Saturday, July 2, 1960: Riot at Newport Jazz Festival

The streets outside the Newport Jazz Festival turn violent when thousands of young people (mostly white college boys) are unable to get in the sold-out festival. The state police and the National Guard are called in. Tear gas and high-pressure fire hoses are used on the crowd, which launches can, bottle and rock attacks of its own. More than 100 people are injured, some 200 rioters are arrested, and the town cancels the rest of the jazz peformances, though a blues program goes on as scheduled. (At left are pages from the magazine Photo Life; click to enlarge.) There would be no festival at all in 1961.

* The day's events: @

* Account from the book "Freedom Is, Freedom Ain't: Jazz and the Making of the Sixties": @

* More about the blues program: @

* "In the Evening by the Moonlight," from "Nina Simone at Newport" (recorded June 30): @

* About Muddy Waters' "At Newport 1960" (recorded July 3): @

* About The Nashville All-Stars' "After the Riot at Newport" (recorded July 4): @

* Festival website: @

---