How Often Is the National Guard Used in U.S. Civil Emergencies?

Throughout U.S. history, the National Guard has been called in to deal with unrest. Labor uprisings. Race riots. Campus protests. Civil disorder. Each time, the deployment was a signal: something had broken down.

In 1877, the Great Railroad Strike shut down commerce. It started in West Virginia. Rail workers walked off the job. Violence spread fast. Governors in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Ohio sent in the Guard. President Rutherford B. Hayes later deployed federal troops. Strikes were crushed. The message was clear: order would be restored by force.

In 1906, an earthquake flattened San Francisco. Fires raged. Looting followed. Governor George Pardee called in the California National Guard. Some troops enforced martial law without any formal declaration. Looters were shot. Chaos met crackdown.

Rochester, 1964. A Black man was arrested. Protests turned into riots. Three days of violence followed. The city couldn't cope. Governor Nelson Rockefeller activated the Guard. Troops swept through neighborhoods. Thousands were detained. This marked the North's entry into the civil rights era's unrest.

Watts, Los Angeles, 1965. A traffic stop. An arrest. Decades of tension exploded. Six days. Thirty-four dead. Thousands injured. Governor Pat Brown sent in 14,000 National Guard troops. Tanks in the streets. L.A. burned.

Detroit, 1967. A police raid on an after-hours bar lit the fuse. Looting, arson, gunfire. Governor George Romney activated the Michigan Guard. It wasn't enough. President Lyndon Johnson sent in the 82nd and 101st Airborne. Forty-three people died. Federal firepower ended it.

Tampa, 1967. A teenager shot by police. Anger boiled over. Governor Claude Kirk sent in the Guard. Tampa joined the "long, hot summer" of riots sweeping the country.

April 1968. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. Cities erupted. Washington, D.C. burned. Baltimore was locked down. Wilmington was occupied for nine months. Johnson federalized local Guard units. He deployed Army troops. Martial force met national grief.

Kent State, 1970. Antiwar protests intensified. Ohio's Guard was on campus. They opened fire. Four students killed. Nine injured. The nation was stunned. It became a defining moment of the anti-Vietnam movement.

Los Angeles, 1992. Four LAPD officers walked free after beating Rodney King. Riots exploded. Over 60 people were killed. Billions in damage. Governor Pete Wilson sent in the Guard. President George H.W. Bush invoked the Insurrection Act. Army and Marine units were deployed. It took days to restore control.

In 2020, George Floyd was killed. The country erupted. Governors in over 30 states activated Guard troops. Streets were militarized. Helicopters hovered. Curfews enforced. Over 30,000 National Guard soldiers were deployed. The largest domestic operation in modern U.S. history.

In 2025, ICE raids in Los Angeles sparked unrest. Protests turned violent. Governor Gavin Newsom refused to call in the Guard. President Donald Trump overruled him. He federalized California's National Guard. He deployed 700 Marines. The courts were challenged. The Posse Comitatus Act was tested. The legal battle is still ongoing.

Every deployment carries a message. Power is shifting. Institutions are straining. Governors and Presidents choose force when politics fails. The Guard shows up when society breaks down.

National Guard deployments often serve dual purposes: restoring stability on the ground and projecting leadership from above. For elected officials, the optics can matter just as much as the results. A well-timed deployment signals responsiveness - even if the underlying issues remain unresolved.

Filed under: General Knowledge