Red Summer
Part of the First Red Scare and nadir of American race relations | |
Date | 1919 |
---|---|
Location | White supremacist terrorist attacks, riots, and murders against black Americans across the United States |
Deaths | Hundreds |
Inquest |
|
Part of a series on the |
Nadir of American race relations |
---|
Red Summer was a period in mid-1919 during which
In most instances, attacks consisted of white-on-black violence. Numerous African Americans fought back, notably in the Chicago and Washington, D.C., race riots, which resulted in 38 and 15 deaths respectively, along with even more injuries, and extensive property damage in Chicago.[3] Still, the highest number of fatalities occurred in the rural area around Elaine, Arkansas, where an estimated 100–240 black people and five white people were killed—an event now known as the Elaine massacre.
The
The riots and killings were extensively documented by the
Background
Great Migration
With the
By 1919, an estimated 500,000
Racism and Red Scare
In the summer of 1917, violent racial riots against blacks due to labor tensions broke out in
During the
Early in 1919, Dr. George Edmund Haynes, an educator employed as director of Negro Economics for the U.S. Department of Labor, wrote: "The return of the Negro soldier to civil life is one of the most delicate and difficult questions confronting the Nation, north and south."[10] One black veteran wrote a letter to the editor of the Chicago Daily News saying the returning black veterans "are now new men and world men…and their possibilities for direction, guidance, honest use, and power are limitless, only they must be instructed and led. They have awakened, but they have not yet the complete conception of what they have awakened to."[11] W. E. B. Du Bois, an official of the NAACP and editor of its monthly magazine, saw an opportunity:[12]
By the God of Heaven, we are cowards and jackasses if now that the war is over, we do not marshal every ounce of our brain and brawn to fight a sterner, longer, more unbending battle against the forces of hell in our own land.
Events
In the autumn of 1919, following the violence-filled summer,
In addition, Haynes reported that between January 1 and September 14, 1919, white mobs
We return from the slavery of uniform which the world's madness demanded us to don to the freedom of civil garb. We stand again to look America squarely in the face and call a spade a spade. We sing: This country of ours, despite all its better souls have done and dreamed, is yet a shameful land.…
We return.
We return from fighting.
We return fighting.
Early riots: April 13–July 14
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People respectfully enquires how long the Federal Government under your administration intends to tolerate anarchy in the United States?
— NAACP telegram to President Woodrow Wilson
August 29, 1919
- April 13: In rural Georgia, the riot of Jenkins County led to 6 deaths, and the destruction of various property by arson, including the Carswell Grove Baptist Church, and 3 black Masonic lodges in Millen, Georgia.
- May 10: The Charleston riot resulted in the injury of 5 white and 18 black men, along with the death of 3 others: Isaac Doctor, William Brown, and James Talbot, all black. Following the riot, the city of Charleston, South Carolina, imposed martial law.[3] A Naval investigation found that four U.S. sailors and one civilian—all white men—initiated the riot.[15]
- Early July: A white race riot in Longview, Texas, led to the deaths of at least 4 men and destroyed the African-American housing district in the town.[3]
- July 3: Local police in Bisbee, Arizona, attacked the 10th U.S. Cavalry, an African-American unit known as the "Buffalo Soldiers" formed in 1866.[16]
- July 14: The Garfield Park riot took place in Garfield Park, Indianapolis, where multiple people, including a 7-year-old girl, were wounded when gunfire broke out.
Washington and Norfolk: July 19–23
Beginning on July 19,
When police refused to intervene, the black population fought back. The city closed saloons and theaters to discourage assemblies. Meanwhile, the four white-owned local papers, including the
The NAACP sent a telegram of protest to President Woodrow Wilson:[21]
[T]he shame put upon the country by the mobs, including United States soldiers, sailors, and marines, which have assaulted innocent and unoffending negroes in the national capital. Men in uniform have attacked negroes on the streets and pulled them from streetcars to beat them. Crowds are reported ...to have directed attacks against any passing negro.… The effect of such riots in the national capital upon race antagonism will be to increase bitterness and danger of outbreaks elsewhere. National Association for the Advancement of Colored People calls upon you as President and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the nation to make statement condemning mob violence and to enforce such military law as situation demands.…
On July 21, in
Chicago riots: July 27–August 12
Beginning on July 27, the
White mobs destroyed hundreds of mostly black homes and businesses on the South Side of Chicago. The State of Illinois called in a militia force of 7 regiments: several thousand men, to restore order.[3] The riots resulted in casualties that included: 38 fatalities (23 blacks and 15 whites); 527 injured; and 1,000 black families left homeless.[22] Other accounts reported 50 people were killed, with unofficial numbers and rumors reporting even more. Labor activist William Z. Foster, among other observers, referred to the killings as "an anti-Negro pogrom" and pointed out the connections between this pogrom and the pogroms which were taking place in the former Russian empire against Jewish communities by anti-communist forces.[23]
Mid to late August
On August 12, at its annual convention, the Northeastern Federation of Colored Women's Clubs (NFCWC) denounced the rioting and burning of Negroes' homes, asking President Wilson "to use every means within your power to stop the rioting in Chicago and the propaganda used to incite such."[24]
At the end of August, the NAACP protested again to the White House, noting the attack on the organization's secretary in Austin, Texas, the previous week. Their telegram read: "The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People respectfully enquires how long the Federal Government under your administration intends to tolerate anarchy in the United States?"[25]
The
Omaha: September 28–29
Once the mayor and governor appealed for help, the federal government sent U.S. Army troops from nearby forts, who were commanded by Major General Leonard Wood, a friend of Theodore Roosevelt, and a leading candidate for the Republican nomination for president in 1920.[30]
Elaine massacre and Wilmington: September 30–November
On September 30, a massacre occurred against blacks in Elaine, Phillips County, Arkansas,[4] being distinct for having occurred in the rural South rather than a city.
The event erupted from the resistance of the
The local government
On November 13, the Wilmington race riot was violence between white and black residents of Wilmington, Delaware.
Other events
This section needs additional citations for verification. (May 2023) |
A white woman named Ruth Meeks accused a black man named John Hartfield of attacking and raping her on June 9, 1919, in Ellisville, Mississippi. Mobs hunted down Hartfield as he ran for his life, but the mobs eventually shot and captured Hartfield on June 24 as he tried to board a train. He was held in jail, but mobs eventually came back and took him away, as the sheriff allowed them to. The mob had a doctor heal Hartfield of his gunshot wound, so the mob could organize his death in a way they saw fit. On June 26, 1919, the mob took Hartfield to a field in Ellisville, Mississippi, cut off his fingers, hung him from a tree branch, shot him over 2,000 times, and when the rope was severed and Hartfield fell from the tree, the mob burned his body. 10,000 whites came to the field to see Hartfield’s murder. Vendors sold trinkets and photographs. Newspapers reported that a resentful Hartfield’s last words were a warning for all men to think before they do wrong. This statement from the papers seems highly unlikely due to the state of Hartfield’s injuries and his attempt to run away for over a week before the mob got him.
On September 8, 1919, a mob of white men lynched Bowman Cook and John Morine.[33] During August of 1919 in Jacksonville, Florida, several black taxi drivers were killed by white passengers. Black taxi drivers began to refuse service to white riders. When one white rider was denied service, he fired into a crowd of black people, killing one man. Police wrongly blamed Cook and Morine for the man’s death. Three weeks later, a mob broke into the jail where the men were being held and captured them. The mob drove them to a desolate area of town and shot them, then they tied Cook’s body to a car and drove it for 50 blocks. The dragging drew attention to the spectacle and mutilated his corpse.
On October 4, there was a union strike on Gary’s U.S. Steel mill in Gary, Indiana. This strike was held by the white labor population of the mill as the union was unable to recruit the black workers’ support. To break this strike, U.S. Steel hired almost a thousand local and non-local black strikebreakers. These strikebreakers were shipped into Gary for their safety, provided cots, entertainment, and overtime pay. At the same time, U.S. Steel turned to theatrics and attempted to agitate the white strikers. They did this by first emasculating white strikers then later by paying unrelated black residents of Gary to march in a parade towards the steel mill.
On October 4, 1919, hundreds of striking workers assaulted a stalled street car bearing 40 black strikebreakers. At first the mob resorted to heckling, then the throwing of rocks, and eventually the mob dragged the strike breakers from their streetcar and beat them, dragging them through the streets. The hysteria led to an eight block mob leaving many unconscious in its wake leading to the state militia and federal troops stepping in to intervene.
Chronology
This list is primarily, but not exclusively, based on George Edmund Haynes's report, as summarized in the New York Times (1919).[3]
Date | Place |
---|---|
January 22[a] | Bedford County, Tennessee |
February 8 | Blakeley, Georgia[a][b] |
March 12 | Pace, Florida
|
March 14 | Memphis, Tennessee[a][c] |
April 10 | Morgan County, West Virginia |
April 13 | Jenkins County, Georgia |
April 14 | Sylvester, Georgia |
April 15 | Millen, Georgia[d] |
May 5 | Pickens, Mississippi
|
May 10 | Charleston, South Carolina |
May 10 | Sylvester, Georgia[a][e] |
May 21 | El Dorado, Arkansas
|
May 26 | Milan, Georgia |
May 29 | New London, Connecticut |
May 27–29 | Putnam County, Georgia |
May 31 | Monticello, Mississippi[a] |
June 6 | New Brunswick, New Jersey[a] |
June 13 | Memphis, Tennessee[a] |
June 13 | New London, Connecticut[f] |
June 26 | Ellisville, Mississippi[a] |
June 27 | Annapolis, Maryland[g] |
June 27 | Macon, Mississippi |
July 3 | Bisbee, Arizona |
July 5 | Scranton, Pennsylvania[h] |
July 6 | Dublin, Georgia |
July 7 | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
July 8 | Coatesville, Pennsylvania |
July 9 | Tuscaloosa, Alabama[a][i] |
July 10–12 | Longview, Texas[38] |
July 11 | Baltimore, Maryland |
July 15 | Louise, Mississippi
|
July 15 | Port Arthur, Texas |
July 19–24 | Washington, D.C. |
July 20 | New York City, New York |
July 21 | Norfolk, Virginia |
July 23 | New Orleans, Louisiana[a] |
July 23 | Darby, Pennsylvania |
July 26 | Hobson City, Alabama[j] |
July 27 – August 3 | Chicago, Illinois |
July 28 | Newberry, South Carolina[k] |
July 31 | Bloomington, Illinois[a] |
July 31 | Syracuse, New York |
July 31 | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
August 1 | Whatley, Alabama |
August 3 | Lincoln, Arkansas
|
August 4 | Hattiesburg, Mississippi[a] |
August 6 | Texarkana, Texas[39] |
August 21 | New York City, New York |
August 22 | Austin, Texas |
August 27–29 | Ocmulgee, Georgia |
August 30 | Knoxville, Tennessee |
August 31 | Bogalusa, Louisiana
|
September 8 | Jacksonville, Florida[a] |
September 10 | Clarksdale, Mississippi
|
September 28–29 | Omaha, Nebraska |
September 29 | Montgomery, Alabama |
October 1–2 | Elaine, Arkansas
|
October 1–2 | Baltimore, Maryland |
October 4 | Gary, Indiana[a] |
October 31 | Corbin, Kentucky |
November 2 | Macon, Georgia |
November 11 | Magnolia, Arkansas |
November 13 | Wilmington, Delaware |
December 27 | West Virginia
|
Responses
We appeal to you to have your country undertake for its racial minority that which you forced Poland and Austria to undertake for their racial minorities.
— National Equal Rights League to President Woodrow Wilson, November 25, 1919
In September 1919, in response to the Red Summer, the
Haynes's report
The October 1919 report by Dr.
Persistence of unpunished lynchings of negroes fosters lawlessness among white men imbued with the mob spirit and creates a spirit of bitterness among negroes. In such a state of public mind, a trivial incident can precipitate a riot.
Disregard of law and legal process will inevitably lead to more and more frequent clashes and bloody encounters between white men and negroes and a condition of potential race war in many cities of the United States.
Unchecked mob violence creates hatred and intolerance, making impossible free and dispassionate discussion not only of race problems, but questions on which races and sections differ.
Lusk Committee
The
Press coverage
In mid-summer, in the middle of the Chicago racial violence against blacks, a federal official told The New York Times that the violence resulted from "an agitation, which involves the I.W.W., Bolshevism and the worst features of other extreme radical movements."[44] He supported that claim with copies of Negro publications that called for alliances with leftist groups, praised the Soviet regime, and contrasted the courage of jailed socialist Eugene V. Debs with the "school boy rhetoric" of traditional black leaders. The Times characterized the publications as "vicious and apparently well financed," mentioned "certain factions of the radical Socialist elements," and reported it all under the headline: "Reds Try to Stir Negroes to Revolt".[44] In late 1919, Oklahoma's Daily Ardmoreite published a piece with a headline describing "Evidence Found Of Negro Society That Brought On Rioting".[45]
In response, some black leaders such as Bishop Charles Henry Phillips of the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church asked black people to shun violence in favor of "patience" and "moral suasion." Phillips opposed propaganda favoring violence, and he noted the grounds of injustice to the black people:[46] Phillips was based in Nashville, Tennessee.
I cannot believe that the negro was influenced by Bolshevist agents in the part he took in the rioting. It is not like him to be a traitor or a revolutionist who would destroy the Government. But then the reign of mob law to which he has so long lived in terror and the injustices to which he has had to submit have made him sensitive and impatient.
The connection between black people and Bolshevism was widely repeated. In August 1919, The Wall Street Journal wrote: "Race riots seem to have for their genesis a Bolshevist, a Negro, and a gun." The National Security League repeated that reading of events.[47] In presenting the Haynes report in early October, The New York Times provided a context which his report did not mention. Haynes documented violence and inaction on the state level.
The Times saw "bloodshed on a scale amounting to local insurrection" as evidence of "a new negro problem" because of "influences that are now working to drive a wedge of bitterness and hatred between the two races."[3] Until recently, the Times said, black leaders showed "a sense of appreciation" for what whites had suffered on their behalf in fighting a civil war that "bestowed on the black man opportunities far in advance of those he had in any other part of the white man's world".[3] Now militants were supplanting Booker T. Washington, who had "steadily argued conciliatory methods." The Times continued:[3]
Every week the militant leaders gain more headway. They may be divided into general classes. One consists of radicals and revolutionaries. They are spreading Bolshevist propaganda. It is reported that they are winning many recruits among the colored race. When the ignorance that exists among negroes in many sections of the country is taken into consideration the danger of inflaming them by revolutionary doctrine may [be] apprehended.... The other class of militant leaders confine their agitation to a fight against all forms of color discrimination. They are for a program on uncompromising protest, "to fight and continue to fight for citizenship rights and full democratic privileges."
As evidence of militancy and Bolshevism, the Times named W. E. B. Du Bois and quoted his editorial in The Crisis, which he edited:[3]
Today we raise the terrible weapon of self-defense ... When the armed lynchers gather, we too must gather armed." When the Times endorsed Haynes' call for a bi-racial conference to establish "some plan to guarantee greater protection, justice, and opportunity to Negroes that will gain the support of law-abiding citizens of both races", it endorsed discussion with "those negro leaders who are opposed to militant methods.
In mid-October government sources provided the Times with evidence of Bolshevist propaganda appealing to America's black communities. This account set Red propaganda in the black community into a broader context, since it was "paralleling the agitation that is being carried on in industrial centres of the North and West, where there are many alien laborers".[48] The Times described newspapers, magazines, and "so-called 'negro betterment' organizations" as the way propaganda about the "doctrines of Lenin and Trotzky" was distributed to black people.[48] It cited quotes from such publications, which contrasted the recent violence in Chicago and Washington, D.C., with:[48]
...Soviet Russia, a country in which dozens of racial and lingual types have settled their many differences and found a common meeting ground, a country which no longer oppresses colonies, a country from which the lynch rope is banished and in which racial tolerance and peace now exist.
The Times noted a call for
Government activity
During the Chicago racial violence against people of color the press was incorrectly told by
On November 17, Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer reported to Congress on the threat that anarchists and Bolsheviks posed to the government. More than half the report documented radicalism in the black community and the "open defiance" black leaders advocated in response to racial violence and the summer's rioting. It faulted the leadership of the black community for an "ill-governed reaction toward race rioting.… In all discussions of the recent racial riots against blacks there is reflected the note of pride that the Negro has found himself. That he has 'fought back,' that never again will he tamely submit to violence and intimidation."[53] It described "the dangerous spirit of defiance and vengeance at work among the Negro leaders."[53]
Arts
Claude McKay's sonnet, "If We Must Die",[54] was prompted by the events of Red Summer.[55]
See also
- African-American veterans lynched after World War I
- African Blood Brotherhood
- Black genocide – the notion that African Americans have been subjected to genocide
- Buffalo supermarket shooting
- Charleston Church shooting
- Freedmen massacres
- King assassination riots
- List of ethnic riots § United States
- List of expulsions of African Americans
- List of incidents of civil unrest in the United States
- List of massacres in the United States
- Lynching in the United States
- Mass racial violence in the United States
- Racial Equality Proposal
- Racism against African Americans
- Racism in the United States
Notes
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n One of the only records of this riot is a New York Times article. Newspapers across the country report that a "race riot" was "narrowly averted" in New Orleans on July 22. "Race Riots in New Orleans and Washington", Brewton Standard, July 24, 1919, 1; "Louisiana," Bossier Banner-Progress, July 24, 1919, 1' "Race Riot Narrowly Averted in New Orleans," Phenix-Gerard Journal, July 24, 1919, 1; "Race Clash Narrowly Averted at New Orleans," Emancipator, July 26, 1919, 1.[3]
- ^ New York Times show that 4 people were killed.[3]
- ^ New York Times show that 1 person was killed in Memphis, Tennessee[3]
- ^ Misspelling of Millen, Georgia. Riot was part of the Jenkins County, Georgia, riot of 1919
- ^ New York Times show that 1 person was killed.[3]
- ^ Records show that during New London, Connecticut, riot several people were injured[35][36]
- ^ Atypical in that the violence was primarily between civilian African Americans and African American sailors but also included instances of white sailors attacking civilian African Americans.
- ^ "'Negroes Accused of Inciting Riot,' Philadelphia Inquirer, July 10, 1919. The NAACP later reported to Conggress and the New York Times that a race riot erupted on July 5 in Scranton, Pennsylvania. However, no evidence of such an incident exists."[37]
- ^ Records show that during Tuscaloosa riot 1 person was injured[35][36]
- ^ Records show that during Hobson City riot one person was injured[35][36]
- ^ The Newberry 1919 lynching attempt happened on July 24
References
- ^ a b Erickson, Alana J. 1960. "Red Summer." Pp. 2293–94 in Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History. New York: Macmillan.
- ^ Cunningham, George P. 1960. "James Weldon Johnson." Pp. 1459–61 in Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History. New York: Macmillan.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u The New York Times 1919.
- ^ a b c Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) 2018, p. Part 3.
- ^ a b Kennedy 2004, pp. 279, 281–282.
- ^ Barnes 2008, p. 4.
- ^ "The Great Migration". December 15, 2023.
- ^ McWhirter 2011, p. 56
- ^ McWhirter 2011, pp. 19, 22–24
- ^ McWhirter 2011, p. 13
- ^ McWhirter 2011, p. 15
- ^ McWhirter 2011, p. 14
- ^ Maxouris 2019.
- ^ McWhirter 2011, pp. 31–32, emphasis in original
- ^ Rucker & Upton 2007, pp. 92–93.
- ^ Rucker & Upton 2007, p. 554.
- Washington Post.
- ^ Perl 1999, p. A1
- ^ Mills 2016.
- ^ a b c d e Ackerman 2008, pp. 60–62.
- ^ The New York Times 1919h.
- ^ Encyclopædia Britannica 2019.
- ^ William Z. Foster (1952). History of the Communist Party of the United States. p. 231.
- ^ The New York Times 1919j.
- ^ The New York Times 1919i.
- ^ Wheeler 2017.
- ^ Whitaker 2009, p. 53.
- ^ Lakin 2000, pp. 1–29.
- ^ Lewis 2009, p. 383.
- ^ Pietrusza 2009, pp. 167–172.
- ^ Freedman 2001, p. 68.
- ^ Whitaker 2009, pp. 131–142.
- ^ Urell, Aaryn (October 17, 2021). "Historical Marker Dedicated for Veterans Lynched in Jacksonville, Florida". Equal Justice Initiative. Retrieved May 1, 2023.
- ^ "Why the Great Steel Strike of 1919 Was One of Labor's Biggest Failures". HISTORY. September 23, 2019. Retrieved May 1, 2023.
- ^ a b c United States House Committee on the Judiciary 1920, p. 9
- ^ a b c United States House Committee on the Judiciary 1920a, p. 19
- ^ McWhirter 2011, p. 291.
- ^ Whitaker 2009, p. 51.
- ^ Marcelle 2016.
- ^ The New York Times 1919e.
- ^ Jaffe 1972, pp. 121–122.
- ^ New-York Tribune 1919, p. 1.
- ^ Brown, Smith & Johnson 1922, p. 313.
- ^ a b The New York Times 1919c.
- ^ The Daily Ardmoreite 1919, p. 1.
- ^ The New York Times 1919d.
- ^ a b McWhirter 2011, p. 160
- ^ a b c d The New York Times 1919a.
- ^ The New York Times 1919b.
- ^ The New York Times 1919f.
- ^ The New York Times 1919g.
- ^ a b McWhirter 2011, p. 159
- ^ a b McWhirter 2011, pp. 239–241
- ^ "If We Must Die" poetryfoundation.org, accessed May 5, 2015
- ^ McKay 2007.
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