Brett writes: The sunny Sunday afternoon of July 27, 1919 was a beach-going day in the City of Chicago, the beaches of Lake Michigan filled with the city's inhabitants. The racial tensions across the country was reaching their boiling point, and Chicago was not immune to this unrest. The beaches on the lake were voluntarily segregated, both Blacks and Whites mutually agreeing to stay on their sides. However, a group of Black youths decided to swim in the so-called "White area," thus causing a disturbance which began as a verbal one but quickly escalated into violence, in the form of throwing rocks. While this was occuring a Black youth named Eugene Williams was swimming and clung to a railroad tie as the melee insued onshore. He became a target for rocks and was allegedly hit in the forehead by a white man onshore. The boy panicked and drowned shortly after.

As the disturbance on the beach grew, black bystanders called for the white man's arrest; however, the police instead arrested a black man for his actions on the beach. This inflamed the Blacks and Whites as anger swelled to its breaking point. The second casuality came when a black man, who shot into a group of police officers on the beach, was killed by a black officer returning gunfire. Fighting continued into the night as riot conditions worsened. Blacks suffered that evening, many being beaten, some stabbed and shot. Monday morning was calm and both Blacks and Whites went to work without incident. However, things changed on the commute home, when Blacks were dragged from street cars at major transfer points in the city and beaten, stabbed and shot. The police could not handle the number of attacks. Several Blacks and Whites were killed in the afternoon.

Tuesday brought no relief as white mobs set out on missions to target Blacks. Buildings were burned belonging to Blacks in the Englewood section. Several more were killed this day. Finally, on Wednesday night Mayor Thompson of Chicago called out the militia to restore order in the South Side. The poor weather both Wednesday night and Thursday calmed the rioting down. Not until Saturday did the last rush of rioting occur, when a large fire swept through the primarily Lithuanian section near the stockyards, leaving 948 people homeless and causing $250,000 in damage (Chicago Commission on Race Relations).

This marked the end of the rioting in Chicago. The five days of rioting had killed 38 people,15 White and 23 Black (Chicago Public Library Archive). The rioting which erupted in Chicago had its seeds planted weeks before it exploded. White "gangs" had harrassed Blacks living near the racial dividing lines. However, by the Spring of 1919 this harrassment escalated and on the night of June 21, 1919, 5 weeks before the riot, when two Black men were murdered (Gang Research Online). These gangs "formed definite nucelei" for crowd and mob leadership. "Athletic clubs" supplied the leaders of many gangs" (Gang Research Online). These "Athletic clubs" consited of primarily young white men who sought to harrass, terrorize and intimidate the Blacks. One of the most violent of these clubs was "Ragen's Colts, who stated, "Remember it's the Ragen colts your're dealing with. We have two thousand members between Halstead and Cottage Grove, and Forty-third and Sixty-third streets. We intend to run this district. Look out." (Gang Research Online)

These types of gangs roamed the streets during the rioting, causing terror for the black citizens. The citizens that lived where these gangs roamed, their "turf," divulged little about the gangs' activities. The athletic clubs' role in this riot was simply a source of gang activity, specifically targeting Blacks and their property. The grand jury looking into these athletic clubs after the rioting finally began to lift the cover on the clubs that had previously been above the law in many cases. Their report states "The authorities employed to enforce the law should thoroughly investigate clubs and other organizations posing as athletic and social clubs which really are organizations of hoodlums and criminals formed for the purpose of furthering the interest of local politics. These gangs have apparently taken an active part in the race riots, and no arrests of their members have been made as far as this jury is aware." (Gang Research Online) The role these clubs played in the rioting would at last be revealed.

The postwar conditions were unstable in Chicago as well as in other cities across the country. Race relations were strained due to the influx of Blacks into cities such as Chicago; their labor was needed during the war to replace the soldiers at war. The increase in the black population caused an uneasiness among many Whites and this contributed to the harrasment of Blacks prior to the rioting. Discrimination was prevelant during this period towards Blacks, but this was inflamed by the fact that large numbers of Blacks had populated cities once dominated by Whites only, Chicago being one of these. With the labor market tighter, and Blacks now held jobs that once belonged to Whites. These conditions immediately after the war planted the seeds which would grow into a riot. During the riot which ensued in the summer of 1919, the sheer brutality of the riot demonstrated the anger towards the Blacks. The Blacks themselves could not take it anymore and respondedin kind. The aftermath of this riot left a scarred city. Blacks would find that discrimination would stretch its arm into the north, and remain for many years to come.

Mike emphasizes the role of rumor and the black distrust of the police: Racial tension in the United States is a common underlying historical theme. The Chicago riot of 1919 is a good example of how racial tension can lead to violence. Two reports on the riot give similar accounts of a group of black boys who went swimming at a "whites only beach"; this angered a white man, who began throwing rocks at the swimmers, resulting in the death of Eugene Williams. A black man was then arrested for the crime, instead of the white man who had committed it. "Anger over this, coupled with rumors and innuendoes that spread in both camps regarding Eugene Williams' death led to five days of rioting in Chicago that ultimately claimed the lives of 23 blacks and 15 whites, with 291 wounded and maimed." (http://www.chipublib.org/004chicago/disasters/riots_race.html) This account gives us the direct cause of the riot, but the http://www.uic.edu/orgs/kbc/ganghistory/Industrial%20Era/Riotbegins.html website gives us a more indirect cause of the riot. This account puts the blame on gangs. It was a gang of black boys that decided to go swimming in a "whites only beach." Then a gang of whites that decided to throw rocks and later to fire shots in a black neighborhood.

One thing I find somewhat surprising is how there was a riot like this in a northern city. Thirty years after the Race Riots of Chicago a boy from Chicago (Emmit Till) was lynched when he visited Mississippi. The stories from the riot are very similar to a lynching, in that a group of white men would go out and beat a black man. Rumors about what happened in the riot helped to create more violence:

Wild rumors were in circulation by word of mouth and in the press throughout the riot and provoked many clashes. These included stories of atrocities committed by one race against the other. Reports of the numbers of white and Negro dead tended to produce a feeling that the score must be kept even. Newspaper reports, for example, showed 6 per cent more whites injured than Negroes. As a matter of fact there were 28 per cent more Negroes injured than whites. The Chicago Tribune on July 29 reported twenty persons killed, of whome thirteen were white and seven colored. The true figures were exactly the opposite. http://www.suba.com/%7Escottn/explore/scrapbks/raceriot/rr_txt01.htm

The only difference between the riot and a lynching is that in a lynching the person is being lynched for a reason (usually untrue) but in the riot the reason was your race. The suba website makes the point of saying the riot went on longer because of the lack of trust the "Negroes had in the police." "i) The police lacked sufficient forces for handling the riot; they were hampered by the Negroes' distrust of them." It seems more like the riots started because of the lack of trust the policemen had in the blacks. Two weeks before the riot, two black men were killed in the same night. Even though there was an eyewitness to one murder, no one was arrested. It is hard to keep order in a city if you don't make arrests for the crimes that are being committed.

Cynthia takes us back to the earlier roots of racial distrust as well as police discrimination: The Chicago Race Riots began after a long period of segregation and hatred among the blacks and whites prior to 1919. "On July 3, 1917, a white saloon-keeper who, according to the coroner's physician, died of heart trouble, was incorrectly reported in the press to have been killed by a Negro. That evening a party of young white men riding in an automobile fired upon a group of Negroes at Fifty-third and Federal streets." (Jazz Age Chicago, Backround)

After that event, hatred built up until the death of Eugene Williams sparked the beginning of the riot. . . . When the police arrived on the scene, Stauber, a young white man, was not arrested even though a white woman identified him. (Jazz Age Chicago, Story of the Riot) However, a black man was arrested due to a complaint made by a white person. Due to the injustice of the police department and the tension between the two races, the Chicago Race Riot began.

The gangs . . . were the main cause for many of the violent acts and deaths among the black and white communities. They were made up of white males . . . between 17 and 22.

Gangs whose activities figured so prominently in the riot were all white gangs, or 'athletic clubs.' Negroes hoodlums do not appear to form organized gangs so readily. Judges of the municipal court said that there are no gang organization among Negroes to compare with those found among young whites. (Gangs and the 1919 Chicago Race Riot)

These white gangs were also said to have invented the drive-by in which rifle and revolver shots were fired from a speeding car in black areas. The white gangs during the riot were the cause for many deaths and violent outbreaks with the black mobs during this period. The white gangs would go into the black communities with the intent to attack. Therefore, the white gangs in the Chicago area were the also a leading cause of the Chicago Race Riot.

The cause, the course, and the aftermath of the race riots show the extreme amount of discrimination and hatred that was present between the black and white communities. It also shows the lack of control that the police officials had over the city. While a chunk of the city was in complete havoc, the public officials were unable to do the justice that was deserved. The number of whites versus blacks that were arrested compared to the casualties . . . shows a lack of equality of protection of the black community. (Jazz Age Chicago, The Aftermath) I think that the events that led up to the riots and the lack of justice that was present during the riots show the inequalities that the blacks had to suffer after the war.