Mayor Robert Sabonjian Waukegan riot of 1966 was a period of conflict between police and some residents of the town's predominantly African-American and Puerto Rican neighborhoods on the south side that occurred in the midst of the Civil Rights Movement.
[4] As a mostly young crowd battled with police, a Puerto Rican family of six got caught in the crossfire, their car being hit by a Molotov cocktail while returning from church.
"[7] Subsequently, Sabonjian held talks with community leaders and the NAACP, which vowed to open dialogue about segregation, police brutality, and the lack of recreation facilities in African-American and Puerto Rican neighborhoods of the city.
[10] In the wake of the march, Sabonjian backpedaled from the limit on crowds to less than 100 people, but he maintained the requirement that names of participants be submitted to the police department beforehand, ostensibly to prevent felons from involvement.
By late September, they had agreed to build a recreation center in the area of the August unrest as well as start initiatives aimed at providing jobs for minority groups.