Chicago Race Riot of 1919

The Chicago Race Riot of 1919 began on July 27th and by the time it ended, 38 people had died, 537 were injured and about 1,000 people were homeless. The federal government deployed in excess of 6,000 troops to help quell the violence which was exploding in the Loop, but more so in the city’s so-called “Black Belt.”

What spurred the conflict? The summer of 1919 was extremely hot, and people, black and white, flocked to the beaches of Lake Michigan, seeking relief. Segregation was not law in Chicago, but it was practiced in the city, and there were “white” and “black” beaches. The beach on 29th Street was a “white” beach, but on the afternoon of July 27th, 1919, a group of African American men and women went to the beach, fully intending to exercise their right to be there. They were met with people throwing stone, shouting racial epithets, and threats, but they stayed the course until they were chased off the beach by angry whites.

The group of African Americans returned to the beach, with more people, and a fight broke out. While they were fighting, some African American teens jumped into the lake, a little north of where the violence was occurring. A white man on the beach, seeing them, began throwing rocks and one of the rocks struck young Eugene Williams in the head. He drowned a short time later.

Williams’ friends, seeing their friend in trouble, hurried out of the water seeking help. They found a lifeguard at the “Black” beach on 26th Street and the lifeguard rushed to rescue the boy, but by the time the lifeguard and Williams’ friends got back to the site, he was nowhere to be found. His limp, lifeless body was found about an hour later.

Williams’ death infuriated African American bathers who were on the 26th Street beach, and they began to move toward the 29th Street beach, where the fighting earlier begun was still going on. As they approached the beach, Williams’ friends identified the man who had been throwing rocks at them. Police arrived on the scene but refused to arrest the man the boys identified. Actually, there was a white and a Black officer; the white officer refused to arrest the man (named George Stauber) and he prevented the African American officer from arresting him as well. Angered, the African Americans ran both officers off the beach, and violence began to accelerate until other officers arrived and sent everyone home.

It wasn’t over, though. The story of Williams’ death spread, and rumors began spreading as well, including one accusing the white officer of preventing the rescue of the young boy. The more the story and the rumors spread, the more intense became the violence, and by the end of that Sunday afternoon and evening, two people had already died and 50 had been injured.

On Monday, white gangs got into the fray, invading Black neighborhoods and attacking African American rioters. They did drive-by shootings, firing at rioters and innocent bystanders from speeding cars. Buildings in the neighborhood were torched. Black rioters attacked white firemen, sometimes setting false alarms so that they could ambush the firemen when they answered the call. The destroyed buildings from these torchings left huge numbers of people homeless, primarily African Americans.

Local Chicago police were not effective in stopping the violence, forcing officials to call in the National Guard. Though some local African American leaders were afraid that the National Guard would join in with the white rioters, as had happened before in other cities, the fear proved unfounded; the National Guard did what it had to do to quell the violence, and by July 31st, the riot was over.

When it was over, discussion began as to why it had happened at all. Some blamed Chicago’s political system, others blamed “outside agitators,” Bolsheviks, to be exact. Some said that the racism of the Chicago police force had prevented officers from doing an effective job at the beginning of the violence, and some actually accused the police of helping the violence to ignite and to spread.

In the end, nobody agreed on the cause of the riot, only that it had happened, with tragic consequences.