AUGUST 18, 2017
“The
summer of 1919, called “The Red Summer” by James Weldon Johnson, ushered
in the greatest period of interracial violence the nation had ever
witnessed. During that summer there were twenty-six race riots in
such cities as Chicago, Illinois; Washington, D.C.; Elaine, Arkansas;
Charleston, South Carolina; Knoxville and Nashville, Tennessee; Longview,
Texas; and Omaha, Nebraska. More than one hundred Blacks were killed in
these riots, and thousands were wounded and left homeless. The seven
most serious race riots were those which occurred in Wilmington, N. C.
(1898), Atlanta, Ga. (1906), Springfield, Ill. (1908), East St. Louis)
Ill. (1917), Chicago, Ill. (1919), Tulsa, Okla. (1921) and Detroit, Mich.
(1943).”
— Robert Gibson
