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Arthur McDuffie (1946-1979)
21 of 35
Arthur McDuffie was an African American Marine Corps veteran and insurance salesman savagely beaten by white Miami policemen during a traffic stop in December 1979; he died four days later. Four officers were tried in Tampa by prosecutors from the office of future Attorney General Janet Reno, and acquitted by an all-white jury in May 1980. Miami's African American community, already frustrated by a lack of economic opportunity and a sense of being passed over in favor of Hispanic immigrants, was outraged. The night the verdict was announced, riots erupted in the section of Miami known as Liberty City; 18 people died.
page created on 8.23.06
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