Race Riots in Chicago, 1919

From the Chicago Tribune, July 30, 1919.

From the Chicago Tribune, July 28, 1919.

Report Two Killed, Fifty Hurt, in Race Riots
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Bathing Beach Fight Spreads to Black Belt
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All Police Reserves Stand to Guard South Side.
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Two colored men are reported to have been killed and approximately fifty whites and negroes injured, a number probably fatally, in race riots that broke out at south side beaches yesterday. The rioting spre[a]d through the black belt and by midnight had thrown the entire south side into a state of turmoil.
Among the known wounded are four policemen of Cottage Grove avenue station, two from west side station, one fireman of engine company No. 9, and three women.
One Negro was knocked off a raft at the Twenty-ninth street beach after he had been stoned by whites. He drowned because whites are said to have frustrated attempts of colored bathers to rescue him. The body was recovered, but could not be identified.
A colored rioter is said to have died from wounds inflicted by Policeman John O'Brien, who fired into a mob at Twenty-ninth street and Cottage Grove avenue. The body, it is said, was spirited away by colored men.

Drag Negroes from Cars

So serious was the trouble throughout the district that Acting Chief of Police Alcock was unable to place an estimate on the injured. Scores received cuts and bruises from flying stones and rocks, but went to their homes for medical attention.
Minor-rioting continued through the night all over the south side. Negroes who were found in street cars were dragged to the streets and beaten.
They were first ordered to the street by white men and if they refused the trolley was jerked off the wires. . .
Racial feeling, which had been on a par with the weather during the day took fire shortly after 5 o'clock when white bathers at the Twenty-ninth street improvised beach saw a colored boy on a raft paddling into what they termed "white" territory.
A snarl of protest went up from the whites and soon a volley of rocks and stones were sent in his direction. One rock, said to have been thrown by George Stauber of 2904 Cottage Grove avenue, struck the lad and he toppled into the water.

Cop Refuses to Interfere

Colored men who were present attempted to go to his rescue, but they were kept back by the whites, it is said. Colored men and women, it is alleged, asked Policeman Dan Callahan of the Cottage Grove station to arrest Stauber, but he is said to have refused.
Then, indignant at the conduct of the policeman, the Negroes set upon Stauber and commenced to pommel him. The whites came to his rescue and then the battle royal was on. Fists flew and rocks were hurled. Bathers from the colored Twenty-fifth street beach were attracted to the scene of the battling and aided their comrades in driving the whites into the water. . .

  From the Chicago Tribune, July 20, 1919.

STRIKE IS ON; CARS STOP! 20 SLAIN IN RACE RIOTS
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200 OR MORE INJURED; POLICE CLAIM CONTROL
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Looting and Arson Seen in Some Sections.
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Rioting that ended in looting, arson, and murder broke loose in Chicago's "black belt" yesterday evening. Before 3 o'clock this morning twenty persons had been killed and 158 wounded.
Of the dead thirteen were white and seven colored.
The actual list of injured made up for "The Tribune" included sixty-nine whites and sixty-nine colored.

Many Minor Injuries

In addition, many suffered minor injuries not reported to the police. A conservative estimate of the total injured is 200.
The trouble began with the hurling of bricks and the firing of revolvers at Thirty-fifty street and Wabash avenue at 7:30 o'clock. Before many hours the bloodlust had spread to the stockyards district, to Thirty-fifth and Halstead streets, all through the "black belt," and into the Hyde Park region. One of the worst riots occurred at Forty-seventh street and Grand boulevard.

3,500 Troops Called.

Every available policeman in the city was rushed to the feud section; former soldiers and sailors were sworn in; four guard and reserve militia regiments, numbering 3,500, had been called out and were being mobilized, the hospitals were crowded with victims; the street cars and the elevated trains had ceased to run on the south side; telephone wires were cut; scores of white men and colored were under arrest. . .

Colored Veterans Aid Police

Colored veterans who had seen service in France sided with the police in quelling this disturbance. The rioting Negroes were driven back. They went swiftly, carrying their wounded, toward Michigan avenue. There they stopped automobiles and wrecked them, and beat up men and women who had been riding in them.
Policemen armed with rifles to which bayonets had been affixed, came charging the mob, dispersing them, breaking them up into small knots that fled through alleyways and side streets, shooting as they ran.
It was during this riot that a Greek wagon peddler was dragged from his wagon and stabbed to death. Later a crowd of infuriated white men retaliated by dragging a Negro from a truck at Thirty-ninth and Wallace streets. They beat him and stabbed him a dozen times. He died in the patrol wagon on the way to a hospital.

Fighting Spreads

It was about this time that rioting became general all over the south side; crowds of men gathering around street cars, pulling down the trolleys, seizing the men in the cars--according to their complexion--and beating them. . .

  PUNISH ALL GUILTY OF RIOT, NEGROES' PLEA

Leading citizens of the colored race met last night and issued this statement:

The suspense incident to the rioting in Chicago is causing the thoughtful and law abiding colored people grave concern just now. At a conference of substantial Negro citizens held at the Idlewild hotel in the center of the "black belt" last (Monday) night, it was the consensus of opinion that the trouble largely grew out of false and misleading articles appearing in certain local Negro papers and the ill advice given by would-be leaders who have inculcated false ideas in the minds of many thoughtless colored people pertaining to their rights upon the termination of the war in Europe, regardless of education, property rights or citizenship, and
That the simplest law defying and disgruntled Negro who has recently come here with nothing but and opportunity to live among and associate with the decent law abiding citizens of Chicago who have lived here for many years, or who have acquired property and a good reputation by their conduct,
And that the citizens of Chicago owe to themselves and the colored people especially who stood by the country so loyally in its efforts to establish world wide democracy all the protection the regid enforcement of the law affords, even if it is necessary to call out every state militiaman now available.
This is all the colored people of Chicago ask and they pledge their lives to assist the law officers and the good citizens of the state to this end, and we have no patience with colored rioters and less with white ones. All should be dealt with by the law's severest and most extreme penalties.

(Signed)
BEAUREGARD F. MOSELY
BERTHA L. HENSLEY
GEORGIA D. ASHBURN
JULIUS F. TAYLOR
FORD S. BLACK
and others.