The 1972 USS Kittyhawk race riots

For weeks, unrest between white and Black crew members had been simmering below the busy flight deck and through the labyrinth of cramped passageways, mess halls and crew quarters. On Oct. 12, these tensions finally boiled over into bloody violence. 

 That night, as Kitty Hawk’s warplanes were bombing North Vietnam, the carrier’s white and Black crew members traded blows and attacked each other with makeshift weapons, including wrenches and broken-off broom handles. The chaos engulfed the ship and left dozens wounded. Worse, it precipitated one of the worst miscarriages of justice in the history of the U.S. Navy.

Story here