Mayor Levi Boone The Lager Beer Riot occurred on April 21, 1855 in Chicago, Illinois, and was the first major civil disturbance in the city.

Levi Boone ran on an anti-immigrant and anti-Catholic platform of the Know-Nothing Party, which garnered him enough support to win the election.

[8] In his inauguration speech, Mayor Boone stated, "I cannot be blind to the existence in our midst of a powerful politico-religious organization, all its members owing, and its chief officers bound under an oath of allegiance to the temporal, as well as the spiritual supremacy of a foreign despot.

"[9] Associated with his fear of foreigners, Boone, a Baptist and temperance advocate, believed that the Sabbath was profaned by having drinking establishments open on Sunday.

[13][clarification needed] Despite the renewed enforcement of Chicago's liquor ordinance, tavern owners continued to sell beer on Sundays.

[2] In addition to the economic implications of the riot, there were compelling socio-cultural reasons for German immigrants to protest the newly instated ordinance.

Mitrani posits that, "To the German and Irish immigrants, drinking beer on Sundays was an orderly and habitual way to spend their one day off....

Yet on a deeper level, this clash over drinking marked the opening salvo in a struggle over how the new class of wage workers would spend their time.

"[20] The riot over beer represents a larger issue of a nativist approach to control the immigrant working class.

Within a week of the riot, a committee was formed and worked with the city government to pass a series of reforms that ultimately resulted in the reorganization of the Chicago Police Department.

According to Sam Mitrani, "the bulk of those arrested [had] working-class occupations...[and] the only arrestees who were not part of or tied to [Chicago's] growing working class were four ministers, eight doctors, and four lawyers.