4. The Riot Over Straw Hats
Image Source: Wikimedia Commons
In 1922, fashion rules were taken a little more seriously than they are today. Somewhere along the line it had become a fashion faux-pas to wear straw hats (known as boaters) after September 15th. Much like the no-white after Labor Day rule, it was no joking matter at the rule’s inception.
Young delinquents would enforce this unwritten code by knocking the straw hats from the heads of men who wore them past the stated date, and would proceed to stomp the hats flat in the road afterward. The rowdy act was so prevalent that newspapers began to print warning stories each year as the September 15th date approached.
More than 10,000 men gathered in Times Square to receive updates on a boxing match while wearing their “Boaters” in July of 1921. Wearing these hats on September 13th, 1922 would lead to the Straw Hat Riot. Image Source: Wikimedia Commons
Undeterred, the hat smashers still enforced the ban — this time a few days before the stated deadline. On September 13th, 1922, the troublemakers began knocking off and stomping the straw hats of factory workers in the Mulberry Bend area of Manhattan, before moving on to torment the local dockworkers. Unlike the factory workers, however, the dockworkers were quick to fight back.
A brawl between the young pranksters and the dockworkers soon erupted, spilling out onto the Manhattan Bridge, where it eventually stopped traffic. Though police arrived to make break things up, this was not the end of the debacle.
The next night, the hat smashers arrived in even greater numbers, now armed with large sticks (some even had a nail hammered through the top). They roamed the streets of New York, looking for men wearing straw hats, beating anyone who resisted or fought back. Even though several off-duty police officers were among the victims, active police were slow to react. By the time things were brought to an end, several men were hospitalized with the injuries they sustained during the beatings.
