cole phelps
Superstar
WASHINGTON, July 19 1919 -- White soldiers, sailors, and marines on liberty in the city, said to have been aroused by repeated attacks on white women by colored men during the last few days, invaded a colored residential district tonight and one colored man George Montgomery, 55-year-old was severely beaten.
Several shots were fired before police and provost guards got to the scene.
Several other negroes were caught by the crowd, but made their escape with only trifling injuries, though shots were fired at them.
The uniformed men participating in the attack were gathered together in the downtown district after individual fights had taken place and were inflamed, it was said, by reports that another white woman, and the wife of a sailor, had been attacked by a negro.
Reserves from three police stations besides the military guard and a detachment of marines on guard answered emergency calls, but found the mob dispersed when they arrived at the scene of trouble. About 100 service men were said to have been involved.
A patrol was continued after midnight through the area to prevent any repetition of the violence.
race riots renewed white soldiers and sailors attack negroes on Pennsylvania Avenue July 20 1919-- Police reserves rushed to the heart of Washington, DC, in the "Centre Market district, Seventh and Pennsylvania Avenue," to quell several hundred white soldiers, sailors, marines, and a thousand civilians who made attacks on negroes "in retaliation for attacks on white women in Washington during the past month," "Negroes were hauled from street cars and from automobiles, Francis Thomas, a black 17-year-old, reported to the NAACP,"A mob of sailors and soldiers jumped on the [street]car and pulled me off, beating me unmercifully from head to foot, leaving me in such a condition that I could hardly crawl back home." Thomas said he saw three other blacks being beaten, including two women."Before I became unconscious, I
could hear them pleading with the Lord to keep them from being killed." Aggression toward blacks had started on sweltering Saturday and Sunday, July 19 and 20, 1919, when white civilians, and soldiers, sailors, and Marines freshly home from Europe collected in a spot and pointed to any black who might be passing and yelled,"There he goes!""Such outcries generally were followed by an attack upon the negro by some of the sailors and soldiers." Lawrence Johnson, a black man was beaten up by rioting white Marines just spitting distance from the White House. Using rocks wrapped in handkerchiefs, they beat him about the head, until one finally pulled out a club and knocked him to the pavement. He lay there, bleeding, until an
ambulance picked him up 20 minutes later. At Fourteenth street and Pennsylvania Avenue an white overseas soldier climbed through an open window of a street car and, grabbing a negro passenger by the coat collar, dragged him from the car. Police put the number of negroes taken to the hospital at 15, one of the men attacked on 7th street had his collar bone broken. ''White women being assaulted by negroes in washington'' is what we all have noticed in our every-day papers as each publication comes into our hands. But my fellow
citizens, as I glanced throught the papers last evening and saw our white soldiers, sailors and marines have taken the matter into their own hands, it filled my heart with joy. Are we going to allow Negroes to assault our sisters, wives and possibly mothers? I will say no, never, not if it costs the life of every true American. Allow me to say, dear editor, that I am not prejudiced toward the negro race, but when our women, whom we crossed the sea to fight and die for, are assaulted in our own country,it boils the blood in our veins, and if the police department in
Washington are incapable of protecting our women, then our white service men who crossed the sea to protect them will, if need be, protect them in our grand and glorious capital. Allow me to say that in my opinion our capital is today being run by Negroes, and a white man has about as much chance of accomplishing anything as a Bolshevik has. Why are white men being discharged from positions in various departments in Washington and Negroes put in their places? I recollect one case where an Assistant Librarian of one of our Government Libraries who has the ''honor'' of the civilized white man.
The rampage by about 400 whites initially drew only scattered resistance in the black community, and the police were nowhere to be seen. When the Metropolitan Police Department finally arrived in force, its white officers arrested more blacks than whites, sending a clear signal about their sympathies
Several shots were fired before police and provost guards got to the scene.
Several other negroes were caught by the crowd, but made their escape with only trifling injuries, though shots were fired at them.
The uniformed men participating in the attack were gathered together in the downtown district after individual fights had taken place and were inflamed, it was said, by reports that another white woman, and the wife of a sailor, had been attacked by a negro.
Reserves from three police stations besides the military guard and a detachment of marines on guard answered emergency calls, but found the mob dispersed when they arrived at the scene of trouble. About 100 service men were said to have been involved.
A patrol was continued after midnight through the area to prevent any repetition of the violence.
race riots renewed white soldiers and sailors attack negroes on Pennsylvania Avenue July 20 1919-- Police reserves rushed to the heart of Washington, DC, in the "Centre Market district, Seventh and Pennsylvania Avenue," to quell several hundred white soldiers, sailors, marines, and a thousand civilians who made attacks on negroes "in retaliation for attacks on white women in Washington during the past month," "Negroes were hauled from street cars and from automobiles, Francis Thomas, a black 17-year-old, reported to the NAACP,"A mob of sailors and soldiers jumped on the [street]car and pulled me off, beating me unmercifully from head to foot, leaving me in such a condition that I could hardly crawl back home." Thomas said he saw three other blacks being beaten, including two women."Before I became unconscious, I
could hear them pleading with the Lord to keep them from being killed." Aggression toward blacks had started on sweltering Saturday and Sunday, July 19 and 20, 1919, when white civilians, and soldiers, sailors, and Marines freshly home from Europe collected in a spot and pointed to any black who might be passing and yelled,"There he goes!""Such outcries generally were followed by an attack upon the negro by some of the sailors and soldiers." Lawrence Johnson, a black man was beaten up by rioting white Marines just spitting distance from the White House. Using rocks wrapped in handkerchiefs, they beat him about the head, until one finally pulled out a club and knocked him to the pavement. He lay there, bleeding, until an
ambulance picked him up 20 minutes later. At Fourteenth street and Pennsylvania Avenue an white overseas soldier climbed through an open window of a street car and, grabbing a negro passenger by the coat collar, dragged him from the car. Police put the number of negroes taken to the hospital at 15, one of the men attacked on 7th street had his collar bone broken. ''White women being assaulted by negroes in washington'' is what we all have noticed in our every-day papers as each publication comes into our hands. But my fellow
citizens, as I glanced throught the papers last evening and saw our white soldiers, sailors and marines have taken the matter into their own hands, it filled my heart with joy. Are we going to allow Negroes to assault our sisters, wives and possibly mothers? I will say no, never, not if it costs the life of every true American. Allow me to say, dear editor, that I am not prejudiced toward the negro race, but when our women, whom we crossed the sea to fight and die for, are assaulted in our own country,it boils the blood in our veins, and if the police department in
Washington are incapable of protecting our women, then our white service men who crossed the sea to protect them will, if need be, protect them in our grand and glorious capital. Allow me to say that in my opinion our capital is today being run by Negroes, and a white man has about as much chance of accomplishing anything as a Bolshevik has. Why are white men being discharged from positions in various departments in Washington and Negroes put in their places? I recollect one case where an Assistant Librarian of one of our Government Libraries who has the ''honor'' of the civilized white man.
The rampage by about 400 whites initially drew only scattered resistance in the black community, and the police were nowhere to be seen. When the Metropolitan Police Department finally arrived in force, its white officers arrested more blacks than whites, sending a clear signal about their sympathies
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Beautiful and uplifting story.
