With the war in Europe affecting U.S. food prices in 1914, Italian immigrants in Providence, Rhode Island, perceive a 60% increase in the price of pasta as the last straw following years of discrimination and racist policing.

On August 29, a thousand Italian Americans converge in the Federal Hill neighborhood and listen to speeches from local Socialists. The crowd directs their indignance at a grocery store accused of price gouging, and attack and loot it. They throw trash and rocks at arriving police. A shoot-out commences and the streets are cleared by 6pm.

Rioting continues the next day after police open fire on an impromptu march of people waving a red flag. Mobs vandalize and loot businesses and exchange gunfire with police.

Sporadic rioting continues for ten days, while the price of pasta drops.