…'Red Summer' of 1919: From places as recognizable as Chicago,

Charleston, Omaha and D.C. to those as small as Elaine, Arkansas and

Longview, Texas, racially-fueled violence rocked the nation from May to

October. In some instances, the influx of black Southerners to the North for

industrial jobs and a reprieve from Jim Crow exacerbated tensions...

Part of the RBG Troy Anthony Davis End the Racist-Classist Death Penalty Studies Collection

A Killing Season

Red Summer of 1919 1

Red Summer of 1919Red Summer describes the race riots that occurred in more than three dozen cities in the United States during thesummer and early autumn of 1919. In most instances, whites attacked African Americans. In some cases groups ofblacks fought back, notably in Chicago, where, along with Washington, D.C. and Elaine, Arkansas, the greatestnumber of fatalities occurred.[1] The riots followed postwar social tensions related to the demobilization of veteransof World War I, both black and white, and competition for jobs among ethnic whites and blacks.

A white gang looking for African Americans during the Chicago Race Riot of 1919

Name

The activist and author James WeldonJohnson coined the term "RedSummer." Employed since 1916 by theNational Association for theAdvancement of Colored People(NAACP) as a field secretary, he builtand revived local chapters of thatorganization. In 1919, he organizedpeaceful protests against the racial violence of that summer.[2] [3]

ContextWith the manpower mobilization of World War I and immigration from Europe cut off, the industrial cities of theNorth and Midwest experienced severe labor shortages. Northern manufacturers recruited throughout the South andan exodus ensued.[4] By 1919, an estimated 500,000 African Americans had emigrated from the South to theindustrial cities of the North and Midwest in the first wave of the Great Migration, which continued until 1940.[1]

They were also migrating to escape the lynchings, Jim Crow laws, lack of protected franchise and poor economy ofthe rural South, where the boll weevil was devastating cotton crops. African-American workers filled new positionsin expanding industries, such as the railroads, as well as many jobs formerly held by whites. In some cities, theywere hired as strikebreakers, especially during the strikes of 1917.[4] This increased resentment among working classof many ethnic whites, immigrants or first-generation Americans. Following the war, rapid demobilization of themilitary without a plan for absorbing veterans into the job market, and the removal of price controls, led tounemployment and inflation that increased competition for jobs.During the Red Scare of 1919-20, following the Russian Revolution, anti-Bolshevik sentiment in the United Statesquickly replaced the anti-German sentiment of the war years. Many politicians and government officials, togetherwith much of the press and the public, feared an imminent attempt to overthrow the US government to create a newregime modeled on that of the Soviets. Authorities viewed African Americans' advocacy of racial equality, laborrights, or the rights of victims of mobs to defend themselves with alarm. In a private conversation in March 1919,President Wilson said that "the American Negro returning from abroad would be our greatest medium in conveyingbolshevism to America."[5] Other whites expressed a wide range of opinions, some anticipating unsettled times andothers seeing no signs of tension.[6]

Early in 1919, Dr. George E. 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 difficultquestions confronting the Nation, north and south."[7] One black veteran wrote a letter to the editor of the ChicagoDaily News saying the returning black veterans

"are now new men and world men, if you please; 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

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not yet the complete conception of what they have awakened to."[8]

W. E. B. Du Bois, an official of the NAACP and editor of its monthly magazine, saw an opportunity: "By the God ofHeaven, we are cowards and jackasses if now that the war is over, we do not marshal every ounce of our brain andbrawn to fight a sterner, longer, more unbending battle against the forces of hell in our own land."[9] In May,following the first serious racial incidents, he published his essay "Returning Soldiers":[10]

We return from the slavery of uniform which the world's madness demanded us to don to the freedom of civilgarb. We stand again to look America squarely in the face and call a spade a spade. We sing: This country ofours, despite all its better souls have done and dreamed, is yet a shameful land....We return.We return from fighting.We return fighting.

EventsFollowing the violence-filled summer, in the autumn of 1919, Haynes reported on the events. His report was to bethe brief for an investigation of the issues by the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary. He identified 38 separateriots in widely scattered cities, in which whites attacked blacks .[1] In addition, Haynes reported that between January1 and September 14, 1919, white mobs lynched at least 43 African Americans, with 16 hanged and others shot; whileanother eight men were burned at the stake. The states appeared powerless or unwilling to interfere or prosecute suchmob murders.[1] Unlike earlier race riots in U.S. history, the 1919 events were among the first in which blacks innumber resisted white attacks. A. Philip Randolph, a civil rights activist and leader of the Brotherhood of SleepingCar Porters, defended the right of blacks to self-defense.[2]

Riots• After the riot of May 10 in Charleston, South Carolina, the city imposed martial law.[1] US Navy sailors led the

race riot; Isaac Doctor, William Brown, and James Talbot, all black men, were killed. Five white men andeighteen black men were injured. A Naval investigation found that four U.S. sailors and one civilian—all whitemen—initiated the riot. [11]

• In early July, a race riot in Longview, Texas led to the deaths of at least four men and destroyed theAfrican-American housing district in the town.[1]

• On July 3, local police in Bisbee, Arizona attacked the 10th U.S. Cavalry, a segregated African-American unitfounded in 1866.[12]

• In Washington, D.C. in July, white men, many in military uniforms, responded to the rumored arrest of a blackman for rape with four days of mob violence. They rioted, randomly beat black people on the street and pulledothers off streetcars for attacks. When police refused to intervene, the black population fought back. Troops triedto restore order as the city closed saloons and theaters to discourage assemblies, but a summer rainstorm had moreof a dampening effect. When the violence ended, a total of 15 people had died: 10 whites, including two policeofficers; and five blacks. Fifty people were seriously wounded and another 100 less severely wounded. It was oneof the few times when white fatalities outnumbered those of blacks. [13]

The NAACP sent a telegram of protest to President Wilson (he had re-segregated federal offices after he was firstelected):[14]

...the 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

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be to increase bitterness and danger of outbreaks elsewhere. National Association for the Advancement ofColored People calls upon you as President and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the nation tomake statement condemning mob violence and to enforce such military law as situation demands.

"The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People respectfully enquires how long the Federal Government underyour administration intends to tolerate anarchy in the United States?"

-NAACP telegram to President Woodrow Wilson

August 29, 1919

• In Norfolk, Virginia, a white mob attacked a homecoming celebration for African-American veterans of WorldWar I. At least six people were shot, and the local police called in Marines and Navy personnel to restore order.[1]

• Starting July 27, the summer's greatest violence occurred during rioting in Chicago. The city's beaches along LakeMichigan were segregated in practice. A black youth who swam into the area on the South Side customarilyreserved for ethnic whites was stoned, and he drowned. When the police refused to take action against theattackers, young black men responded violently. Violence between mobs and gangs lasted 13 days, with whiterioting led by the well-established ethnic Irish, whose territory bordered the black neighborhood. The resulting 38fatalities included 23 blacks and 15 whites. The injured totaled 537, and 1,000 black families were lefthomeless.[15] Other accounts reported 50 people were killed, with unofficial numbers and rumors reporting more.White mobs destroyed hundreds of mostly black homes and businesses on the South Side of Chicago; Illinoiscalled in a militia force of seven regiments: several thousand men, to restore order.[1]

At the end of July, the Northeastern Federation of Colored Women's Clubs, at an annual convention, denounced therioting and burning of negroes' homes then happening and asked President Wilson "to use every means within yourpower to stop the rioting in Chicago and the propaganda used to incite such."[16] At the end of August, the NAACPprotested again, noting the attack on the organization's secretary in Austin, Texas the previous week. Their telegramsaid: "The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People respectfully enquires how long the FederalGovernment under your administration intends to tolerate anarchy in the United States?" [17]

Will Brown, lynched during the 1919 riot inOmaha, Nebraska

• In August, the Knoxville Riot in Tennessee broke out over a whitemob's gathering because a black suspect was accused of murderinga white woman. A lynch mob stormed the county jail searching forthe prisoner. They liberated 16 white prisoners, including suspectedmurderers.[1] They moved on and attacked the African-Americanbusiness district, where they fought against the district's blackbusiness owners, leaving at least seven dead and wounding morethan 20 people.[18] [19] [20]

• At the end of September, the race riot in Omaha, Nebraska eruptedwhen a mob of more than 10,000 ethnic whites from South Omahaattacked and burned the county courthouse to force the police torelease a black prisoner accused of raping a white woman. Theydestroyed property valued at more than a million dollars. The moblynched the suspect, Will Brown, and burned his body. They spreadout through the city and attacked black neighborhoods and stores onthe north side. After the mayor and governor appealed for help, thegovernment sent Federal troops from a nearby fort to restore order.They were under the command of Major General Leonard Wood, a friend of Theodore Roosevelt, and a leadingcandidate for the Republican nomination for President in 1920.[21]

• On October 1, a race riot broke out in Elaine, Arkansas. Distinctive because it occurred in the rural South, its character shared local resistance to labor organizing and fear of socialism. Black sharecroppers were meeting in

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the local chapter of the Progressive Farmers and Household Union of America. Planters opposed their efforts toorganize for better terms, and the sharecroppers had been warned of trouble. A white man intent on arresting ablack bootlegger approached the lookouts defending the meeting, and was shot. The planters formed a militia toattack the African-American farmers. In the riot they killed between 100 and 200 blacks, and five whites alsodied. Arkansas Governor Charles Hillman Brough appointed a Committee of Seven to investigate. The group wascomposed of prominent local white businessmen. They concluded that the Sharecroppers Union was a Socialistenterprise and "established for the purpose of banding negroes together for the killing of white people."[22]

That report generated headlines such as the following in the Dallas Morning News: "Negroes Seized in ArkansasRiots Confess to Widespread Plot; Planned Massacre of Whites Today." Several agents of the Justice Department'sBureau of Investigation spent a week interviewing participants, but they spoke to no sharecroppers. They alsoreviewed documents. They filed a total of nine reports stating there was no evidence of a conspiracy of thesharecroppers to murder anyone. Their superiors at Justice ignored their analysis.The local government tried 79 blacks, who were all convicted by all-white juries, and 12 were sentenced to death.(As Arkansas and other southern states had disfranchised most blacks at the turn of the century, they could not vote,run for political office, or serve on juries.) The remainder of the defendants accepted prison terms of up to 21 years.Appeals of their convictions went to the U.S. Supreme Court, which reversed the verdicts because of trial errors.Federal oversight of defendants' rights was increased as a result.[23]

ChronologyBased on Haynes' report as summarized in the New York Times except as noted.[1]

Date Place

May 10 Charleston, South Carolina

May 10 Sylvester, Georgia

May 29 Putnam County, Georgia

May 31 Monticello, Mississippi

June 13 New London, Connecticut

June 13 Memphis, Tennessee

June 27 Annapolis, Maryland

June 27 Macon, Mississippi

July 3 Bisbee, Arizona

July 5 Scranton, Pennsylvania

July 6 Dublin, Georgia

July 7 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

July 8 Coatesville, Pennsylvania

July 9 Tuscaloosa, Alabama

July 10[24] Longview, Texas

July 11 Baltimore, Maryland

July 15 Port Arthur, Texas

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Date Place

July 19 Washington, D.C.

July 21 Norfolk, Virginia

July 23 New Orleans, Louisiana

July 23 Darby, Pennsylvania

July 26 Hobson City, Alabama

July 27 Chicago, Illinois

July 28 Newberry, South Carolina

July 31 Bloomington, Illinois

July 31 Syracuse, New York

July 31 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

August 4 Hattiesburg, Mississippi

August 6 Texarkana, Texas

August 21 New York City, New York

August 29 Ocmulgee, Georgia

August 30 Knoxville, Tennessee

September 28 Omaha, Nebraska

October 1 Elaine, Arkansas

Responses"We appeal to you to have your country undertake for its racial minority that which you forced Poland and Austria to undertake fortheir racial minorities."

-National Equal Rights League to President Woodrow Wilson

November 25, 1919

In September 1919, in response to the Red Summer, the African Blood Brotherhood formed in northern cities toserve as an "armed resistance" movement.Protests and appeals to the federal government continued for weeks. A letter in late November from the NationalEqual Rights League appealed to Wilson's international advocacy for human rights: "We appeal to you to have yourcountry undertake for its racial minority that which you forced Poland and Austria to undertake for their racialminorities."[25]

Haynes reportThe report by Dr. George Edmund Haynes of October 1919[1] was a call for national action; it was published in theNew York Times and other major newspapers. He noted that lynchings were a national problem, as President Wilsonhad said in a 1918 speech; from 1889-1918, more than 3,000 people had been lynched; 2,472 were black men, and50 were black women. Haynes said that states had shown themselves "unable or unwilling" to put a stop tolynchings, and seldom prosecuted the murderers. The fact that white men had been lynched in the North as well, heargued, demonstrated the national nature of the overall problem: "It is idle to suppose that murder can be confined toone section of the country or to one race."[1] He connected the lynchings to the widespread riots that year:

Persistence of unpunished lynchings of negroes fosters lawlessness among white men imbued with the mobspirit, and creates a spirit of bitterness among negroes. In such a state of public mind a trivial incident can

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precipitate a riot.Disregard of law and legal process will inevitably lead to more and more frequent clashes and bloodyencounters between white men and negroes and a condition of potential race war in many cities of the UnitedStates.Unchecked mob violence creates hatred and intolerance, making impossible free and dispassionate discussionnot only of race problems, but questions on which races and sections differ.[1]

Press coverageIn mid-summer, in the middle of the Chicago riots, a federal official told the New York Times that the violenceresulted from "an agitation, which involves the I.W.W., Bolshevism and the worst features of other extreme radicalmovements."[26] He supported that claim with copies of negro publications that called for alliances with leftistgroups, praised the Soviet regime, and contrasted the courage of jailed Socialist Eugene V. Debs with the "schoolboy rhetoric" of traditional black leaders. The Times characterized the publications as "vicious and apparently wellfinanced," mentioned "certain factions of the radical Socialist elements," and reported it all under the headline: "RedsTry to Stir Negroes to Revolt."[26]

In response, some black leaders such as Bishop Charles Henry Phillips of the Colored Methodist Episcopal Churchasked blacks to shun violence in favor of "patience" and "moral suasion." Phillips opposed propaganda favoringviolence, and he noted the grounds of injustice to the blacks: "I cannot believe that the negro was influenced byBolshevist agents in the part he took in the rioting. It is not like him to be a traitor or a revolutionist who woulddestroy the Government. But then the reign of mob law to which he has so long lived in terror and the injustices towhich he has had to submit have made him sensitive and impatient."[27]

Headline of The Gazette, Elaine, Arkansas, 3October 1919

The connection between blacks and bolshevism was widely repeated.In August 1919, the Wall Street Journal wrote: "Race riots seem tohave for their genesis a Bolshevist, a Negro, and a gun." The NationalSecurity League repeated that reading of events.[28] In presenting theHaynes report in early October, The New York Times provided acontext which his report did not mention. Haynes documented violenceand 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 arenow working to drive a wedge of bitterness and hatred between the tworaces."[1] Until recently, the Times said, black leaders showed "a senseof appreciation" for what whites had suffered on their behalf in fightinga civil war that "bestowed on the black man opportunities far inadvance of those he had in any other part of the white man's world."[1]

Now militants were supplanting Booker T. Washington, who had"steadily argued conciliatory methods." The Times continued:[1]

Every week the militant leaders gain more headway. They maybe divided into general classes. One consists of radicals andrevolutionaries. They are spreading Bolshevist propaganda. It is reported that they are winning many recruitsamong the colored race. When the ignorance that exists among negroes in many sections of the country istaken into consideration the danger of inflaming them by revolutionary doctrine may [be] apprehended.... Theother class of militant leaders confine their agitation to a fight against all forms of color discrimination. Theyare for a program on uncompromising protest, 'to fight and continue to fight for citizenship rights and fulldemocratic privileges.'

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As evidence of militancy and Bolshevism, the Times named W.E.B. Du Bois and quoted his editorial in The Crisis,which he edited: "Today we raise the terrible weapon of self-defense....When the armed lynchers gather, we too mustgather armed." When the Times endorsed Haynes' call for a bi-racial conference to establish "some plan to guaranteegreater protection, justice, and opportunity to negroes that will gain the support of law-abiding citizens of bothraces," it endorsed discussion with "those negro leaders who are opposed to militant methods."[1]

In mid-October government sources provided the Times with evidence of Bolshevist propaganda appealing toAmerica's black communities. This account set Red propaganda in the black community into a broader context, sinceit was "paralleling the agitation that is being carried on in industrial centres of the North and West, where there aremany alien laborers."[29] 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 blacks.[29] Itcited quotes from such publications, which contrasted the recent violence in Chicago and Washington, D.C. with

"Soviet Russia, a country in which dozens of racial and lingual types have settled their many differencesand found a common meeting ground, a country which no longer oppresses colonies, a country fromwhich the lynch rope is banished and in which racial tolerance and peace now exist."[29]

The Times noted a call for unionization: "Negroes must form cotton workers' unions. Southern white capitalistsknow that the negroes can bring the white bourbon South to its knees. So go to it."[29]

Coverage of the root causes of the riot in Elaine, Arkansas evolved as the violence stretched over several days. Adispatch from Helena, Arkansas to the New York Times datelined October 1 said: "Returning members of the [white]posse brought numerous stories and rumors, through all of which ran the belief that the rioting was due topropaganda distributed among the negroes by white men."[30] The next day's report added detail: "Additionalevidence has been obtained of the activities of propagandists among the negroes, and it is thought that a plot existedfor a general uprising against the whites." A white man had been arrested and was "alleged to have been preachingsocial equality among the negroes." Part of the headline was: "Trouble Traced to Socialist Agitators."[31] A few dayslater a Western Newspaper Union dispatch captioned a photo using the words "Captive Negro Insurrectionists."[32]

Government activityDuring the Chicago riot, the press learned from Department of Justice officials that the IWW and Bolsheviks were"spreading propaganda to breed race hated."[33] FBI agents filed reports that leftist views were winning converts inthe black community. One cited the work of the NAACP "urging the colored people to insist upon equality withwhite people and to resort to force, if necessary.[28] J. Edgar Hoover, at the start of his career in government,analyzed the riots for the Attorney General. He blamed the July Washington, D.C., riots on "numerous assaultscommitted by Negroes upon white women."[13] For the October events in Arkansas, he blamed "certain localagitation in a Negro lodge."[13] A more general cause he cited was "propaganda of a radical nature."[13] He chargedthat socialists were feeding propaganda to black-owned magazines such as The Messenger, which in turn arousedtheir black readers. He did not note the white perpetrators of violence, whose activities local authorities documented.As chief of the Radical Division within the U.S. Department of Justice, Hoover began an investigation of "negroactivities" and targeted Marcus Garvey because he thought his newspaper Negro World preached Bolshevism.[13] Heauthorized the hiring of black undercover agents to spy on black organizations and publications in Harlem.[33]

On November 17, Attorney General Palmer reported to Congress on the threat that anarchists and Bolsheviks posedto 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 blackcommunity for an "ill-governed reaction toward race rioting...In all discussions of the recent race riots there isreflected the note of pride that the Negro has found himself. that he has 'fought back,' that never again will he tamelysubmit to violence and intimidation."[34] It described "the dangerous spirit of defiance and vengeance at work amongthe Negro leaders."[35]

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References[1] New York Times: "For Action on Race Riot Peril," October 5, 1919 (http:/ / query. nytimes. com/ gst/ abstract.

html?res=9C04E7D61F30E033A25756C0A9669D946896D6CF), accessed January 20, 2010. This newspaper article includes severalparagraphs of editorial analysis followed by Dr. George E. Haynes' report, "summarized at several points."

[2] Alana J. Erickson, "Red Summer" in Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History (NY: Macmillan, 1960), 2293-4[3] George P. Cunningham, "James Weldon Johnson," in Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History (NY: Macmillan, 1960),

1459-61[4] David M. Kennedy, Over Here: The First World War and American Society (NY: Oxford University Press, 2004), 279, 281-2[5] McWhirter, 56[6] McWhirter 19, 22-4[7] McWhirter, 13[8] McWhirter, 15[9] McWhirter, 14[10] McWhirter, 31-2, emphasis in original[11] Walter C. Rucker, James N. Upton. Encyclopedia of American Race Riots. Volume 1. 2007, page 92-3[12] Rucker, Walter C. and Upton, James N. Encyclopedia of American Race Riots (2007), 554[13] Kenneth D. Ackerman, Young J. Edgar: Hoover, the Red Scare, and the Assault on Civil Liberties (NY: Carroll & Graf, 2007), 60-2[14] New York Times: "Protest Sent to Wilson," July 22, 1919 (http:/ / query. nytimes. com/ gst/ abstract.

html?res=9E05EFDC1638E13ABC4A51DFB1668382609EDE). Retrieved January 21, 2010.[15] Encyclopedia Britannica: "Chicago Race Riot of 1919" (http:/ / www. britannica. com/ EBchecked/ topic/ 110488/

Chicago-Race-Riot-of-1919). Retrieved January 24, 2010.[16] New York Times: "Negroes Appeal to Wilson,"" August 1, 1919 (http:/ / query. nytimes. com/ mem/ archive-free/

pdf?res=9903E3DF1F3BEE3ABC4953DFBE668382609EDE). Retrieved January 21, 2010.[17] New York Times: Negro Protest to Wilson," August 30, 1919 (http:/ / query. nytimes. com/ gst/ abstract.

html?res=9B04EEDF103DE533A25753C3A96E9C946896D6CF). Retrieved January 21, 2010.[18] Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture: Knoxville Riot of 1919 (http:/ / tennesseeencyclopedia. net/ imagegallery.

php?EntryID=K025). Retrieved January 25, 2010.[19] Robert Whitaker, On the Laps of Gods: The Red Summer of 1919 and the Struggle for Justice that Remade a Nation (NY: Random House,

2008), 53[20] Matthew Lakin, "'A Dark Night': The Knoxville Race Riot of 1919," Journal of East Tennessee History, 72 (2000), pp. 1-29.[21] David, Pietrusza, 1920: The Year of Six Presidents (NY: Carroll & Graf, 2007), 167-72[22] Eric M. Freedman, Habeas Corpus: Rethinking the Great Writ of Liberty (New York University Press, 2001), 68[23] Robert Whitaker, On the Laps of Gods: The Red Summer of 1919 and the Struggle for Justice that Remade a Nation (NY: Random House,

2008), 131-42. Whittaker's work is a detailed account of the Arkansas events, not a general study of the Red Summer.[24] Robert Whitaker, On the Laps of Gods: The Red Summer of 1919 and the Struggle for Justice that Remade a Nation (NY: Random House,

2008), 51[25] New York Times: "Ask Wilson to Aid Negroes," November 26, 1919 (http:/ / query. nytimes. com/ gst/ abstract.

html?res=9A0CEED71031E03ABC4E51DFB7678382609EDE). Retrieved January 21, 2010.[26] New York Times: "Reds Try to Stir Negroes to Revolt," July 28, 1919 (http:/ / query. nytimes. com/ gst/ abstract.

html?res=9E07E0D71638E13ABC4051DFB1668382609EDE). Retrieved January 28, 2010.[27] "Denies Negroes are 'Reds'" (http:/ / query. nytimes. com/ gst/ abstract. html?res=9E07E0D71638E13ABC4051DFB1668382609EDE) New

York Times August 3, 1919, accessed January 28, 2010. Phillips was based in Nashville, Tennessee.[28] McWhirter, 160[29] New York Times: "Reds are Working among Negroes," October 19, 1919 (http:/ / query. nytimes. com/ gst/ abstract.

html?res=950CE4DA1038EE32A2575AC1A9669D946896D6CF). Retrieved January 28, 2010.[30] New York Times: "None Killed in Fight with Arkansas Posse," October 2, 1919 (http:/ / query. nytimes. com/ gst/ abstract.

html?res=990DE7DF1038EE32A25751C0A9669D946896D6CF). Retrieved January 27, 2010.[31] New York Times: "Six More are Killed in Arkansas Riots," October 3, 1919 (http:/ / query. nytimes. com/ gst/ abstract.

html?res=950CE0DF1038EE32A25750C0A9669D946896D6CF). Retrieved January 27, 2010.[32] New York Times: "[untitled]" October 12, 1919 (http:/ / query. nytimes. com/ gst/ abstract.

html?res=9B01E4DD1E30E13ABC4A52DFB6678382609EDE). Retrieved January 27, 2010.[33] McWhirter, 159[34] McWhirter, 239-41[35] McWhirter, 239-41

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Red Summer of 1919 9

Further reading• McWhirter, Cameron, Red Summer: The Summer of 1919 and the Awakening of Black America (NY: Henry Holt,

2011)• Dray, Philip, At the Hands of Persons Unknown: The Lynching of Black America (NY: Random House, 2002)• Tuttle, William M., Jr., Race Riot: Chicago in the Red Summer of 1919 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press,

1996), originally published 1970

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Article Sources and Contributors 10

Article Sources and ContributorsRed Summer of 1919  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=452557719  Contributors: AdamRetchless, Andy M. Wang, Axcordion, AxelBoldt, Beland, Blixon, Bmclaughlin9,Bms4880, Bryan Derksen, Bukubku, Cgingold, Charles Matthews, DBaba, DCEdwards1966, DNewhall, Dimadick, Drmies, Freechild, Gadget850, Giraffedata, Gobonobo, Helenalex, Hmains,J.delanoy, JJstroker, JaGa, Jlujan69, Jonathan.s.kt, KGasso, Klmcnair, Leutha, Lord Cornwallis, Madhava 1947, Malik Shabazz, Mandarax, Michael Hardy, Mycota, Mytwocents, Nellboyce,Nick Number, Nightscream, Nummer29, Octothorn, Ohnoitsjamie, Parkwells, Pigman, Piledhigheranddeeper, RedSpruce, RekishiEJ, Shawnlower, Splintercellguy, Stifle, SummerPhD, TYelliot,TexasAndroid, The Thing That Should Not Be, The wub, Valip, Vkkim, WereSpielChequers, Wikieditoroftoday, Woohookitty, Ziggurat, 78 anonymous edits

Image Sources, Licenses and ContributorsImage:chicago-race-riot.jpg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Chicago-race-riot.jpg  License: Public Domain  Contributors: Bmicomp, EDUCA33E, HenkvD,Infrogmation, JeremyA, Kingruedi, Quadell, Zol87, 1 anonymous editsImage:Omaha Riot Will Brown.jpg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Omaha_Riot_Will_Brown.jpg  License: Public Domain  Contributors: Kelly, Mwanner,NekoDaemon, NickVeysFile:AR elaine riot.jpg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:AR_elaine_riot.jpg  License: Public Domain  Contributors: William A. Wilson

LicenseCreative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported//creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

A Killing Season

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A Killing Season: 'Red Summer' of 1919

RBG Communiversity

'A Killing Season: 'Red Summer' of 1919

A white gang looking for African Americans during the Chicago Race Riot of 1919

'Red Summer' of 1919: From places as recognizable as Chicago, Charleston, Omaha and D.C.

to those as small as Elaine, Arkansas and Longview, Texas, racially-fueled violence rocked the

nation from May to October. In some instances, the influx of black Southerners to the North for

industrial jobs and a reprieve from Jim Crow exacerbated tensions.

Image from Slideshow: The riots that rocked black America

http://www.thegrio.com/black-history/slideshow-the-riots-the-rocked-black-america.php

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A Killing Season: 'Red Summer' of 1919

RBG Communiversity

'A Killing Season: 'Red Summer' of 1919

Source: http://www.africawithin.com/maafa/a_killing_season.htm

A dreadful wave of lynching and anti-Negro violence permeated the

very fiber of America during the year 1919. Lynching was so

pervasive that James Weldon Johnson labeled it the "Red Summer,"

of 1919. During the "Red Summer," 76 blacks were reported

lynched and 26 race riots took place. One of the worst riots took

place in the nation's capital, almost within sight of the White House

Six blacks were killed and 100 wounded.

This inhumane treatment was so blatant that civic and religious

organizations began to speak out against lawless groups. One of the

main opponents of lynching was the Federated Black Catholics

under the guidance of Thomas Wyatt Turner. Turner was a supporter of civil rights and a devout

Catholic born in Charles County, Maryland, Turner was a graduate of Howard University.

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A Killing Season: 'Red Summer' of 1919

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Before he accepted the teaching position at Howard, he was the secretary of Baltimore's

NAACP.

In September 1919, after the fervor of the "Red Summer" had abated, the U.S. Bishops had a

meeting on the campus of Catholic University in Washington, D.C. A committee of 15

eventually became the Federated Colored Catholics. They submitted a statement to the bishops

requesting an increase in black priest vocations and to halt racism in the Catholic church. They

also requested that the church be more vocal against the lynching of Negroes.

The bishops did not respond directly, but emphasized the need for more education to better the

condition of the Negro. This appeased the committee somewhat and they felt that they made

some progress.

However Marcellus Dorsey, the brother of Father John Dorsey S.S.J., was not satisfied with the

progress of eradicating racism within the church. He was a promoter for young black men who

had a vocation to the priesthood. He accused the hierarchy of trying to dodge the issue of racism

as it pertained to black seminarians.

Unfortunately, research on the views of black Catholics

concerning the "Red Summer" is limited. In fact, during the peak

period of lynching, the church barely said a word against it.

Two ministers in Duluth, Minnesota begged and prayed for the life

of a potential victim. The cries of anguish and pity were ignored

and the man was burned at the stake.

Despite the vicious crimes committed against colored folks, they

persevered. They never surrendered their courage and pride. Blacks responded to the lynching by

leaving the area.

The exodus of blacks caused labor concerns, especially at cotton picking time. Their exit

depopulated some counties before the whites realized that their labor force vanished. As a result

of this, some whites and local officials called for a halt to the lynching of Negroes. At the time

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A Killing Season: 'Red Summer' of 1919

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that Negroes were migrating north and west, 15,000 people marched in silence down 125th street

in Harlem, New York in protest against lynching. The Afro American, the Amsterdam News and

several other newspapers, including the NAACP and Crisis Magazine, published news for the

colored community. Congress tried to get an anti-lynching bill passed but southern senators, who

filibustered the bill defeated them.

The "Red Summer" did not reach Baltimore and the members of the St. Francis Church did not

vocalize against lynching, or if they did, the documents have not been located. Father N.R. Denis

was pastor during "Red Summer." There was a vacant house across the street from the priest

house that had been occupied by the Christian Brothers for the School of the Cathedral. The

house was renovated and used as St. Francis School. An elementary school opened in 1920 led

by the Franciscan nuns who had formerly been the Mill Hill Sisters. A printing press was set up

in the basement of the priest house and the art of printing was taught. Father Denis attended to

the religious needs of the church and the community. After his stay at St. Francis Xavier, he

became pastor of Mother of Mercy, Forth Worth, Texas, where the congregation progressed in

spite of the harassment of the Klu Klux Klan.

By Agnes Kane Callum