Beaumont Texas Race Riot 1943

White workers at the Pennsylvania Shipyard in Beaumont, Texas riot after a false rumor that a Black man had raped a white woman. A mob of several thousand white men destroys Black businesses and homes in the Black neighborhood. Two people are killed, dozens injured, and over 200 arrested, the majority Black. Martial law is declared. The riot exemplifies how wartime racial tensions and false rape accusations were used to terrorize Black communities.