Seaside’s Rock ’n’ Roll Riots 1962-1964: How A Coastal City’s Labor Day Riots Heralded A Decade Of Unrest

Three years of Labor Day riots in Seaside, Oregon, changed the city forever. The ＂Beach Blanket Bingo＂ generation collided with the establishment amidst changing cultural values and sparks flew. College students, teens and young adults took to the streets, fueled by a steady supply of beer, sexual energy and pure adrenaline. Over Labor Day weekends in1962, 1963, and 1964, young people gathered en masse on downtown Seaside’s main street of Broadway, partying, fighting, drinking and dancing. This was met by iron-helmeted guards, fire hoses, hickory batons and tear gas. Hundreds were injured, arrested or both.
The action began with a frenzied and violent street uprising on Sept. 1, 1962, a riot weekend ending with a rock ’n’ roll concert on the roof of a teen club and teens dancing wildly on the beach.
They returned the next year and the next, each Labor Day meeting with increasing military presence, street violence and national concern. The riots became one of the major issues of the 1964 presidential campaign, and a matter for the FBI. The unrest became a prelude for future conflicts: the Vietnam War, civil rights unrest and an unbridgeable generation gap, while changing the small city of Seaside forever.