On this day in 1968, a group of black inmates attacked the guards of the administration building of the Long Binh Jail, a U.S. military stockade in Vietnam, seizing control of the prison and then lighting it on fire.

Long Binh Jail was a U.S. military stockade located at Long Binh Post, in Đồng Nai Province, South Vietnam during the Vietnam War. Originally built to house 400 inmates, in August of 1968, LBJ was crammed with 719 men. Despite representing 11% of the troops in Vietnam, more than 50% of the men incarcerated at the stockade were black.

On August 29th, 1968, just before midnight, a group of black inmates approached the administration building and attacked the guards there. Chaos erupted as other inmates joined the riot.

Soldiers began to set fire to buildings using kerosene stolen from the prison supply, burning the mess hall, the barber shop, latrine, administration, and finance buildings. The rioters assaulted white inmates as well as guards. Despite the violence, only four inmates escaped and one prisoner was killed.

On the effect of the riot and his detention in it, veteran Jimmie Childress told National Public Radio "I'm still angry about the way the military treated its own citizens. I still feel that something hand [sic] to be done...I guess I was just trying to prove that I was a human being. I'm over it now, but it took a long time. It took a long time."