In late July 1919, racial tension in Chicago, Illinois, reached a breaking point when a Black teenager, Eugene Williams, along with friends, used a beach that had previously been used only by whites. Stones were thrown at the Blacks by a group of whites who claimed to be “defending” the beach. Williams was hit and slipped into the water. Attempts to rescue him failed and he became the first casualty of what was to become a four-day melee which took the lives of 38 people, injured scores more, and was highly destructive of the lives and property of many Chicagoans – not to mention the very negative publicity the city received in screaming headlines throughout the world.
Naturally, this event made news in the Pottsville and Harrisburg areas, including in the local, weekly press. Two brief articles have been found, one from Pine Grove and the other from Elizabethville. The Pine Grove article, presented below, gaved a brief summary of the events, and noted that the blame for the “race rioting” should be placed on “politics.” On the other hand, the Elizabethville article’s too-brief “condensed” version, also presented below, got the facts completely wrong when it reported that it was a white man who drowned.
As for the Pottsville area newspapers, the daily Shenandoah Herald, covered the riots from beginning to end by repeating the United Press wire service reports. However, in one case, the word “gorilla” was used for “guerilla” in describing the fighting, perhaps not realizing that there is a difference between a large, powerful equatorial African ape and a human being fighting unconventionally?
All of the major wire service articles between July 28 and August 7, 1919, are presented below.
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From the Pine Grove Press Herald, August 8, 1919:
CHICAGO RACE RIOTS CAUSE MANY DEATHS
Negroes Storm Armory in Effort to Obtain Arms and Ammunition
Chicago — Fourteen hundred additional militiamen reached Chicago to reinforce the 4,200 state troops already mobilized in the armories here. The soldiers were to be used in the event of a renewal of the race riots that resulted in the death of over a score of persons and the injury of hundreds of others.
Several fires, supposedly of incendiary origin, occurred in the negro section of the South Side. Firemen responding to the alarms were met with showers of bricks, and in some cases they were shot at.
Scores of homes of both negroes and whites were burned and looted. By a concerted attack, the police drove the rioters from the negro districts. The police for a time believed they had succeeded in quelling the mobs, only to learn that the fighting had been carried to the downtown section of the city, where the rioting grew fiercer as the night wore on.
Every available policeman in the city was rushed to the scene; former soldiers were sworn in; the National Guard and the reserve militia regiments had been called out and were being mobilized; the hospitals were crowded with victims; the street cars and the elevated cars had ceased to run on the south side; telephone wires were cut; scores of white men and blacks were under arrest.
Major Frederick Haynes, commanding a battalion of the 1st Reserve, and Corporal Williams of Company C of that unit were among the first casualties. Major Haynes, who lives at 4059 Prairie Avenue, was found in front of 3733 Indiana Avenue with the back of his head crushed and his back broken. Corporal Williams was shot in the shoulder by a sniper as he was going toward Eighth Regiment Armory, where his company was assembling.
At a meeting of the city council, Alderman John Passmore of the police committee declared that both whites and colored men in the affected area must be disarmed if a catastrophe is to be averted.
Politics is to blame for the race rioting is the opinion of States Attorney MacLayhoyne.
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From the Elizabethville Echo, August 7, 1919:
WORLD NEWS IN CONDENSED FORM
CHICAGO – A series of riots in the negro district resulted in the drowning of a white man, probable fatal injury of another negro, the wounding of a policeman and injury to a score of whites and blacks by bullets or missiles.
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From the Shenandoah Herald, July 28, 1919 (two stories):
NEGROES KILLED IN RACE RIOT IN CHICAGO
(By United Press)
Chicago, Illinois, July 28 [1919] — Race rioting here today subsided to a gorilla [sic] warfare. Extra patrolmen in the black belt were occupied in breaking up sporadic encounters. There was little shooting and little damage. The stock yard, with its heavy proportion of colored workers, was the storm center early in the day. At all big plants there were extra workmen to preserve order. Officers could not prevent numerous first [sic] fights. The body of a negro reported drowned yesterday at the beginning of the trouble caused by an invasion of a white bathing beach by negroes, had not been recovered today.
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Chicago, Illinois, July 28 [1919] — Police continued to patrol Chicago’s “black belt” in an effort to prevent recurrence of yesterday’s race rioting during which at least two negroes were killed and more than fifty whites and negroes hurt.
The trouble began when negroes appeared at a beach usually used by whites only. White men and boys were said to have thrown stones at negro bathers, one negro boy being hit on the head and tumbling from a skiff into the waters. When negroes attempted to rescue him and return volley for volley of stones, fights began which lasted four hours and extended four miles from the scene of the first outbreak. The negro drowned.
Another negro was reported to have died from bullets fired by a policeman who shot into a crowd of negroes seeking to beat him. Scores of persons, including several white women, were hurt by bricks and stones. Several were slashed by razors while many were hit by bullets.
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From the Shenandoah Herald, July 29, 1919 (2 articles):
19 KILLED AND 138 INJURED IN RACE RIOTS IN CHICAGO’S “BLACK BELT” LAST NIGHT
(By United Press)
Chicago, Illinois, July 29 [1919] — Chicago’s race war today claimed nineteen lives. Seven negroes and twelve white men were killed in rioting, bursting forth in the negro section and extending to Chicago’s business district. Two negroes were killed in the “loop” today. Police and other observers said the deaths would exceed that number. The injured numbered over 150 stabbed, shot and beaten. Whites and blacks were about evenly divided among the injured.
Police stations in the negro district were filled with injured and frightened residents of the black belt, seeking protection. An overflow was cared for in the city hospital and police stations further removed from the storm center.
Adjutant General Dickson today ordered the entire Fourth Regiment Illinois Militia to report in Chicago. The men are in camp at Camp Lincoln, near Springfield.
Chicago, Illinois, July 29 [1919] — Seventeen men met violent deaths in race rioters here last night and early today. The injured numbered 138 shot, torn in fist fights and rock throwing.
The riots spread all over the “black belt” on the south side of Chicago in the neighborhood of Thirty-Fifty Street. They were unorganized attacks, resulting from gibes by either blacks or whites.
Governor F. O. Lowden ordered militia companies mobilized. The men held in armories when police gained the upper hand early today.
The dead include eleven white men and five negroes. The injured were from both races and included a number of women.
The sixteen persons dead were:
Whites
Eugene Cappel, stabbed by five negroes.
Derick, motorman, dragged from street car and beaten to death.
Eugene Gentle, stabbed by four negroes.
Edward S. Giller, shot through heart.
Casper Kazzeuran, peddler, stabbed as he stepped from car.
Emmet Hefferman, stabbed through back.
Davis Mark, shot through heart.
John Mills, shot to death.
Alex Sunberg, killed by stray bullet.
Nick Warnick, shot through heart.
One unidentified man, shot.
Joseph Powers, died of injuries when negroes charged car.
Negroes
Alex Atenberg, shot through heart.
Henry Baker, shot through eyes by negroes.
August Dillon, beaten to death.
John H. Simpson, policeman, shot through abdomen.
One unidentified negro man, shot to death.
Dragged from Restaurant
The last recorded death occurred in the business center of the city when an unidentified negro list his life. A mob, headed by six sailors, dragged him from a restaurant with two other negroes. He was beaten to death before officers arrived.
The other negroes were jostled but not seriously hurt and were rescued by police. Cantaloupes, stolen from the restaurant, were broken on the heads of three colored men.
The mob responsible for that death had toured the loop all night with howls and songs, searching out negro night workers. red caps were chased from the railway stations. Colored travelers were frightened away. A restaurant porter hid in an ice box until his pursuers moved on. Police tried to break up the organization but failed. It melted one instant to form anew on another street when leaders bayed a fresh scent.
Attempt Jim Crow Rule
Arson, murder and riot grew out of troubles at a bathing beach, where whites attempted to enforce a Jim Crow rule.
Quiet at first Monday, the black belt began to seethe at noon. At 7:30 occurred the first riot when two negroes gibed a police detective at “poor white trash.” From the neighborhood came a shot. The officer drew his own revolver. Almost instantly two hundred white men and negroes were in a whirling mass.
Bricks flew. Sweating black faces were clubbed as fifty policemen rushed into the melee. The mob broke away, leaving forty or more seriously injured. Thirty-two were taken directly to hospitals. The number included black and white men.
Portions of the mob were detached from the initial storm center. one band of negroes encountering Policeman Brooks, of the traffic squad, opened fire. Brooks forced his horse down to the pavement and, stretched out on the sticky asphalt, fought Indian fashion until help arrived.
Autoists Stopped
There was isolated attacks on both whites and blacks. In their own district groups of colored men and boys stopped autoists, wrecked their machines, tore the clothing from the travelers and let them go with insults.
The stock yard district with thousands of negro residents, was an early storm center. Negroes took possession of elevated railway crossings and fired into the street or elevated trains a few blocks away.
Trains Were Targets
Street cars and elevated trains were favorite targets. As trainmen began housing their cars in obedience to the strike edict, traffic thinned and fighting was confined to the street.
Policemen were taken from all beats, except those in the black belt and held in reserve. They were armed with revolvers, clubs and rifles, tipped with bayonets. Pursuit cars, motor cycles and horses were used in chasing down the bathers, black and white.
Police stations were filled with refugees. Many negroes flocked to them for protection. Hundreds more were picked up for participating in street fights.
Police in Control.
Until midnight officers had difficulty in gaining any sort of control over affairs. Like a prairie fire, the riots died in one spot to break forth with renewed violence in another quarter. It was one o’clock before the police finally announced they were in control and it was decided to hold the militia in their armories. Governor Lowden was called back from a trip to the west by news of the riots and street car strike.
Sailors Lead Mob
The sailor-led mob which howled through the loop most of the night ran into a stone wall at the federal building where a hundred colored postal workers were employed. Watchmen and policemen were assigned to every entrance and for further protection the negro workers were confined on the fourteenth floor.
The back fire of an automobile in the postal subway under the building caused a rush of police and a scramble among white workers.
At dawn the colored men were bundled into screened mail trucks and driven to their homes.
Every police station was filled at 7:30 a. m. and there were constantly new arrivals seeking protection of the blue coats. Many of the applicants were wounded and their injuries were dressed by police surgeons.
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From the Shenandoah Herald, July 30, 1919:
FIRE AND KNIFE JOIN GUN IN CHICAGO RIOTS; DEATH LIST REACHES 26
(By United Press)
Chicago, Illinois, July 30 [1919] — The twenty-sixth death was reported today in Chicago’s race war, Berger Odman, white, succumbed to injuries received Monday night.
Meantime, an increased patrol in the “black belt” held its inhabitants to one small outbreak in which a white officer and an unknown negro were wounded. The negro had tripped out of his home toward a grocery store when he was rushed by four whites. The officer was injured when the white men retreated firing at the negro.
Eighty-five negroes and seventeen white men were under arrest. Many will face murder charges. Several men were picked up by officers who saw them in the act of killing. Prisoners included several ex-soldiers from a colored regiment. Two wore the Croix de Guerr.
Race riots have claimed twenty-five deaths in the last thirty-six hours.
Adjutant General Dickson, who issued the orders to the Ninth and Tenth Illinois Regiments, asserted he believed the occasion will not demand the use of troops in fighting.
Two men were killed during the night. One of them, an unidentified negro boy, was attacked while riding a bicycle. He was stabbed, shot more than a dozen times and died after police rescued him from a burning stake. Kerosene had been poured on his clothes.
The other death was that of Ira Henry, 40, negro, who police said shot and wounded Patrolman Walter Sullivan.
All of the major clashes were confined to the black belt, while outbreaks in other parts off the city were sporadic and of a minor nature.
Sixteen Policemen Shot
Sixteen policemen were shot and some of them seriously wounded while performing their duty in the negro districts. Ten whites and fifteen negroes were officially reported by police to have been killed.
About midnight the torch and the knife joined the gun in adding terror to the black district. Dozens of fires of incendiary origin occurred in sections populated by negroes. Bullets and bricks met police and firemen in several attempts to answer fire alarms.
Whenever negroes were seen in the loop district or in the black belt, they were chased and seized by mobs of whites.
One negro youth just returned from the Canadian army and wearing two wound stripes, was beaten and left insensible in the downtown section. He was taken to a hospital by police.
Think Crisis Passed
Police Chief Garrity and Mayor William Hale Thompson believed today the crisis in the riots, which began Monday night after negro bathers had been stoned away from a beach usually occupied by whites, has passed.
Garrity declared he will not ask use of the troops placed at his disposal until absolutely necessary. The situation is calm, he said, and police have perfect control.
Downtown streets and throughout the black belt there was a calm today. Occasional outbreaks sill occurred, such as shots from behind corners and from hidden doorways. Most of the negroes kept within their houses, however, and none at all was seen on the streets in the loop district.
The negro section was patrolled by police who had instituted the zone system. One captain and fifteen policemen were stationed in each zone, consisting in area of about ten blocks.
Snipers were at work through the district where most of the rioting occurred. Following shooting of Policeman Ralph Cheney and Jeremiah Murray by snipers’ bullets, police raided a house occupied by John Dixon, negro. Dixon was arrested after five bullets and considerable ammunition was found in his rooms.
Governor Remains on Job
Governor Lowden remained on the job. During the day he was to have conferred with Adjutant General Dickson, Chief Garrity and Mayor Thompson. He declared that if troops are needed he will put into action every available man.
“The soldiers will be sent into the zone, full-fistedly and ready for action,” said the governor. “Of course, you can never tell how far it will go and where it will end.”
Police last night drove a mob of several hundred persons from the Sherman Hotel in the heart of the loop, where it was believed negroes were employed. The hotel, it was discovered, was using white help.
Several lunch rooms and restaurants and dining rooms of several larger hotels were forced to close and to hang out signs asking for porters, waiters and kitchen men. Negro help was either sent sent home yesterday by employers through fear of violence or failed to show up for work.
The Palmer House restaurant was closed, as was that at the Briggs Hotel and the Lexington. Other large loop hotels obtained white chefs and waiters.
Patrolman Blamed for Riots
Some of the rioting, at least, was blamed by Police Chief Garrity on Patrolman D. L. Callahan, who was stripped of his star and stripes today. Callahan, Garrity charged, had failed to arrest two white youths who threw stones that knocked a negro off a raft at the beach where the riot flames first started.
Callahan declared he had been prevented from making the arrests by white mobs.
“Dum, dum” bullets were found on the person of Thomas Smith and Bob Jones, negro porters, arrested last night according to police. The negroes were former soldiers.
Amusement Places Abandoned
Night life last night in the loop was dead. Theatres and amusement places were almost abandoned by crowds, a few motion picture shows drawing attendance of the comparatively few persons who remained to “see her through”
The address of former Senator Albert J. Beveridge and senator Medill McCormick on the League of Nations was postponed because it was feared to assemble the audience.
The stock yards packing houses were forced to suspend practically all killing and receiving of stock today. White workers refused to work with negroes employed in the pens and slaughter houses and the negroes were withdrawn.
Warning was issued last night by packers that stockmen cease shipping livestock to the Chicago market until the rioting had calmed.
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From the Shenandoah Herald, July 31, 1919:
SOLDIERS QUELL RACE RIOTS IN CHICAGO; THE DEATH LIST REACHES 30
(By United Press)
Chicago, Illinois, July 31 [1919] – The death list in Chicago’s four days of race rioting stood at 30 today — seventeen negroes and thirteen whites — following the death of Thomas Coppelan, 18, negro, this morning.
The black belt where most of the arson and rioting has taken place, was calm today, patrolled by 6,200 militiamen and members of the National Guard.
The troopers were sent to the negro district last midnight where they were distributed throughout five zones, and were given their baptism of fire in a rain of more than 100 shots as soon as they made their appearance. They returned fire. No casualties have been reported.
Arriving at pitch dark streets in army trucks, the soldiers, who had been held in armories here for two days, took their places on street corners, returning lead for lead whenever snipers attempted to fire at them. Rain fell shortly after their arrival. while making going hard, routed most of the disturbances, both white and black.
The downpour also helped to quench the more than 150 fires at various points within the black district, which extends from 31st Street to 58th Street and for three miles west of the lake. Practically all of the fires were incendiary, police and firemen said. The houses burned were those formerly occupied by negroes.
Thousands of negroes have fled the disturbed areas, many of them seeking refuge in other and quieter sections of the city, and in Evanston, where there already was a negro colony, while many others went to Milwaukee and other Wisconsin cities. Several hundred were said to have gone south to Tennessee, Mississippi, and Alabama, where they had formerly lived.
Several thousand army rifles and scores of rounds of ammunition were stored in the city hall today where it was placed after much had been stolen in a raid on a high school building, where it had been placed. Negroes, armed with what was believed stolen arms and ammunition, fought a pitched battle with soldiers and a white mob early last night.
Fortified behind a walled fence around a high school yard, the negroes fired many shots at their opponents, many receiving wounds. The negroes were finally dispersed.
Hints that the Central Post Office in the heart of the loop will be surrounded by armed guards were made today following declaration by Postmaster Carlisle that delivery of mail was being interfered with, Failure of 1,500 clerks, chauffeurs and collectors to report for duty yesterday caused the move, it was said.
The car strike and riots were reasons given for failure of the men to report at the post office.
“The instant a riot or strike interferes with the United States mail the power of the national government will be sought,” Carlisle said.
Hospitals throughout the south side, where the negro settlements are located, have been filled to overflow with wounded of both races. More than 500 who have been shot and injured by beatings are in hospitals, police estimated. Several hundred others received treatment at home, it was believed.
Additional pleas for order and regular process of the law were issued by public officials and leaders of both races. Mayor Thompson and Governor Lowden asserted the law must rule and that rioters will be vigorously prosecuted, while negro civil leaders urged their citizens to keep within their homes and desist from molesting whites.
Several alleged rioters were fined in police court yesterday. Other cases were docketed for today. States Attorney Hoyne gave orders to secure evidence against rioters that will assure punishment by death and prison sentences.
Federal authorities took a hand when they ordered operatives to go to the affected district and obtain evidence to hold for future use. In case action is asked from Washington, they said, they will have information ready.
Shortly after the troops were ordered into the negro sections, Adjutant General Dickson made a tour of inspection ordering the various regiments to certain positions. He reported the city was quiet and the danger of addition major outbreaks had passed.
The black belt was not under martial law. Militiamen were called to the aid of police by Mayor Thompson under a statute nominally placing troops under the city control but actually permitting them to function in their own way. The soldiers were called largely to relieve patrolmen who had been on duty almost 72 hours.
Assigning of troops by zones left some sections of the black belt under the sole supervisions of policemen, while militiamen in squads patrolled others.
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From the Shenandoah Herald, August 1, 1919:
NO RACE RIOTS REPORTED AT CHICAGO TODAY
(By United Press)
Chicago, Illinois, August 1 [1919] — Race rioting in Chicago had ceased today. The city was calm. Officials and civil leaders set about the task of rushing food supplies into the stricken negro districts where, during the four days of arson, slaying, looting and wrecking, inhabitants were reduced almost to starvation.
The death list today stood at 34. One negro was shot and killed late yesterday, while a second died of wounds. In all 19 negroes and 15 whites lost their lives.
Soldiers were in complete control of the situation patrolling the streets in the black belt where most of the fighting took place and manning machine guns placed at strategic points on the edge of the belt facing the white residential districts.
Adjutant General Dickson and Police Chief Garrity, whose men the soldiers received relieved after 72 hours of work, after a trip through the black belt, reported the trouble had stopped, and that little business was to be done, except keep watch to prevent mobs of hoodlums menacing the negroes who have grown so frightened during their four days of terror that few of them are seen outside their houses.
First action for relief in the negro district and for solving the race problem, was taken by the City Council when ten resolutions and orders were drafted. Additional protection was offered in a bill calling for 2,000 extra police to be added to the department.
Other orders for relief included aid to stricken families supplying of food and payment of fire and riot damages.
During last night shooting was only sporadic and the number of fires reported set by incendiarists were considerably fewer than on any previous night.
Packing houses today arranged to pay negro workers at temporary pay stations outside the yards. Trouble was feared when the colored men gathered to receive their pay.
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From the Shenandoah Herald, August 2, 1919:
RIOTS AND CAR STRIKE ENDS IN CHICAGO
(By United Press)
Chicago, Illinois, August 2 [1919] — Chicago rode to work today and resumed its normal business.
After four days of a strike of 15,000 surface and elevated railway employees, in addition to race rioting, arson and looking that claimed thirty-five lives and did thousands of dollars of damage to property, citizens today welcomed return of ordinary life with its lessened congestion, fear and costs.
Complete service was restored on both the surface and elevated lines shortly after midnight. The men were ordered back to work by W. D. Mahon, International President of the Carmen’s Union after a majority of the employees had voted yesterday to accept the compromise wage scale calling for 65 to 67 cents and hour.
The men formerly received 45 cents and had demanded $1. They also received an eight hour day and other changes in working conditions.
Service was not resumed in the riot zone until after day break. Adjutant General Dickson and Chief of Police Garrity went on a tour of inspection and declared the black belt where intermittent fighting had taken place for five days quiet and safe.
Troops still patrolled the area during the day however as a precautionary measure. They will be withdrawn, Dickson said, as restoration of normal conditions has taken place and the people have been fully supplied with food.
Thousands of negroes, both men and women, who had not ventured from their homes since Monday, went to work this morning. A few who still feared attacks by white mobs had protection by militia men and police. It was expected work at the stock yards which had been temporarily checked during the riot, would be in full swing today.
Prosecution of these arrests in connection with the riots began yesterday.
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From the Shenandoah Herald, August 5, 1919:
17 INDICTED IN RACE RIOTS
Chicago, Illinois, August 5 [1919] — Seventeen persons were under indictment here today in connection with las week’s race riots in which thirty-five whites and blacks were killed. Three were charged with murder during the first session of the August grand jury. Other findings were to be voted today. The first day’s result came quickly on the heels of Circuit Court Judge Crow’s instruction to the jury to hang rioters to prevent race trouble.
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News articles from Newspapers.com.
Corrections and additional information should be added as comments to this post.