the accused were convicted of burglary and conspiracy to murder and received two to 14-year sentences in prison.[5] The decision of the court was met with outrage in Indianapolis’ African American community. The Indianapolis Reporter, an African American newspaper, accused the police officer whose testimony was used to convict the two men of entrapment. Working undercover, the young African American officer had infiltrated the Black Panther group and helped members organize the burglary. [6] Mozell Sanders, a local Baptist reverend, urged the community to fight the conviction and raise funds to appeal the case.[7]

In the months following the sentencing, tensions ran high among police officers and the inhabitants of Lockefield Place. On Thursday, June 12, 1969, hostilities boiled over into a massive demonstration. The violence began after two white officers were ambushed by twenty young African American men while responding to an alleged fight in Lockefield Place. Although police denied the allegation, witnesses of the incident claimed that one police officer shot three volleys at a group of children playing while he was trying to halt a youth who had stolen a police revolver. As backup police officers arrived at Lockefield Place, a crowd of about 300 African American residents gathered and pelted them with bricks and bottles. The violent encounter erupted into a full-scale riot that lasted for two days and resulted in the arrests of over one hundred demonstrators, multiple riot-related injuries, and looting and damage to nearby businesses, including the total destruction of the Lockefield Big Ten Market.[8]

African American community leaders, including Reverend Sanders, called for peace from the mob. The Indianapolis Black Panthers and youth working for the neighborhood center “Our Place” were able to quell the riot by June 14. The solution proposed was that most police patrols be removed and only African American officers should be allowed in Lockefield Place. The Indianapolis NAACP also called on Indianapolis city leaders to create more educational and employment opportunities for the African American population. The riots in Indianapolis brought to light the issue of police brutality in African American neighborhoods and sparked disturbances in other Indianapolis cities, including in Kokomo and Marion.[9] Today, many buildings in Lockefield Place are listed on the National Register of Historic Places for their importance to the history of Indianapolis’ African American community.[10]

[1] Mary Giorgio, “The Many Lives of Indy’s Historic Lockefield Gardens,” Orangebean, March 20, 2020, https://orangebeanindiana.com/2020/03/20/the-many-lives-of-indys-historic-lockefield-gardens/.
[2] Emma L. Thornbrough, Indiana Blacks in the Twentieth Century (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2000), 185.
[3] Ibid, 186.
[4] “Black police said he heard plans of assassination plot,” The Indianapolis Recorder, June 29, 1968, 1, 13.
[5] “Two get terms, third freed in armory burglary,” The Indianapolis Recorder, March 22, 1969, 1, 10.
[6] “Black police said he heard plans of assassination plot,” The Indianapolis Recorder. 1, 13.
[7] “Two get terms, third freed in armory burglary,” The Indianapolis Recorder, 1, 10.
[8] “Two nights of disorder rack Westside; calm restored Sat.,” Indianapolis Recorder, June 14, 1969, 1.
[9] Thornbrough, Indiana Blacks in the Twentieth Century, 187.
[10] Giorgio, “The Many Lives of Indy’s Historic Lockefield Gardens.”

Student Authors: Robin Johnson and Natalie Bradshaw
Faculty/Staff Editors: Dr. Ronald V. Morris, Dr. Kevin C. Nolan, and Christine Thompson
Graduate Assistant Researchers: Carrie Vachon and JB Bilbrey

PHOTO & VIDEO:
Lockefield Big 10 Market Looted and Burned,
Indianapolis Recorder Collection, Indiana Historical Society.
https://images.indianahistory.org/digital/collection/p0303/id/178/rec/1