The "Red Summer" of 1919

if we must die let it not be like hogs hunted and penned in this inglorious spot while roundest bark the mad and angry dogs making their mock of our accursed lot like men we will face the murderous cowardly pack pressed to the wall dying but fighting back Claude McKay wrote the poem if we must die after a series of attacks against black Americans in the United States the summer of 1919 author James Weldon Johnson coined the term red summer to describe those events a century ago hundreds of black Americans were killed in attacks all across the country and yet the nation has built few memorials to those dead the red summer of 1919 deserves to be remembered 1919 was somewhat of a turning point for the United States the First World War ended in November 1918 veterans returned to America that was rapidly changing women would soon gave the right to vote and prohibition would begin an experiment in banning alcohol the army during the First World War was segregated and some black regiments were put under French command because white American officers were not comfortable commanding black troops many white Americans blamed the coming tragedy on the French for treating black soldiers as equals and planting ideas in their heads called soldiers of democracy black veterans came back to the United States ready to demand civil rights w/e be Dubois wrote we return we return from fighting we return fighting for black Americans 1919 marked 300 years since the first African slaves were brought to the American colonies and they had begun to start calling for change 1919 was a time of anxiety in the United States and the world the First World War had ended but other social movements and economic conditions contributed to an anxious time inflation was rising labor strikes were common in Russia the Bolsheviks had overthrown the Czar Americans feared Bolshevik agitation might come to their Shores Anika's bombings were common economy was in flux and in northern cities white residents were afraid of the new black migrants bring economic competition the Great Migration would eventually send millions of black Americans to the industrial north and Midwest fleeing violence segregation and lack of Economic Opportunity in the south unfortunately they were sometimes greeted with the same in places where they relocated while they were at first unconcerned southern employers eventually worried about the loss of cheap labor or to stem the tide of the exodus from spring into fall of 1919 these tensions exploded into a series of violent episodes that killed hundreds of black Americans served as a wake-up call but it also spurred a movement in which blacks in America fought back sometimes for the first time in early episode of violence occurred in Jenkins County Georgia in April a black church party was interrupted when two white officers arrested a black man named Edmond Scott for possession of a pistol a wealthy black farmer named Joe Ruffin offered to pay his fine but the officers Dometic cash instead of a check when Ruffin tried to pull Scott to the car an officer struck Ruffin with his pistol which discharged knocking Ruffin unconscious Ruffins son and Army veteran thinking his father was dead shot and killed one of the officers in retaliation in the ensuing gunfight the second officer was wounded and then beaten to death as news spread what was described as hundreds of white men rushed to the town bent on revenge just surrendered to the local sheriff who protected him from a mob bent on lynching but the mob caught and lynched two of his sons as well as another black man who had been in the area they also burned the church and six other black churches as well as three black Masonic lodges in the area Ruffin was led to another County by the sheriff and put in jail their repeated attempts to try him for murder or manslaughter finally failed but he was left impoverished from his legal expenses moved to South Carolina's who would not have been safe in Georgia no charges were ever filed against any of the men who killed Ruffin sons or destroyed property until a 19th in Washington DC a white woman was jostled on the street by two black men one of the men was questioned by police and released but a rumor started among some white army veterans that the man had committed rape a white mob started a four-day riot attacking beating hundreds of black individuals and damaging businesses when the city's police refused to intervene black Americans fought back and defended their neighborhoods with firearms there were shootings an attack from both sides as President Woodrow Wilson finally said 200 army troops to intervene although heavy summer rains may have done more to quell the riot than the troops when it finally ended July 25th as many as 40 people have died from gunshot wounds or in street fights at least 150 were injured in Chicago Illinois a week-long riot was set off on July 27th when a black teenager named Eugene Williams hanging on to a makeshift raft unknowingly floated into the white part of an unofficially segregated south side beach on Lake Michigan a white man threw rocks at Williams and other black swimmers to drive them away Williams was hit in the forehead knocking him into the water where he drowned when black witnesses tried to get the man who threw the rock arrested the police did nothing and when the bystanders complained a fight broke out between white and black mobs and spread into five days of general rioting while there was violence on both sides the vast majority of the acts of murder arson and property damage were perpetrated by white gangs against black residents on Chicago's South Side police did little to protect the black neighborhoods in the state's attorney accused the police of arresting african-american rioters while refusing to arrest white rioters Illinois was forced to call in the militia to restore order 23 black and 15 white residents were killed in the rioting 500 more were injured more than a thousand black families were left homeless due to arson the black men who fought back in DC and Chicago were often returning veterans of the First World War they had military training were ready to fend themselves and their families it marked a difference from riots of previous years when blacks were attacked and mostly could not or did not defend themselves the violence made one veteran Harry Haywood say he realized I had been fighting the wrong war the Germans weren't the enemy the enemy was right here at home economic tensions also impacted events at a riot in Omaha Nebraska at the end of September two years previous to the riot a local meatpacking plant had brought in black workers as strike breakers and that it cost tension between them and white working-class people of the town when a black man was accused of rape a white woman the mob of as many as 10,000 to send it on the courthouse demanding the police turn over the man the mob set fire to the courthouse and captured and tried to hang the mayor they also destroyed private property attacking black neighborhoods and stores eventually the police surrounded in the burning building had no choice but hand the man named will brown to the mob who lynched him and burned his body a young Henry Fonda witnessed the lynching and said it had a profound effect on him federal troops finally quelled the riot 120 people were arrested for their involvement but most were never successfully prosecuted and all were eventually released without serving prison sentences the deadliest episode in the red summer started September 30th in Elaine Arkansas a union of black sharecroppers was meeting with farmers discuss how to obtain fair settlements from white landowners they argued had been exploiting the farmers the planters did not want to pay higher wages and rumors insinuated that communists were behind the unrest reflecting larger tensions the United States as many Americans feared the Russian Revolution was coming to their shores when two armed white deputies showed up at the meeting they clashed with armed union guards it's never been determined who shot first but a white deputy was killed the local sheriff called for a posse to arrest those responsible for the killing spurred by rumors and sensational headlines about a planned insurrection a mob of over a thousand white men descended on the county indiscriminately killing black men women and children estimates vary but between 100 to more than 500 black people were murdered by the mob the governor called in federal troops who disarmed both sides but arrested and held 285 black residents the governor established a committee of prominent white residents who without interviewing any of the sharecroppers concluded that the right was caused by socialist agitators despite the widespread murders of black residents and all white grand jury indicted no white people and instead indicted 122 black men in connection with the riot Arkansas had used poll taxes to disenfranchise most black voters thus removing them from the jury pool on the black men were tried by all-white juries often accused with evidence from witnesses who were coerced in trials where armed white mobs were outside and sometimes even inside the courtroom 12 men called the Arkansas 12 where convicted murderer sentenced to death eventually the US Supreme Court vacated six of those convictions on the grounds that the mob atmosphere in course testimony died the men due process the other six were given indefinite furloughs by outgoing governor Thomas McCray and taking out of state prevent their execution most modern researchers discount the assertion that there was a planned insurrection or any plan to target white planters for murder but a conference held in 2000 to review the facts of the event found that the claim appears to be still widely believed while these represent a few of the more violent events of the red summer they are just a few of the more than 25 riots massacres and lynchings that occurred across the United States in the late spring into the fall of 1919 in the aftermath of the red summer dr. George Haynes a sociologist employed by the Wilson administration published report in the New York Times and other newspapers it was a call to action about the epidemic of lynchings the report concluded that from 1889 to 1918 more than three thousand black people had been lynched in the United States the report highlighted that states rarely prosecuted the perpetrators of the lynchings and showed little motivation to address the problem of lynchings he warned that unchecked mob violence creates hatred and intolerance making impossible free and dispassionate discussion not only of race problems but questions on which races and sections differ in such a state of mind dr. Hanes wrote a trivial incident can precipitate a riot Haynes report largely fell on deaf ears the government a news media largely attempted to frame black resistance to the violence the red Somers derived from socialist agitators the government provided evidence to the media to support his assertion that political organizations were urging blacks to embrace communism they said the unions were spreading propaganda to breed racial hatred and accuse w/e be Dubois editorializing about socialism others including future FBI director J Edgar Hoover blamed black radicals while ignoring white perpetrators of violence black newspapers like the Chicago Defender told a different story journalist like Ida B Wells investigated the attacks got the story out that blacks were sometimes justified in fighting there was some progress the Supreme Court decision in Moore versus Dempsey which effectively freed the Arkansas 12 represented a significant shift in policy towards a wider use of federal writs of habeas corpus to oversee state court convictions and represented stricter scrutiny by the supreme court of state criminal trials in terms of their compliance with the Bill of Rights but the largest effect of the violence of the red summer was on the black community throughout the red summer the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People have been contacting government officials to raise the alarm but they were mostly met with indifference sometimes outright hostility the n-double-a-cp had been formed after the 1908 Springfield Illinois race riot in those days it was led by prominent white supporters of black civil rights after the red summer black Americans emerged as the leaders of the n-double a-c-p and began directing the legal and political advocacy that would lead to success in the civil rights movement in the mid 20th century by the early 1920s membership had increased to a hundred thousand from just nine thousand before the First World War a hundred years later the nation is still trying to come to grips with the events of the red summer the violence is largely forgotten even in communities where it occurred people been afraid to bring it up for fear that it would raise new tensions or maybe just because they didn't want to face the past Chicago is hosting a number of historical events at this summer to help the city remember this nearly forgotten chapter in its history and for the first time a hundred years later a memorial is being built to the victims of the Elaine Arkansas massacre though not in Elaine and nearby West Helena in April a willow tree was planted in a lane to memorialize those victims and in August in the night someone came and chopped it down a sign that not everybody wants to remember the past there are very few historical markers to the violence of the red summer in the United States to most Americans it is just forgotten history even though it was the beginning of an awakening I hope you enjoyed this episode of the history guy short snippets have forgotten history between ten and fifteen minutes long and if you did enjoy please go ahead and click that thumbs up button if you have any questions or comments or suggestions for future episodes please write those in the comment section I will be happy to personally respond be sure to follow the history guy on Facebook Instagram Twitter and check out our merchandise on t spring comm and if you'd like more episodes don't forgotten history all you need to do is subscribe [Music]

Channel: The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered

Views: 340,962

Keywords: history, the history guy, history guy, us history, black history, civil rights, us race relations, red summer

Id: Hy3a6PvIcxI

Length: 13min 38sec (818 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 18 2019