Abstract

 In 1970, citizens of New Castle, Pennsylvania, a small industrial city an hour north of Pittsburgh, responded to the racially motivated murder of a local black Vietnam veteran in that city with vandalism and firebombing that forced the mayor to place the city under a state of emergency for three days. The series of exchanges preceding and following the murder reveals much about that city's history, and how several factors influenced local forms of racism. Existing scholarship has focused on racialized policies and practices in two spatial extremes—large cities and small towns—while this analysis seeks to illustrate how local, regional, and national influences shaped what forms of race-based policies and practices in spaces between these municipal extremes were permissible. Beyond place and space, this research contributes to a different set of conversations about the ways identity and community are articulated through the actions of individuals and groups, and how those understandings are shaped by individual and collective memory. This analysis begins by situating Ronald Mitchell's murder within the historical context of 1970s New Castle, broadens to place New Castle amid much larger and smaller municipalities across the country, and briefly contours some historical forces that shaped racism in policy or practice across time. I illustrate how federal, state, and local authorities responded to crises comparable to that which occurred in response to Mitchell's murder in the 1960s, and highlight how the underlying causes identified during investigations by those bodies manifested throughout the city's history and at the scene of Mitchell's murder. I also explore the role of institutions and memory in shaping knowledge and use of the past and build upon earlier scholarship in asserting their centrality to equitable futures.
Highlights
On 1 November 1970, Ronald Mitchell a black Vietnam vet and Purple Heart recipient known by friends as "Fat Man," newlywed husband and expectant father, carpenter and activist was killed by a white shooter firing from a slowly passing vehicle shortly after midnight in New Castle, Pennsylvania, a small industrial city an hour north of Pittsburgh
Mitchell bled to death nearly one hundred feet from his home while awaiting delayed emergency services, and subsequent racist police action ignited an angry and confused crowd of black witnesses
Out of the department's sixty-one officers, 65 "Black Modeling Program Slated: Human Relations Commission Endorses Police Cadet Corps," New Castle News, June 9, 1970; "Our Editorial Opinion: Black Leadership Must Be Supported," New Castle News, September 4, 1971; and Paul Ward, "BCC President Writes About Racism in the Community," September 4, 1971
Summary
On 1 November 1970, Ronald Mitchell a black Vietnam vet and Purple Heart recipient known by friends as "Fat Man," newlywed husband and expectant father, carpenter and activist was killed by a white shooter firing from a slowly passing vehicle shortly after midnight in New Castle, Pennsylvania, a small industrial city an hour north of Pittsburgh. Paul Ward, president of the BCC New Castle's most active civil rights organization at the time and Anna Mary Mooney, a white, long-term substitute teacher at the nowcondemned predominantly black Lincoln Garfield Elementary School on Long Avenue and member of several community organizations, both identified the Jefferson Street and Washington Street bridges as locations black residents through the unspoken practice and understanding of all New Castle residents were not to cross.33 These bridges marked the southern and western boundaries of the space whose northern and eastern edges police reified and reinforced in cordoning the "riot" scene, boundaries subsequently contested by firebombing.. The Graduate History Review 9, no. 1 (2020) Appendix B: Insurance Redlining Map, New Castle City, Lawrence
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