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| After
World War I ended in November 1918, thousands of American servicemen,
black and white, returned home from Europe and looked for jobs, as many
of them had held prior to the war, in the factories, mills, and
warehouses of the nation's major industrial cities. White soldiers often
sought to reclaim jobs they had held before going to war. Black
soldiers, by contrast, expected their status as war veterans to qualify
them for jobs they had previously been denied on the basis of race. As
the postwar economy contracted, however, the total number of job
openings declined. In many cities, whites and blacks found themselves,
unhappily, competing for the same jobs. Racial tensions steadily
escalated until, in the summer of 1919, race riots erupted in no less
than twenty American cities. The largest and most violent of these riots
occurred in Chicago.
The riot began on July 27, after an African-American youth named Eugene Williams, while swimming with friends in Lake Michigan near 29th Street, strayed into an area informally reserved for the exclusive use of white bathers. For this, Williams was pelted with stones by an unruly group of young white men and soon drowned. When the police ignored eyewitness accounts of the event and refused to arrest those responsible for the boy's death, indignant crowds of blacks gathered in protest. Distorted accounts of the incident inflamed already tense relations between black and white Chicagoans. For the next two weeks, gangs of unruly whites and mobs of outraged blacks clashed with one another in sporadic fighting across the city's South Side. On the fourth day of rioting, the state militia was deployed to restore order, but the fighting continued. In the end, the violence claimed the lives of 38 Chicagoans: 23 blacks, 15 whites. Additionally, over 500 were injured. And hundreds of families lost everything when their homes were torched by rioters. In the wake of some of the worst rioting in the city's history, Chicagoans looked for ways to prevent similar episodes in the future. Some offered quick fixes, including some that would have legitimated racial discrimination in matters of hiring and housing. One proposal called for banning African-Americans from working alongside whites in the stockyards; another suggested that zoning laws be used to formally segregate black and white residential areas. Such proposals, though given much attention in newspapers catering to the city's majority white population, were rejected by Chicago's African-American and liberal white residents. Instead, city leaders and concerned citizens took the occasion to examine more closely the state of relations between white and black Chicagoans. They formed a special commission--the Chicago Commission on Race Relations--to investigate the sociological origins of the riot and suggest ways to improve race relations in the city. This commission concluded that a variety of factors--competition for jobs, inadequate housing options for blacks, inconsistent enforcement of the law, and other forms of direct and indirect racial discrimination--had soured relations between white and black Chicagoans and created an environment conducive to race riots. While improvements in these areas would be slow and difficult to attain, the commission's recommendations at least envisioned a future in which racial equality, not racial segregation, would be the standard for all municipal policies. 
Brick-wielding Whites in Pursuit of a Black Victim, 1919 Selected Newspaper Accounts "Report Two Killed, Fifty Hurt, in Race Riots," Chicago Daily Tribune, 28 July 1919. "Negro Fights Futilely Against Crowd in Loop," Chicago Daily Journal, 29 July 1919. "Torch Rioters Give Firemen Continuous Job," Chicago Daily Tribune, 31 July 1919. "Negroes Seek Safety Haven at Milwaukee," Chicago Daily Tribune, 31 July 1919. "Riot Sweeps Chicago," Chicago Defender, 2 August 1919. "Ghastly Deeds of Race Rioters Told," Chicago Defender, 2 August 1919. "Negroes Didn't Set Fires, Say Their Aldermen," Chicago Daily Tribune, 3 August 1919. "Seized as Riot Firebug," Chicago Daily Tribune, 4 August 1919. Selected Newspaper Editorials "Race Riots," Chicago Tribune editorial, 29 July 1919. "Reaping the Whirlwind," Chicago Defender editorial, 2 August 1919. "Seeking the Cause," Chicago Defender editorial, 9 August 1919. Report of the Chicago Commission on Race Relations "Summary of the Chicago Riot" (an excerpt) "The Role of Rumor" (an excerpt) "The Recommendations of the Commission" (an excerpt) Internet Resources 1919: Race Riots [Chicago Public Library] Gangs and the 1919 Chicago Race Riot [John Hagedorn, Ph.D.] Photograph: "Rescuing a Negro During the Race Riots in Chicago" [Newman Library Digital Collections, CUNY] Photograph: "Chicago race riot, house with broken windows and debris in front yard," 1919 [Library of Congress] Photograph: "Chicago race riot, five policemen and one soldier with rifle standing on street corner," 1919 [Library of Congress] Photograph: "Chicago race riot, soldiers with rifles standing guard at vandalized house," 1919 [Library of Congress] Photograph: "Chicago race riot, three African American men moving furniture while young Caucasian boys watch," 1919 [Library of Congres] Photograph: "Chicago race riot, white men, boys and young girls standing in front vandalized house," 1919 [Library of Congress] Photograph: "Chicago race riot, white men, boys standing in front of vandalized house," 1919 [Library of Congress] Photograph: "Chicago race riot, African American men standing in front of Walgreen Drugs, 35th and State," 1919 [Library of Congress] Suggested Books · William M. Tuttle, Jr., Race Riot: Chicago in the Red Summer of 1919 (University of Illinois Press, 1997). · Chicago Commission on Race Relations, The Negro in Chicago: A Study of Race Relations and a Race Riot (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1922). |
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