Chicago, like many other cities across America, has an ugly history regarding their treatment of Black lives and the enduring stench of racism. On July 27, 1919, 100 years ago this Saturday, an angry white mob contributed to the tragic death of a Black teenager who made the fatal mistake of crossing an imaginary racial line at a South Side beach in Lake Michigan.
According to accounts from researchers and historians, Eugene Williams floated across this line into the beach’s white section, angering beachgoers who began tossing rocks at him. One of the rocks struck the 17-year-old in the head, causing him to slip under the waves and drown. When Black beachgoers confronted the alleged assailant, police failed to make an arrest and a Black man was initially arrested. Unrest began to grow as news of Williams death spread throughout the city, thus the riots were ignited.
Working class Irish-Americans clashed with poor African-Americans across the city’s South Side as both groups contended for jobs and homes in the wake of World War I. The riots raged on for days, ending on August 3. In the end, 38 people lost their lives, 25 of them Black, with over 500 injured and nearly 1,000 people left without their homes to go along with $250,000 damages, equals to over $3.8 million today.
University of Chicago Assistant Professor John Clegg introduced an interactive map of the riots that breaks down the deaths, injuries, incidents of arson, photos, and more information, which can be viewed here.
During the so-called “Red Summer” of 1919, Chicago was just one of other cities where such race riots broke out during the warm months. Historians estimate hundreds of Black lives were lost at the hands of white mob violence, and many of these skirmishes were underreported or flat-out ignored by authorities at the time. In many accounts, however, Black residents fought back as well as they could armed with guns and their fists.
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