How did The Red Summer Riots start?

The Red Summer refers to the summer and fall of 1919, in which race riots exploded in a number of cities in both the North and South. The three most violent episodes occurred in Chicago, Washington, D.C., and Elaine, Arkansas. On the afternoon of July 27, 1919, a stone-throwing melee between blacks and whites began after a black youth mistakenly swam into territory claimed by whites off the 29th Street beach in Chicago. Amidst the mayhem, Eugene Williams, a black youth, drowned. When a white police officer refused to arrest the white men involved in the death, and instead arrested a black man, racial tensions escalated. Fighting broke out between gangs and mobs of both races. Violence escalated with each incident, and for 13 days Chicago was in a state of turmoil. By the time the riot ended, 23 blacks and 15 whites were dead, 537 injured, and 1,000 black families were left homeless. The Chicago riot was part of a national racial frenzy of clashes, massacres, and lynchings throughout the North and the South. All of the incidents were initiated by whites. In Washington, D.C., from July 19 to 23, four whites and two blacks were killed; whites were astonished that blacks dared to fight back. The NEW YORK TIMES lamented the new black militancy: “There had been no trouble with the Negro before the war when most admitted the superiority of the white race.” A “Southern black woman,” as she identified herself, wrote a letter to THE CRISIS, praising blacks for fighting back. “The Washington riot gave me a thrill that comes once in a life time … at last our men had stood up like men. … I stood up alone in my room … and exclaimed aloud, ‘Oh I thank God, thank God.’ The pent up horror, grief and humiliation of a life time — half a century — was being stripped from me.”

From October 1-3, a race war exploded in Phillips County, Arkansas. On the night of September 30, a small group of black men and women were gathering a rural church to organize a sharecroppers’ and tenant farmers’ union — the Progressive Farmers and Household Union of America. When two white law-enforcement officers arrived at the church, one later claiming they were looking for a bootlegger, shots were exchanged. One white officer was killed and the other wounded. As word of the shootings spread throughout the county, the local sheriff sent out a call for men “to hunt Mr. Nigger in his lair.” The call went out to Mississippi to come to the aid of white men in Phillips County. Hundreds of armed men jumped into trains, trucks, and cars and, crossing into Arkansas, fired out of windows at every black they saw. Some said that if it was black and moving, it was target practice. Frank Moore, one of the farmers at the church, saw the massacre as it unfolded: “The whites sent word that they was comin down here and kill every nigger they found. There were 300 or 400 more white men with guns, shooting and killing women and children.” Soldiers from the United States Army eventually restored order, although some claimed the military participated in the killings. By the time the shooting ended, 25 blacks and five whites were listed as officially dead. Many blacks believed that perhaps as many as 200 were killed, their bodies dumped in the Mississippi River or left to rot in the canebrake. The white establishment charged that blacks had formed a secret conspiracy to rise up and overthrow the white planters, take their land and rape their women. No evidence was ever produced to substantiate the charge.

Try these web sites:

http://www.nbccongress.org/lifestyle/red_summer_1919.asp

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Summer_of_1919

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/stories_events_red.html

http://www.gapersblock.com/airbags/archives/1919_chicagos_red_summer/

Everyday Summer Look With Wearable Red Lips

Women’s Casual Barn CBS0016 Summer Red Leather $58.45 Multi leather straps in beautiful gradient colors create the perfect thong design. Hand-made leather button with all the delicate details. Super soft leather upper and post. Leather foot bed and outsole. 3/4″ wood heel with non-slip rubber.

Summer of the Red Wolf (CD-Audio) $11.57 Summer of the Red Wolf is the story of a man struggling with the complexities and torments of everyday life who travels to Scotland to fight his inner demons and discovers love, honour and himself along the way. The novel brilliantly captures the feeli…

Summer of the Red Wolf (CD-Audio) $11.57 Summer of the Red Wolf is the story of a man struggling with the complexities and torments of everyday life who travels to Scotland to fight his inner demons and discovers love, honour and himself along the way. The novel brilliantly captures the feeli…

Iron Man 3 Junior Novel (Paperback) $5.9 Spinning out of the events of Iron Man 2 and this summer?s The Avengers, comes the next chapter in the life of billionaire inventor Tony Stark, otherwise kn…

Regarding the Bathrooms: A Privy to the Past (Paperback) $6.35 Poor Principal Walter Russ. He’s desperate for designer Florence Waters to renovate the school’s disgusting basement bathrooms, and the stress is causing him to get, ahem, all clogged up. Luckily, during their stressful summer-s…

Whistle for Willie (Board book) $7.82 When Whistle for Willie was first published in 1964, The New York Times wrote ?Mr. Keats? illustrations boldly, colorfully capture the child, his city world. and the shimmering heat of a summer?s day.? Now the story of Peter, who longs to…

Beach Blondes (Paperback) $8.9 Three months. Three guys. One amazing summer. Summer Smith is in for the best summer of her life. Between the cold weather and her boyfriendless existence in Minnesota, Summer is ready for sun, sand, and boys …

RICK GALLAGHER – VOL. 1-SOLO STANDARD $13.85 Disc 1:Heartburn WaltzDriftin’Moonlight in VermontFavelaAmerica the BeautifulIndian SummerRed’s BluesTaking a Chance on LoveFly Me to the MoonThe Sweetest Sound…

Blood Makes Noise (CD-Audio) $11.57 ?Impressive?Widen?s atmospheric thriller, full of broken men in a broken country, succeeds in capturing the hold that Evita had over so many, even in death.? ? Publishers WeeklyOn a summer?s night in 1955, CIA officer Michael Suslov is summoned to a se…

Blood Makes Noise: Library Edition (CD-Audio) $34.68 ?Impressive?Widen?s atmospheric thriller, full of broken men in a broken country, succeeds in capturing the hold that Evita had over so many, even in death.? ? Publishers WeeklyOn a summer?s night in 1955, CIA officer Michael Suslov is summoned to a se…

Blood Makes Noise (CD-Audio) $15.43 ?Impressive?Widen?s atmospheric thriller, full of broken men in a broken country, succeeds in capturing the hold that Evita had over so many, even in death.? ? Publishers WeeklyOn a summer?s night in 1955, CIA officer Michael Suslov is summoned to a se…