July 64 Essay

The events that took place on July ‘64 in Rochester, NY were just one of many other similar happenings taking place throughout the US in the 60’s. Deemed “riots” by many and “rebellions” by black people of the time, events similar to those of July ‘64 during the Civil Rights era are hot topic as far as how they should properly be addressed from a historical point of view. The events of July ‘64 definitely did include a riot. However, simply labeling the entire 3 day period as a riot is an injustice to both the event itself and to the people of today looking at this event. The static label of a riot deprives the people of the present from fully understanding what July ‘64 was. I propose to instead use a dynamic label, one that shows change, and would like to refer to July ‘64 as a “riot-turned-rebellion”. As such, the exhibit that I will be proposing will be titled “Rochester July ‘64: Riot Turned Rebellion”. “Rochester July ‘64: Riot Turned Rebellion” will be located in the new History of Rochester museum being built in downtown Rochester.The exhibit will be displayed along the length of a corridor is chronological order.The purpose of displaying the pieces and information on a corridor wall is for people to walk
I think that it would really give the visitors a sense of what they are about to see. For job discrimination, I would display the July ‘64 clip in which David Gantt, a resident of the Seventh Ward in 1964, explained his experience with trying to get a job with Kodak by going to Kodak three times a week for six months. I also intend to use a couple of images from the July ‘64 film depicting the housing situation in the Third and Seventh wards that really shows the type of housing that was typical for black families in those