Race riots in Philadelphia during the 1919 Red Summer

Race riots in Philadelphia
Part of the Red Summer
	25h and Pine street, where the May 9 riot took place
Date	1919 Red Summer
Location	Philadelphia, United States

There were a number of race riots in Philadelphia during the 1919 Red Summer.

Background

As more and more African-Americans moved from the south to the industrial north, they started to move into predominantly white neighborhoods. In 1918, for four days starting July 25, there was a race riot in Chester and Philadelphia.^[1] When things finally settled down, 3 black and 2 white people had died from their injuries.^[2]

May 1919

In Philadelphia, the black migration created very high tensions in the area surrounding Twenty-fifth and Pine streets. Making things worse, a local gang had been terrorizing the new black tenants. On May 9, a large mob of white people clashed with a large black group. The mob then broke open the door at 2535 Pine street and tried to eject George Grahm and his black family who had moved there a week earlier. A number of people were later arrested.^[3]

July 1919

The New York Times wrote an article that described two riots during the Red Summer, one on July 7 and 31.^[4] Authors Rucker & Upton talk about during a carnival, a large group of whites fought a group of blacks. The violence was quickly suppressed when over 100 police showed up and made arrests.^[5]

Aftermath

This uprising was one of several incidents of civil unrest that took place during the so-called

Chicago Race Riot and Washington D.C. race riot which killed 38 and 39 people respectively, with both events having many more non-fatal injuries and extensive property damage reaching millions of dollars.^[4]