Chicago Race Riot of 1919 - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Chicago Race Riot of 1919 was a major racial conflict

Mass racial violence in the United States

Mass racial violence, also called race riots can include such disparate events as:* attacks on Irish Catholics, the Chinese and other immigrants in the 19th century....

that began in Chicago, Illinois on July 27, 1919 and ended on August 3. During the riot, dozens died and hundreds were injured. It is considered the worst of the approximately 25 riot

Riot

A riot is a form of civil disorder characterized often by what is thought of as disorganized groups lashing out in a sudden and intense rash of violence against authority, property or people. While individuals may attempt to lead or control a riot, riots are thought to be typically chaotic and...

s during the Red Summer of 1919

Red Summer of 1919

Red Summer describes the race riots that occurred in more than three dozen cities in the United States during the summer and early autumn of 1919. In most instances, whites attacked African Americans. In some cases groups of blacks fought back, notably in Chicago, where, along with Washington, D.C....

, so named because of the violence and fatalities across the nation. The combination of prolonged arson

Arson

Arson is the crime of intentionally or maliciously setting fire to structures or wildland areas. It may be distinguished from other causes such as spontaneous combustion and natural wildfires...

, looting

Looting

Looting —also referred to as sacking, plundering, despoiling, despoliation, and pillaging—is the indiscriminate taking of goods by force as part of a military or political victory, or during a catastrophe, such as during war, natural disaster, or rioting...

and murder

Murder

Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...

was the worst race rioting in the history of Illinois

History of Illinois

The history of Illinois may be defined by several broad historical periods, namely, the pre-Columbian period, the Era of European Exploration and Colonization, its development as part of the American frontier, and finally, its growth into one of the most populous and economically powerful states of...

.

The sociopolitical atmosphere of Chicago was one of ethnic tension caused by competition among many new groups. With the Great Migration

Great Migration (African American)

The Great Migration was the movement of 6 million blacks out of the Southern United States to the Northeast, Midwest, and West from 1910 to 1970. Some historians differentiate between a Great Migration , numbering about 1.6 million migrants, and a Second Great Migration , in which 5 million or more...

, thousands of African Americans from the South had settled next to neighborhoods of European immigrants on Chicago's South Side

South Side (Chicago)

The South Side is a major part of the City of Chicago, which is located in Cook County, Illinois, United States. Much of it has evolved from the city's incorporation of independent townships, such as Hyde Park Township which voted along with several other townships to be annexed in the June 29,...

, near jobs in the stockyards and meatpacking plants. The ethnic Irish had been established first, and fiercely defended their territory and political power against all newcomers. Post World War I tensions caused frictions between the races, especially in the competitive labor and housing markets. Overcrowding and increased African American militancy by veterans contributed to the visible racial frictions. Also, ethnic gangs and police neglect strained the racial relationships. According to official reports, the turmoil came to a boil after a young African American was struck by a rock and died at an informally segregated beach. Tensions between groups arose in a melee that blew up into days of unrest.

William Hale Thompson

William Hale Thompson

William Hale Thompson was Mayor of Chicago from 1915 to 1923 and again from 1927 to 1931. Known as "Big Bill", Thompson was the last Republican to serve as Mayor of Chicago, and ranks among the most unethical mayors in American history.Thompson was born in Boston, Massachusetts to William Hale...

was the Mayor of Chicago

Mayor of Chicago

The Mayor of Chicago is the chief executive of Chicago, Illinois, the third largest city in the United States. He or she is charged with directing city departments and agencies, and with the advice and consent of the Chicago City Council, appoints department and agency leaders.-Appointment...

during the riot. Although future mayor Richard J. Daley

Richard J. Daley

Richard Joseph Daley served for 21 years as the mayor and undisputed Democratic boss of Chicago and is considered by historians to be the "last of the big city bosses." He played a major role in the history of the Democratic Party, especially with his support of John F...

never officially acknowledged being part of the violence, at age 17 he was an active member of the ethnic Irish Hamburg Athletic Club, which a post-riot investigation named instigators in attacks on blacks. In the following decades, Daley continued to rise in politics to become mayor for twenty years.

United States President Woodrow Wilson

Woodrow Wilson

Thomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States, from 1913 to 1921. A leader of the Progressive Movement, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913...

and the United States Congress

United States Congress

The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....

attempted to promote legislation and organizations to decrease racial discord in America. Illinois Governor Frank Lowden took several actions at Thompson's request to quell the riot and promote greater harmony in its aftermath. Sections of the Chicago economy were shut down for several days during and after the riots, as plants were closed to avoid interaction among warring groups. Mayor Thompson drew on his association with this riot to influence later political elections.

Background

Unlike southern

Southern United States

The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive area in the southeastern and south-central United States...

cities through the 1960s, Chicago did not segregate most public accommodations. In fact, according to Walter Francis White

Walter Francis White

Walter Francis White was a civil rights activist who led the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People for almost a quarter of a century and directed a broad program of legal challenges to segregation and disfranchisement. He was also a journalist, novelist, and essayist...

, pre-1915 Chicago had a reputation for equitable treatment of African Americans in general. However, early 20th-century Chicago beaches were segregated. African Americans had a long history in Chicago, with the city sending its first African-American representative to the state legislature in 1876. There had also been late 19th century tensions between ethnic Irish and African Americans, as most members of both competed for jobs among the lower classes.

Beginning in 1910, thousands of African Americans started moving from the South to Chicago as one destination in the Great Migration

Great Migration (African American)

, fleeing lynching

Lynching

Lynching is an extrajudicial execution carried out by a mob, often by hanging, but also by burning at the stake or shooting, in order to punish an alleged transgressor, or to intimidate, control, or otherwise manipulate a population of people. It is related to other means of social control that...

s, segregation and disfranchisement

Disfranchisement

Disfranchisement is the revocation of the right of suffrage of a person or group of people, or rendering a person's vote less effective, or ineffective...

in the Deep South. The Ku Klux Klan

Ku Klux Klan

Ku Klux Klan, often abbreviated KKK and informally known as the Klan, is the name of three distinct past and present far-right organizations in the United States, which have advocated extremist reactionary currents such as white supremacy, white nationalism, and anti-immigration, historically...

committed 64 lynching

Lynching

s in 1918 and 83 in 1919 in southern states. With the pull of industrial jobs in the stockyards

Feedlot

A feedlot or feedyard is a type of animal feeding operation which is used in factory farming for finishing livestock, notably beef cattle, but also swine, horses, sheep, turkeys, chickens or ducks, prior to slaughter. Large beef feedlots are called Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations . They...

and meatpacking industry beckoning as European immigration

Immigration

Immigration is the act of foreigners passing or coming into a country for the purpose of permanent residence...

was cut off by World War I, from 1916 to 1919 the African-American population in Chicago increased from 44,000 to 109,000, for a total of 148 percent during the decade. African Americans settled in the South Side

South Side (Chicago)

, where, as their population grew, they pressed against a neighborhood of ethnic Irish, immigrant descendants established since the mid-19th century, and had to compete against them for jobs and housing. Southern African Americans had followed waves of immigrants from eastern Europe, who also added to the competition and tensions. Ethnic groups established territory in their areas of the city, which their young men often patrolled against outsiders. Because of agricultural

Agriculture

Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...

problems, Southern whites also migrated to the city, about 20,000 by this period. The rapid influx of migrants caused overcrowding as a result of a lack of adequate low cost housing.

The postwar period found tensions rising in numerous cities where populations were increasing rapidly. People from different cultures jostled against each other and competed for space. In 1917, the Chicago Real Estate Board established a policy of block by block segregation. New arrivals in the Great Migration generally joined old neighbors on the South Side. By 1920, the area held 85% of Chicago's African Americans--middle

Middle class

The middle class is any class of people in the middle of a societal hierarchy. In Weberian socio-economic terms, the middle class is the broad group of people in contemporary society who fall socio-economically between the working class and upper class....

and upper class

Upper class

In social science, the "upper class" is the group of people at the top of a social hierarchy. Members of an upper class may have great power over the allocation of resources and governmental policy in their area.- Historical meaning :...

and poor

Poverty

Poverty is the lack of a certain amount of material possessions or money. Absolute poverty or destitution is inability to afford basic human needs, which commonly includes clean and fresh water, nutrition, health care, education, clothing and shelter. About 1.7 billion people are estimated to live...

. In the postwar period, veterans of all groups were looking to re-enter the work force. Some whites resented African-American veteran

Veteran

A veteran is a person who has had long service or experience in a particular occupation or field; " A veteran of ..."...

s. At the same time, African-American veterans exhibited greater militancy and pride as a result of having served to protect their country. They wanted to be treated as full citizens after fighting for the nation.

In Chicago, ethnic Irish dominated social and athletic clubs that were closely tied to the political structure of the city. Some had acted as enforcers for politicians. As the first major group of 19th-century European immigrants to settle in the city, the Irish had established formal and informal political strength. In Chicago, ethnic white gangs had been attacking African-American neighborhoods, and the police, overwhelmingly white and increasingly ethnic Irish, seemed little inclined to try to stop them. Meanwhile, newspapers carried sensational accounts of any African American allegedly involved in crime. An example of territory was the Bridgeport

Bridgeport, Chicago

Bridgeport, one of 77 community areas of Chicago, is a neighborhood located on the city's South Side. It is bounded, generally, on the west and north by the Chicago River, on the east by Canal Street, and on the south by Pershing Road.-History:...

community area

Community areas of Chicago

Community areas in Chicago refers to the work of the Social Science Research Committee at University of Chicago which has unofficially divided the City of Chicago into 77 community areas. These areas are well-defined and static...

, an ethnic Irish neighborhood just west of the Black Belt. Ethnic Irish had long patrolled their neighborhood boundaries against all other ethnic groups, especially African Americans. A group known as the Hamburg Athletic Club, whose members included a 17-year-old Richard J. Daley

Richard J. Daley

, future mayor of Chicago

Mayor of Chicago

, contributed to gang violence in the area.

Riot

Starting with a white man throwing rocks at blacks in the water at a beach on the South Side which resulted in an African American's death, conflict escalated when police did not arrest the white but arrested a black man instead. Objections by blacks were met with violence by whites. Attacks between whites and blacks erupted swiftly. At one point a mob of white men threatened Provident Hospital, many of whose patients were African American. The police held them off. The riot lasted for nearly a week, ending only after the government deployed nearly 6,000 National Guard

United States National Guard

The National Guard of the United States is a reserve military force composed of state National Guard militia members or units under federally recognized active or inactive armed force service for the United States. Militia members are citizen soldiers, meaning they work part time for the National...

troops. They stationed them around the Black Belt to prevent further white attacks. By the night of July 30, most violence had ended. Most of the rioting, murder, and arson

Arson

Arson is the crime of intentionally or maliciously setting fire to structures or wildland areas. It may be distinguished from other causes such as spontaneous combustion and natural wildfires...

was the result of ethnic whites attacking the African-American population in the city's Black Belt

Black Belt (region of Chicago)

The history of African Americans in Chicago dates back to Jean Baptiste Point du Sable’s trading activities in the 1780s. Du Sable is the city's founder. Fugitive slaves and freedmen established the city’s first black community in the 1840s...

on the South Side

South Side (Chicago)

. Most of the casualties and property damage were suffered by blacks. Newspaper accounts noted numerous attempts at arson; for instance, on July 31, more than 30 fires were started in the Black Belt before noon and were believed to be due to arson. Steel cables had been put across the streets to prevent fire trucks from entering the areas. The Mayor's office was told of a plan to burn down the black area and run its residents out of town. There were also sporadic violent attacks in other areas of the city, including the Chicago Loop

Chicago Loop

The Loop or Chicago Loop is one of 77 officially designated Chicago community areas located in the City of Chicago, Illinois. It is the historic commercial center of downtown Chicago...

. In the rioting, 38 people died (23 African American

African American

African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...

s and 15 whites), and 537 were injured (two-thirds were African Americans). Patrolman John W. Simpson was the only policeman who was killed in the riot. Approximately 1000 residents, mostly African Americans, were left homeless after fires destroyed their homes. Numerous African-American families left the city by train before the rioting had ended, returning to families in the South.

Chief of Police

Chief of police

A Chief of Police is the title typically given to the top official in the chain of command of a police department, particularly in North America. Alternate titles for this position include Commissioner, Superintendent, and Chief constable...

John J. Garrity closed "all places where men congregate for other than religious purposes" to help restore order. Governor Frank Lowden authorized the deployment of the 11th Illinois Infantry and its machine gun

Machine gun

A machine gun is a fully automatic mounted or portable firearm, usually designed to fire rounds in quick succession from an ammunition belt or large-capacity magazine, typically at a rate of several hundred rounds per minute....

company, as well as the 1st, 2nd and 3rd reserve militia. These four units totaled 3,500 men. The Cook County

Cook County, Illinois

Cook County is a county in the U.S. state of Illinois, with its county seat in Chicago. It is the second most populous county in the United States after Los Angeles County. The county has 5,194,675 residents, which is 40.5 percent of all Illinois residents. Cook County's population is larger than...

Sheriff

A sheriff is in principle a legal official with responsibility for a county. In practice, the specific combination of legal, political, and ceremonial duties of a sheriff varies greatly from country to country....

deputized between 1000 and 2000 former soldiers to help keep the peace. With the reserves and militia guarding the Black Belt, the city arranged for emergency provisions to supply its residents with fresh food. Whites delivered food and supplies to the line established by the military; from there, deliveries were distributed within the Black Belt by African Americans. In addition, while industry was closed, the packing plants arranged to deliver pay to certain areas so African-American men could pick up their money.

After order was restored, Illinois Governor Frank Lowden was urged to create a state committee to study the cause of the riots. He proposed forming a committee to write a racial code of ethics and to draw up racial boundaries for activities within the city.

Coroner's inquest

The Cook County

Cook County, Illinois

Coroner's Office took 70 day sessions, 20 night sessions and 450 witness

Witness

A witness is someone who has firsthand knowledge about an event, or in the criminal justice systems usually a crime, through his or her senses and can help certify important considerations about the crime or event. A witness who has seen the event first hand is known as an eyewitness...

es examinations to collect evidence

Evidence

Evidence in its broadest sense includes everything that is used to determine or demonstrate the truth of an assertion. Giving or procuring evidence is the process of using those things that are either presumed to be true, or were themselves proven via evidence, to demonstrate an assertion's truth...

about the riots. Their report stated the finding that on July 27, 1919, Eugene Williams, an African American youth, drowned after tiring of holding onto a railroad tie

Railroad tie

A railroad tie/railway tie , or railway sleeper is a rectangular item used to support the rails in railroad tracks...

. He had been hit by a stone as whites threw rocks at African Americans to drive them away from their part of the water at the 29th Street beach in the city's Douglas

Douglas, Chicago

Douglas, located on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois is one of 77 well-defined Chicago community areas. The neighborhood is named for Stephen A. Douglas, a famous Illinois politician, whose estate included a tract of land given to the federal government...

community on the South Side. A witness recalled seeing a single white male standing on a breakwater

Breakwater (structure)

Breakwaters are structures constructed on coasts as part of coastal defence or to protect an anchorage from the effects of weather and longshore drift.-Purposes of breakwaters:...

75 feet (22.9 m) from the raft of the African Americans and throwing rocks at them. Williams was struck in the forehead; he panicked and drowned. The assailant ran toward 29th Street, where a different fight had already started when African Americans tried to use the beach there, in defiance of its tacit segregation.

The rioting escalated when a white police officer

Police officer

A police officer is a warranted employee of a police force...

refused to arrest the white man who threw the stone at Williams. He instead arrested an African American. Anger over the arrest, coupled with Williams' death, as well as rumors among both communities, escalated into five days of rioting. Most of the casualties were African American and most of the property damage was inflicted in African American neighborhoods. The city quickly closed down the street cars to try to contain the violence. Inflammatory newspaper coverage worked to the opposite effect. Historians have noted: "South Side youth gangs, including the Hamburg Athletic Club, were later found to have been among the primary instigators of the racial violence. For weeks, in the spring and summer of 1919, they had been anticipating, even eagerly awaiting, a race riot", one study found. "On several occasions, they themselves had endeavored to precipitate one, and now that racial violence threatened to become generalized and unrestrained throughout Chicago, they were set to exploit the chaos."

Early reports detailed injuries to Chicago Police

Chicago Police Department

The Chicago Police Department, also known as the CPD, is the principal law enforcement agency of Chicago, Illinois, in the United States, under the jurisdiction of the Mayor of Chicago. It is the largest police department in the Midwest and the second largest local law enforcement agency in the...

officers and a Chicago fireman

Chicago Fire Department

The Chicago Fire Department, also known as the CFD, is the principal fire suppression, prevention, and rescue agency of Chicago, Illinois, under the jurisdiction of the mayor of Chicago. The Chicago Fire Department is the second largest fire department in the United States after the New York City...

. The conduct of the white police force was criticized during and after the riot. State's Attorney Maclay Hoyne openly charged the police with arresting African American rioters but refusing to arrest white rioters. Roaming gangs of Bridgeport whites, who were mostly ethnic Irish, perpetrated much of the violence. While local newspapers carried accounts of African Americans setting fires, "later the office of State Fire Marshal

Fire Marshal

A fire marshal, in the United States and Canada, is often a member of a fire department but may be part of a building department or a separate department altogether. Fire marshals' duties vary but usually include fire code enforcement and/or investigating fires for origin and cause...

Gamber proved conclusively that the fires were not caused by blacks, but by whites." The New York Times coverage during the riot, however, clearly conveyed that whites were responsible for planned large-scale arson against black areas and for numerous mob attacks. Because of early police failures to arrest whites, no white Chicagoans were convicted of any of the murders, and most of the deaths were not prosecuted. One man was prosecuted for Williams' death, but he was acquitted.

Ramifications

There were broad ramifications for the Chicago economy

Economy of Chicago

Chicago is home to 12 Fortune 500 companies and has the third largest gross metropolitan product in the United States—approximately US$532 billion in 2010. The city has grown to become a major financial, transportation and distribution center. Manufacturing, printing and publishing, and food...

, as certain sectors on the industrial South Side were closed during rioting. Businesses in the Loop were also affected by closure of the street cars. Many workers stayed away from affected areas. The Union Stock Yard, one of Chicago's largest employers, was an example. Initially, all 15,000 African-American workers were expected to return to work on Monday August 4, 1919. But after arson in areas of ethnic white workers homes near the Stock Yards on August 3, the management banned African-American employees from the stockyards in fear of further rioting. Governor Lowden noted his opinion that the troubles were related to labor issues rather than race. Nearly one-third of the African-American employees were non-union, and were resented by union employees for that reason. African-American workers were kept out of the stockyards for ten days after the end of the riot because of continued unrest. On August 8, 1919, about 3,000 non-union

Trade union

A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...

African Americans showed up for work under protection of special police, deputy sheriffs, and militia

Militia

The term militia is commonly used today to refer to a military force composed of ordinary citizens to provide defense, emergency law enforcement, or paramilitary service, in times of emergency without being paid a regular salary or committed to a fixed term of service. It is a polyseme with...

. The white union employees threatened to strike unless such security forces were discontinued. Their major grievance against African Americans was that they were non-union, and had been used by management as strikebreakers in earlier years against the union. Many African Americans fled the city as a result of the riots and damage.

Illinois Attorney General

Illinois Attorney General

The Illinois Attorney General is the highest legal officer of the state of Illinois in the United States. Originally an appointed office, it is now an office filled by election through universal suffrage...

Edward Brundage and State's Attorney Hoyne gathered evidence to prepare for a Grand Jury

Grand jury

A grand jury is a type of jury that determines whether a criminal indictment will issue. Currently, only the United States retains grand juries, although some other common law jurisdictions formerly employed them, and most other jurisdictions employ some other type of preliminary hearing...

investigation. The stated intention was to pursue all perpetrators and to seek the death penalty as necessary. On August 4, 1919 seventeen indictments against African Americans were handed down. Despite the coroner's report of white responsibility, extensive rioting by whites and their causing damage to black areas, no whites were indicted.

Richard J. Daley was soon elected president of the Hamburg Athletic Club in Bridgeport. In his long political career, he never confirmed or denied whether he was involved in the violence of the riots. Daley served as the city's mayor and most powerful politician in the Chicago Democratic Machine from 1955 to 1976.

In 1930, the flamboyant Republican mayor William Hale Thompson

William Hale Thompson

invoked the riot in a misleading pamphlet when urging African Americans against voting for the Republican nominee Rep

United States House of Representatives

The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...

Ruth Hanna McCormick

Ruth Hanna, Ruth Hanna McCormick or Ruth Hanna McCormick Simms was a United States Representative from Illinois.-Life:Ruth Hanna McCormick Simms was the daughter of Mark Hanna and the wife of Sen...

in the United States Senate race for her late husband's seat. She was the widow of Sen

United States Senate

The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...

. Joseph Medill McCormick as well as the sister-in-law of Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...

publisher Robert Rutherford McCormick. The McCormicks were a powerful Chicago family whom Thompson opposed.

United States President Woodrow Wilson

Woodrow Wilson

pronounced white participants the instigators of the prolonged riots in Chicago and Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

. As a result, he attempted to promote greater racial harmony through the promotion of voluntary organizations and through the enactment of legislative improvements by the United States Congress

United States Congress

. He did not change the segregation of Federal departments which he had imposed early during his first administration, however. The riot shocked the nation and raised awareness of racial problems. It also demonstrated the new willingness of African Americans to fight for their civil rights

Civil rights

Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...

despite injustice and oppression.

External links

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