The Red Summer of 1919-The Race War you Never knew about...

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more pics from the "CHI" riots

 

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pics continued

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A map of the riot-affected areas on the South Side of Chicago, with the Union Stock Yards visible. North is to the right

 

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At the end of July, the Northeastern Federation of Colored Women's Clubs, at an annual convention, denounced the rioting and burning of negroes' homes then happening and asked President Wilson "to use every means within your power to stop the rioting in Chicago and the propaganda used to incite such."[18] At the end of August, the NAACP protested again, noting the attack on the organization's secretary in Austin, Texas the previous week. Their telegram said: "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?"

 

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Knoxville Riot of 1919

The Knoxville Riot of 1919 was a race riot that took place in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States, on August 30–31, 1919. The riot began when a lynch mob stormed the county jail in search of Maurice Mayes, a mulatto man who had been accused of murdering a white woman. Unable to find Mayes, the rioters looted the jail and fought a pitched gun battle with the residents of a predominantly black neighborhood. The Tennessee National Guard, which at one point fired two machine guns indiscriminately into this neighborhood, eventually dispersed the rioters.[1] Newspapers placed the death toll at just two, though eyewitness accounts suggest it was much higher.[1]
The Riot of 1919 was one of several violent racial incidents that occurred during the so-called Red Summer, when race riots plagued cities across the United States. The riot was one of the worst racial episodes in Knoxville's history, and shattered the city's vision of itself as a racially tolerant Southern town.[2] After the riot, many black residents left Knoxville, and racial violence continued to flare up sporadically in subsequent years.[1]

 

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Background
Post-World War I racial tensions
In the decades following the Civil War, Knoxville was considered by both black and white residents to be one of the few racially tolerant cities in the South. It was one of the few where black citizens could vote, hold public office, and serve as police officers.[1] In 1918, Charles W. Cansler (1871–1953), one of the city's leading African-American citizens, wrote to the governor of Tennessee, "In no place in the world can there be found better relations existing between the races than here in our own county of Knox. No race riots have ever disgraced our city and no mob has ever vented its fury here upon any Negro victim."[1]
During the recession that followed World War I, however, migrants poured into Knoxville, overcrowding the city's slums. This increased competition for an already diminished number of jobs, and heightened tensions between black residents and working class whites. Both the Ku Klux Klan and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) set up chapters in Knoxville in 1918.[1] Furthermore, in the summer of 1919, a prowler known as "Pants," described by victims as a light-skinned Negro, had been burglarizing homes and attacking white women, though he had attracted little attention from Knoxville police.[1][3]

Murder of Bertie Lindsey
Around 2:30 AM on August 30, 1919, an intruder broke into the home of Mrs. Bertie Lindsey on Eighth Street, where she had been staying with her cousin, Ora Smyth. The intruder shot and killed Lindsey, but Smyth managed to escape to the home of a neighbor who summoned police. Two patrolmen, Jim Smith and Andy White, arrived on the scene.[4] Smyth described the intruder as a light-skinned Negro.[1]
Patrolman White suggested they question Maurice Mayes, a prominent mulatto who operated the Stroller's Cafe on East Jackson. While raised by foster parents, Mayes is believed to have been the illegitimate son of Knoxville's mayor, John E. McMillan, and had actually been canvassing for McMillan on the day of the murder.[1][5] Mayes had a reputation for associating with both black and white women, making him unpopular with many of the city's white residents. Patrolman Smith later testified that Officer White specifically singled out Mayes because of a personal grudge.[1][4]
At around 3:30 AM, Knoxville police arrived at the Mayes home on Humes Street. The only evidence they found was a .38 revolver, which the officers decided must have been fired recently (though Smith later testified the gun was cold and unlikely to have been fired recently).[1][4] They arrested Mayes, and took him back to Eighth Street, where the distraught Ora Smyth identified him as the intruder.[1]

 

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Riot
Storming of the jail
Sensing trouble, Knoxville police transferred Mayes from the small city jail on Market Square to the larger Knox County Jail on Hill Avenue. Knox County's sheriff, W.T. Cate, then had Mayes transferred to Chattanooga.[1] By noon, news of the murder had spread, and a crowd of curious onlookers had gathered at the county jail, thinking Mayes was being held there.[1] A larger, angrier crowd had gathered on Market Square. By late afternoon, the crowd at Market Square had grown to about 5,000.[1]
At 5:00 PM, the crowd at the jail became hostile, demanding Mayes be brought out. Deputy sheriff Carroll Cate (the sheriff's nephew) and jailer Earl Hall assured them Mayes was not there, and allowed several members of the crowd to inspect the jail.[1] Jim Claiborne, an intoxicated member of this crowd, walked to Market Square and told the crowd there that Mayes was at the county jail, and that Cate and Hall were hiding him.[1] Jim Dalton, a 72-year old iron worker, called for Mayes to be lynched, and the 5,000-strong mob roared towards the jail.[1]
Unable to convince the mob that Mayes was not in their custody, Cate and Hall locked the jail's riot doors. At about 8:30, the rioters dynamited their way into the jail, ransacking it floor by floor in search of Mayes.[1] They discovered and consumed a large portion of the jail's confiscated whiskey, and also stole as many firearms as they could find.[1] They freed 16 white prisoners.[3]
Two platoons of the Tennessee National Guard's 4th Infantry, led by Adjutant General Edward Sweeney, arrived, but they were unable to halt the chaos.[1]

Gun battle at Central and Vine
After looting the jail and Sheriff Tate's house, the mob returned to Market Square, where they dispatched five truckloads of rioters to Chattanooga to find Mayes.[1] General Sweeney, awaiting the arrival of reinforcements, pleaded with the rioters to disperse. Meanwhile, many of the city's black residents, aware of the race riots that had occurred across the country that summer, had armed themselves, and had barricaded the intersection of Vine and Central to defend their businesses.[1]
As the trucks began to depart, shots rang out on Central, and it was falsely reported that two soldiers had been killed.[1] Sweeney immediately ordered his guardsmen toward Vine, and the mob followed. Along the way, rioters broke into stores on Gay Street to steal firearms and other weapons.[5] As the guardsmen turned onto Vine, the street erupted in gunfire as black snipers exchanged fire with both the rioters and the soldiers.[1] The National Guard set up two Browning machine guns on Vine, and opened fire toward Central. One guardsman, 24-year-old Lieutenant James William Payne, was shot and wounded by a sniper, and as he staggered into the street, he was cut to pieces by friendly fire from the machine guns.[1]
Shooting continued sporadically for several hours. The black defenders charged the machine guns several times, but failed to capture them. Among those killed was a black shopkeeper and Spanish-American War veteran named Joe Etter, who was shot when he attempted single-handedly to capture one of the machine guns.[1] Outgunned, the black defenders gradually fled Central and dispersed, allowing the guardsmen to gain control of Vine and Central in the early morning hours of August 31.[1]

 

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The riot's end
The National Guard immediately barricaded Central, and aggressively searched all black residences inside the barricaded zone. A citywide curfew was imposed, and 200 white citizens were temporarily deputized.[1] Scattered reports of violence persisted throughout the day. Two African American residents, Carter Watkins and Claude Chambers, were shot and killed at a train depot as they tried to flee.[1] A deaf black woman was shot when she failed to heed a guardsman's orders to halt.[1]
Knoxville's newspapers placed the death toll at just two (Etter and Payne), though eyewitness accounts say it was much higher.[1] Deputy Carroll Cate estimated that between 25 and 30 had been killed, while National Guard Major Maurice Martin placed it between 30 and 40. Others placed the death toll in the hundreds.[1][3] By some accounts, the dead were so many that the bodies were dumped into the Tennessee River, while others were buried in mass graves outside the city.[1]

Aftermath
Knoxville's leaders refused to believe the Riot of 1919 was the result of racial tensions. The Knoxville Journal denied a race riot had occurred, insisting the entire incident was nothing more than the city's "rabble" running amok.[1] Congressman John Chiles Houk argued that the lynch mob would have gone after a white murderer just as eagerly as they had gone after Mayes.[1]
In October 1919, Mayes's trial began. Former mayor Samuel Heiskell served as a special prosecutor,[1] while Mayes was defended by defense attorney Reuben Cates and prominent black attorney William F. Yardley.[6][4] Although there was no motive and virtually no evidence, Mayes was convicted.[4] The case was eventually overturned by the Tennessee Supreme Court, but Mayes was convicted in a retrial in April 1921.[4] He was executed on March 15, 1922.[4] Fifty-five white rioters were charged with various minor offenses in October 1919, but all were acquitted.[1]
In the weeks following the riot, many of the city's African-American leaders argued that the rioters did not represent the typical attitude of Knoxville's white citizens,[1] though hundreds of black residents nevertheless left the city for good. Another riot nearly occurred in 1921,[7] and flare-ups would take place sporadically for years afterward.[1] In 1926, former mayor John McMillan, believed to have been Mayes's biological father, committed suicide.[4]

 

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Bisbee Riot

The Bisbee Riot, or the Battle of Brewery Gulch, refers to a conflict during the Red Summer on July 3, 1919, between Buffalo Soldiers of the 10th Cavalry and members of local police forces in Bisbee, Arizona. Following an incident between a military policeman and some of the Buffalo Soldiers, the situation escalated into a street battle in Bisbee's historic Brewery Gulch. At least eight people were seriously injured, and fifty soldiers were arrested, although the consequences of this skirmish were relatively minor compared to others during the summer of 1919.[1][2]

Background
In 1919, Bisbee had a population 20,000 and was home to white, black, Hispanic, Asian, and native Americans. Although a busy place, it was described by author Cameron McWhirter as a "remote... dusty frontier town," ten miles north of the Mexican border. The economy hinged on the extraction of copper ore from local mines, and because the demand for copper decreased following the end of World War I, many of the miners in town were out of work. Furthermore, Bisbee authorities were known for their harsh treatment of miners. Two years before, in 1917, posses of Bisbee policemen and citizens rounded up hundreds of miners and deported them to New Mexico by train. Thus, morale was poor, and the town was ripe for civil unrest. After the deportation, the federal government began surveilling Bisbee authorities, and the case against them was still working its way through the courts when the riot occurred. As a result, the most detailed information concerning the riot comes from memos and reports collected by the federal government.[1][2]
According to Jan Voogd, author of Race Riots and Resistance: The Red Summer of 1919, Bisbee was a "stratified white man's mining camp," and "highly race conscious." The town had "rules" prohibiting Mexican men from working underground in the mines, instead the work was reserved for Welsh and Cornish miners. Chinese immigrants were not allowed to stay in the town overnight, and blacks could only find work as janitors. In 1919, Fort Huachuca was located about thirty-five miles west of Bisbee, however, it was still a popular destination for soldiers from the fort. The town's main street and red-light district, Brewery Gulch, was lined with brothels, saloons, and gambling halls. It was "notorious throughout the West," and would be the location of the fighting during the riot.[1][2]
Mrs. Frederick Theodore Arnold, the wife of the fort's commander in 1918, wrote the following about the town in her diary:
“[The town was in] a gulch just wide enough for one street [with] the stores and houses ... built mostly where rock is dug away, ... all one above the other like the cliff dwellers. Long flights of steps lead on up and up from house to house. It is the queerest town and the street ... runs right up-hill its whole winding length with a streetcar line ... there must be several thousand people there, and it is the busiest place you ever saw ... [There was] an enormous general store with everything from carpet tacks to oranges and hair nets"

 

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Riot
On July 3, 1919, the 10th Cavalry arrived in Bisbee from Fort Huachuca to march in the Independence Day parade on the next day. While the regiment's white officers were attending a prearranged dance, the Buffalo Soldiers went to Upper Brewery Gulch, where the Silver Leaf Club was located. Later on that night, at about 9:30 PM, a white military policeman from the 19th Infantry, George Sullivan, got into a fight with five "drunken" Buffalo Soldiers outside of the club. According to Sullivan, he exchanged "hostile words" with the soldiers, who then drew their revolvers, hit him on the head, and took his weapon. Jan Voogd notes that several citizens came to Sullivan's aid, and validated his report of the encounter. She also says various sources agree that the soldiers immediately went to the police station and reported the incident to Chief Kempton. Kempton, sensing more trouble, advised the soldiers to turn over their weapons, but the latter refused. So, after the soldiers left the station, the chief began assembling a posse to "disarm all the negroes they could find."[1][2]
The following attempt to disarm the soldiers resulted in a street battle, centered around Brewery Gulch, that lasted for over an hour. According to McWhirter, deputized white civilians participated in the fighting, however, Jan Voogd says there is very little evidence that Bisbee's local residents played any significant role. Either way, most of the whites involved were city police officers, or Cochise County sheriffs and deputies. More than 100 shots were fired during the melee, and it ended around midnight, when fifty of the Buffalo Soldiers surrendered to the police. The remaining soldiers were put on horses and told to ride back to their camp at Warren, under escort by two police cars. Shortly after the column headed out, five soldiers who had stayed behind began arguing with some of the officers. During this, Deputy Joe Hardwick, who had a reputation as a gunman, pulled out his revolver and shot one of the soldiers in the lung.[1][2]

 

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Walgreens was around back then? WOW

 

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Aftermath
At least eight people were shot or seriously wounded in total: Four of the Buffalo Soldiers were shot, two were beaten, a deputy sheriff was "severely injured," and a Mexican bystander named Teresa Leyvas was struck in the head by a stray bullet. In the army's official report of the incident, the commander of the 10th Cavalry, Colonel Frederick S. Snyder, said that "local officials had planned deliberately to aggravate the negro troopers so that they would furnish an excuse for police and deputy sheriffs to shoot them down." A Bureau of Investigation report said that "many of the soldiers who were absolutely innocent... were roughly handled... and seriously injured. This was due largely to the activity of Deputy Sheriff Joe Hardwick, who has the reputation of being a gunman and who on this occasion almost completely lost his head." Bureau of Investigation agents, surveilling Industrial Workers of the World activity in Bisbee, reported that "representatives" of the IWW were "coach[ing]" the Buffalo Soldiers on what to expect from Bisbee authorities, telling them about the deportation in 1917, and "suggesting that conflict was imminent."[1][2]
Ultimately, none of the Buffalo Soldiers were seriously punished for the fighting, at least not by the army. The 10th Cavalry was also permitted to march in the Independence Day parade, under close watch by white cavalrymen, who had been sent to patrol the streets and prevent further conflict. The Buffalo Soldiers later returned to Fort Huachuca, and their lives were "unfazed" by the events of July 3, according to Voogd. McWhirter says that "[t]he Bisbee fighting, covered nationally, brought to the fore America's conflicting feelings about black participation in the war [World War I/Border War]. Whites demanded black loyalty, but never trusted it."[1][2]

 

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Longview Race Riot

The Longview Race Riot refers to a series of violent incidents in Longview, Texas, between July 10 and July 12, 1919, during the Red Summer. Although only one man was killed as result of the violence, the riot is notable for the prompt and responsible reactions by local and state authorities, who moved quickly to quell the unrest by organizing an occupation of the town by the Texas National Guard and Texas Rangers.[1][2]

Background
Longview is located approximately 125 miles east of Dallas, and had a population 5,700 in 1919, of which 1,790, or thirty-one percent, was African American. Longview is the seat of Gregg County, which, in 1919, had a population of 16,700, of which 8,160, or forty-eight percent, was black. The area was still very rural, according to the East Texas Historical Journal, which may be at least part of the reason why the bloodshed in Longview wasn't as drastic as in Chicago, or Washington, D.C. However, the low mortality rate as result of the Longview riot cannot be entirely attributed to the ruralness of the area: For example, during the riot in Elaine, Arkansas, which had a population of 2,500 in 1919, as many as 100 people may have been killed. The primary reason for the low mortality in Longview was the "prompt and responsible actions" taken by Mayor G. A. Bodenheim, Gregg County Judge E.M. Bramlette, and other local officials.[1]

 

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Causes
According to the East Texas Historical Journal, various reasons contributed to the racial tension in Longview. African American literature, which circulated in the county, encouraged blacks to "push for better treatment." The most influential African American literature to circulate in Longview was The Chicago Defender, a weekly newspaper with nationwide coverage and circulation. The local reporter and newspaper distributor was a man named Samuel L. Jones, who was also a school teacher. At the time, Jones and a thirty-four-year-old black physician, Dr. Calvin P. Davis, were leaders in Longview's African American community. Not long before the riot, the two had urged local black farmers to avoid white cotton brokers and sell directly to buyers in Galveston. Another source of tension was the murder of Lemuel Walters on June 17, 1919. Earlier that month, Walters had been whipped by two white men from Kilgore, allegedly for making "indecent advances" towards their sister. He was then placed in jail, but a lynch mob abducted him on June 17 and killed him.[1][2]
The immediate cause of the riot was an article published in The Chicago Defender on July 5, 1919, about Walter's death, from the African American perspective. The article said that "Walters' only crime was that he was loved by a white woman," and it quoted her as saying that she "would have married him if they had lived in the North." The newspaper continued on, saying
She was so distraught over his death that she required a physician’s care. The article also said that the sheriff welcomed the white mob which took Walters and killed him.

 

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Riot
Tension and anger spread throughout the town as whites learned of the article and as blacks gathered at Davis’ office to hear of the beating. When Judge Bramlette and Mayor Bodenheim became aware of the tension, they and Ras Young, a local attorney, urged the angry white men not to punish Jones further. The officials felt that their efforts for peace had been successful, and, by late Thursday night, they were optimistic that the worst was over.
The worst was yet to come, however, as gangs of both races roamed the town that night looking for members of the opposite race.15 About midnight a gang of twelve to fifteen white men, ranging in age from nineteen to forty, gathered at Bodie Park at he southwest corner of Tyler and Fredonia Streets.16 As they talked about the events of the day they decided to pay Jones an unfriendly visit. About l:00 a.m. they drove their cars into the black section of town to Jones’ house on the southeast corner of Harrison and College
Streets. As they walked from their cars to the house they were surprised by heavy gunfire from blacks inside the house. Some of the whites also had guns, and they returned the fire as they fled. About 100 shots were fired in all.17 Three white men were
injured superficially by birdshot. Another one took cover under a nearby house when the shooting started, but after the other whites fled, the blacks caught him and beat him
severely, fracturing his skull.

 

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Riots continued

The other white men fled back to downtown Longview. While some went to the fire station, which was adjacent to Bodie Park, others broke into the Welch Hardware store to get guns and ammunition. Angered further now by the gunshot wounds, and being unable to account for their missing companion whom they feared dead, they decided to sound a general alarm to get reinforcements. They rang the fire alarm bell until a group of about 100 men gathered. They explained to the new arrivals
what had happened earlier and encouraged them to join in a second attack upon Jones’ house. An undetermined number of the men then drove to Jones’ house about 4:00 a.m.
They were surprised to find the house deserted, but they vented their anger, nevertheless, by setting fire to the structure. From Jones’ house they proceeded two blocks south down Harrison Street to the Quick Hall, a Negro dance hall owned by Charlie Medlock. They set fire to the hall because they suspected that Medlock had ammunition stored there, and these suspicions were confirmed when ammunition inside the hall exploded throughout the burning of the building. Next they went two blocks further south and set fire to Dr. Davis’ deserted house which was located at the southeast corner of the Harrison and Nelson Street intersection. There was an automobile parked
beside the house, and it exploded during the fire. From Davis’ house the mob proceeded east on Nelson three blocks to the homes of Ben Sanders and Charlie Medlock located near the Center Street intersection. The mob set these houses on fire, and when the owners protested, the whites whipped Charlie Medlock and Ben Sanders’ wife, Belle. By the time they set these last blazes the light of day was dawning, and the men dispersed to their homes and businesses.