Red Summertime Of 1919

Red Summer of 1919

In the long summertime of 1919, from May to October, an odd blueprint of white mob violence swept across the United States. As the Blue Planet had begun to recover from the years of World War I, in that place was a dandy bargain of social unrest inwards the United States. Among the full general population in that place were cast as well as race tensions.

Among governmental officials in that place were political tensions as well as turf wars equally departments tried to justify their being inwards the postwar economy. The commencement “red scare” was inflamed past times Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer, spell task unions went on strike, as well as a serial of missive of the alphabet bombs were mailed to prominent authorities figures.

It was inwards this climate that at to the lowest degree twenty-seven incidents of white mob violence erupted. Often referred to equally “race riots,” these incidents were scattered throughout the continental United States, inwards locations that varied from major cities similar Chicago, Illinois, as well as Washington, D.C., to smaller cities such equally Omaha, Nebraska, as well as Knoxville, Tennessee, to rural areas similar Longview, Texas, as well as Elaine, Arkansas.


Representative Leonidas C. Dyer’s Anti-Lynching Bill, introduced inwards the House inwards May of 1920, lists the riots equally Bisbee, Arizona; Elaine, Arkansas; New London, Connecticut; Wilmington, Delaware; Washington, D.C.; Blakely, Georgia; Dublin, Georgia; Millen, Georgia; Putnam County, Georgia; Bloomington, Illinois; Chicago, Illinois (2); Corbin, Kentucky; Homer, Louisiana; New Orleans, Louisiana; Annapolis, Maryland; Baltimore, Maryland (2); Omaha, Nebraska; New York City; Syracuse, New York; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Charleston, South Carolina; Knoxville, Tennessee; Memphis, Tennessee; Longview, Texas; Port Arthur, Texas; as well as Norfolk, Virginia. More than 100 people were reported killed, as well as to a greater extent than than 1,500 people injured.

These incidents differed inwards several ways from the long-standing traditional exercise of lynching: the perpetrators of the activity were non simply a modest grouping of adult manful somebody vigilantes, but included a broad arrive at of townspeople, manful somebody as well as female, adults as well as youths; their target was non a specific person, but rather the local dark community inwards general; as well as the dark community inwards many cases fought back, to a degree unprecedented at that time.

James Weldon Johnson called it the “red summer.” And spell many people suspected a conspiracy at work, in that place was equally much disagreement almost the nature of the conspiracy equally in that place has been disagreement almost whether Johnson meant “red” equally inwards blood or “red” equally inwards Bolshevik.

Red summertime map

One of the most pop theories favored past times authorities officials to explicate the violence was that it was the operate of a well-coordinated grouping of High German agitators. This theory fed into, or was fed by, the blood-red scare active at that time.

The belief was that these agitators, mayhap alongside the assist of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), used carefully trained “black Bolsheviks” to incite their brethren to riotous provocation. In spite of much federal coin as well as personnel spent to investigate this theory, it was never substantiated (Kornweibel).

H5N1 similar but alternate theory pop alongside the authorities was that the IWW or organized task was behind the activity. The theories varied, depending on the local politics.

In many areas of the North, industries had encouraged dark migration equally a root of inexpensive task and, when necessary, these industries used nonunionized blacks equally strikebreakers. In such a setting, the theory was mutual that organized task was coordinating as well as inciting the white mob violence to frighten or stymie the effectiveness of the dark strikebreakers.

The converse theory was constitute inwards communities where the white workers were non unionized, as well as the belief was that the IWW was motivating an insurgent dark community to grapple dorsum against the white mobs. Authorities were never able to substantiate whatsoever of the theories.

The American Protective League (APL) is implicated past times simply about other theory. The APL was a national volunteer organization alongside the informal imprimatur of the federal government. It served a watchdog purpose inwards the the States during World War I.

These local bands of white men, total of nationalistic fervor, would lookout the skies for High German bombers as well as plough inwards their neighbors for whatsoever gesture deemed anti-American. They did operate for the government, on a volunteer basis, that authorities agencies would non receive got been able to produce either for lack of personnel as well as other resources or for issues of accountability.

APL records document many incidents of accusation as well as investigation, alongside simply about cases ending upwards inwards trial as well as jail fourth dimension for citizens who had committed such “offenses” equally speaking German, having likewise much sugar, or refusing to purchase Liberty Bonds.

The APL enjoyed an odd status, for spell it was funded past times contributions from corporations as well as businesses, it had the explicit logistical back upwards as well as guidance of the Bureau of Investigation (the precursor to the FBI) (Jensen). Once the state of war was over, however, the federal authorities insisted the organization disband, as well as it appeared to produce so, although rattling reluctantly.

In many of the locations of blood-red summertime white-mob violence, in that place had been active APL chapters, as well as because the people participating inwards these mobs were oftentimes of the same demographic composition as well as nationalistic temperament equally those who had formerly been American Protective League members, a instance has been made that a causal human relationship exists, but inquiry into this theory is scant.

Records of individuals’ participation inwards mob activity is virtually nonexistent, fifty-fifty inwards cases where a murder trial or other courtroom cases followed, then a definitive link betwixt whatsoever individual’s membership inwards the APL as well as participation inwards a blood-red summertime riot is elusive.

“Bossism” is the cornerstone of simply about other conspiracy theory encircling simply about of the blood-red summertime riots, peculiarly the ones inwards Chicago, Omaha, as well as Longview. This theory holds that the forcefulness behind a riot was a political “boss” who bribed, paid, or otherwise motivated a band of agitators to Pb a malleable mob to racial violence.

For decades inwards Omaha, for example, a powerful boss, Tom Dennison, controlled the mayoral office, as well as through it, the residual of the city, earlier as well as after, but non during, the twelvemonth 1919. In Oct of that year, inwards the waning days of the blood-red summer, a white mob burned downwards the brand-new courthouse as well as fought the sheriff’s subdivision to convey a dark man, defendant of assaulting a white woman, from the jail.

The crowd hanged the human being as well as burned his corpse. When the mayor had tried to halt them, they tried to hang him, too. The theory is that Dennison had hired the men who incited the mob’s violence, inwards social club to kill, or at the rattling to the lowest degree discredit, the mayor.

While this theory has non been proved or disproved, the next twelvemonth a Dennison human being was elected mayor. The federal authorities investigating this incident was unable to back upwards its ain theory that the IWW was behind the riot.

In attempting to explicate a campaign for the riots inwards 1919, the full general exercise of the authorities seemed to endure to hold off commencement at the dark people involved. If they had fought dorsum at the white mob, the campaign of the riot was believed to endure dark Bolsheviks or the IWW.

If the dark people had non fought dorsum against their attackers, or were grievously outnumbered or outfought, the blame was lay on organized task or High German agitators. For the most part, the riots were non investigated thoroughly, as well as this is for certain truthful of the phenomenon equally a whole.

An exception to this is the Chicago riot, for which the Chicago Commission on Race Relations was formed as well as assigned to investigate. The committee did break an extensive study of the incident as well as the factors leading upwards to it.

Also, at the fourth dimension of the riots, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) did at dandy take away a opportunity shipping its ain investigators to simply about of the riot locations to interview people as well as written report back. In the years since the blood-red summer, the Chicago riot, the Knoxville riot, as well as the violence inwards Elaine, Arkansas, receive got been the most studied past times scholars.

The violence of the blood-red summertime abated gradually equally wintertime arrived inwards 1919, as well as spell lynching was non completely stopped for a number of years, as well as isolated rioting occurred sporadically throughout the residual of the century, in that place has non been simply about other such epidemic of rioting since.

While the diverse conspiracy theories associated alongside the blood-red summertime receive got never been proved or disproved, the mostly accepted analysis, for now, is that an overall climate of instability as well as unrest allowed tensions of diverse types, based inwards local issues, to manifest inwards patterns of extreme grouping violence.