The New York City Draft Riot of July,1863, was one of the worst riots in U.S. history. Working-class New Yorkers, primarily immigrants or of foreign parentage, rioted to protest the Civil War draft. They looted the homes of  wealthy people, attacked police, lynched African Americans, and burned down an orphanage. Troops were brought into the city to restore order. Most of the rioting took place outside the Fourth Ward, but some of the city's worst racial violence occurred here. Rioters destroyed black-occupied buildings and forced African Americans to flee for their lives. The black exodus had lasting effects on the ward; the 1870 census showed that the neighborhood had become all white.