OPINION: 50 years after racial unrest in Harrisburg and York, the black-white divide persists - but it’s shrinking | PennLive Editorial

By PennLive Editorial Board

Updated Jun 21, 9:58 AM; Posted Jun 21, 8:26 AM

Not enough has changed since 1969 when racial tensions erupted into violence in Harrisburg, York and other cities in Central Pennsylvania. That was the consensus of 12 PennLive readers who came together to discuss the racial unrest of 1969, warning many of the inequities that existed then are still with us today. Fifty years ago, there were ample reasons for African Americans to take to the streets to protest:

• Students in the Black Student Union accused teachers at John Harris and William Penn of discrimination and outright racism.
• Black residents were denied equal access to jobs and quality, affordable housing.
• An African American woman said she was beaten by police after she tried to enter a store that was closing to buy a pack of cigarettes.
• Police shot 18-year-old Charles A. Scott in the back, killing the student in the 1300 block of Bailey Street.

And that was only a snippet of the problems pitting blacks against whites in Harrisburg.

1969 Associated Press photo

Pennsylvania National Guardsmen and state police patrol York on July 22, 1969, during the city's race riot. A white police officer, Henry Schaad, and a black woman, Lillie Belle Allen, were killed in the uprising. More than 30 years later, three people were convicted or pleaded guilty in Schaad's death, and nine people were convicted or reached plea agreements in Allen's death.

In York, the atmosphere was just as tense and even more violent. Police Officer Henry Schaad was killed, as was Lillie Belle Allen, a black woman shot on July 21 in the racial unrest. And Mayor Charlie Robertson, a former York police officer, was one of 10 people accused of her murder. He stood trial and was acquitted in 2001.

In Carlisle, Susquehanna Township and Lancaster, African American students protested, staged walkouts and demanded more black teachers be recruited and black history taught in their schools.

Central Pennsylvania is no exception to the national norm.

The story of Myneco Ojo, newly appointed Mayor of Hanover, provides one stark example. She couldn’t attend the PennLive reader panel discussion, but she sent her comments:

“Racism is alive and well in the core and soul of people,” she wrote. “It will take a major culture shift to eradicate it . . . and that is problematic because shifts only come when there is an embrace of diversity & inclusion."

Ojo was among a group of African American women who were asked to leave the Grandview Golf Course in York last year for golfing too slowly, an offense that was so egregious, managers called the police to confront the women, all in their 50s.  Read More here