The White Night Riots

The White Night Riots were a series of violent events sparked by an announcement of the sentencing of Dan White, for the assassinations of San Francisco MayorGeorge Moscone and Harvey Milk, an openly gay San Francisco supervisor. The events took place on the night of May 21, 1979 in San Francisco.

Initial demonstrations took place at San Francisco's City Hall . The riots caused hundreds of thousands of dollars in property damage.

The show of strength from the gay community led to increased political power, which culminated in the re-election of Mayor Dianne Feinstein the following November. In response to a campaign promise, Feinstein appointed a pro-gay Chief of Police, which increased recruitment of gays in the police force.

The riots began announcement of the sentencing of Dan White when Harvey Milk's friend Cleve Jones addressed approximately 500 people that had gathered on Castro Street.

With shouts of "Out of the bars and into the streets," Jones led the march down Castro street, with more people emerging from each bar.[ The crowd circled around and marched through the Castro again, numbering approximately 1,500 people. As the crowd left the Castro, Jones was given the police escort he had been promised several days before.
In a 1984 interview, Jones gave a voice to the feeling in the crowd as they began to group together on Castro Street after news of the verdict spread, stating that,
The rage in peoples face- - I saw people Id known for years, and they were so - - furious. That to me was the scariest thing. All these people Id know from the neighborhood, boys from the corner, these people Id ridden the bus with, just out there, screaming for blood.
—Cleve Jones


By the time the crowd reached City Hall, its numbers had increased to over 5,000. Protesters shouted "Kill Dan White" and "Dump Dianne," a reference to Acting Mayor Dianne Feinstein. The handful of police officers that had been on duty were unsure how to handle this turn of events. Police Department leadership was shocked by the idea of an angry gay crowd literally screaming for blood.

When the crowd from the Castro merged with another crowd from the Polk neighborhood, another predominantly gay district of San Francisco, the battle against San Francisco police began. Before long, several thousand more people had gathered.

Some members of the crowd tore gilded ornamental work from the building's wrought iron doors and then used it to break first floor windows.


One young man kicked in the window of a police cruiser, lit a pack of matches, and set the upholstery on fire. After a short time burning, the gas tank exploded. A dozen more police cruisers and eight other automobiles would be destroyed in a similar fashion. Several crowd members threw tear gas, which they had taken from police cruisers. Riots began to break out with a mob disrupting traffic, smashing windows of cars and stores. Electric trolleys were disabled by having their overhead wires pulled down, and violence broke out against the outnumbered police officers. Pro-gay Police Chief Charles Gain, standing inside City Hall, ordered officers not to attack and to simply stand their ground.

The next morning, gay leaders convened in a committee room in the Civic Center. Supervisor Harry Britt, who had replaced Milk, along with the more militant gays of the Harvey Milk Democratic Club, made it clear that nobody was to apologize for the riots. In a press conference, Britt told reporters "Harvey Milk's people do not have anything to apologize for. Now the society is going to have to deal with us not as nice little fairies who have hairdressing salons, but as people capable of violence. Reporters were shocked that a public official would condone the violent acts of the previous night. Subsequent attempts to find a gay leader who would apologize proved unsuccessful.

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Instead of going to jail for life for murdering two people, Dan White got acquitted, which sparked the riots. He said he ate too many Twinkies, and that it made him depressed.

But life improved for gay people after that. San Francisco evolved and became more civilized toward gays. Instead of being routinely beaten and harassed by police, they became respected by the police, and the violence against gays lessened, and further rioting was avoided.