Red Summer

A white gang looking for blacks during the Chicago race riots of 1919, Author “The West Virginian” (PD)

Some 25 race riots took place in 1919, after the end of WWI [1].  Acts of domestic terrorism, which included lynchings by white supremacists, occurred in over three dozen cities across the nation [2][3].

Though the Chicago riot (with 38 dead, and over 500 injured) is considered the worst of these, the largest number of fatalities actually occurred in Elaine, AK where as many as 100 – 240 black people and five whites were killed.

The Great Migration

By 1919, an estimated 1 million African Americans had fled segregation in the South for northern cities, in what became known as the Great Migration.

Dashed Expectations

Unfortunately, WWI was followed by an economic slump.  Black veterans returning home from the war expected improved treatment and greater opportunities, given their service to the country.  White veterans found work scarce.

Labor unrest – with blacks often hired as strikebreakers, and fears of a Bolshevik uprising similar to that in Russia just two years earlier – heightened tensions.  The media further fanned the flames.

Red Summer

Author and civil rights activist, James Johnson coined the phrase “red summer” for this tragic period.  It is a tragedy we must not repeat.

Ours is a nation built on diversity.  That is our strength.  It is, also, our vulnerability.  There are fissures between groups, fault lines through our society, that those interested in dividing us for their own ends can exploit.

We must not fall prey to such exploitation.

Almost any group can lay claim to grievances (some more legitimate than others).  Whatever our ethnic or racial background – assuming the concept of “race” exists at all – we are and must remain brothers.

“[T]ribulation and anguish, on every soul of man who does evil…but glory, honor, and peace to everyone who works what is good…For there is no partiality with God” (Rom. 2: 9-11).

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[1]  Wikipedia, “Chicago race riot of 1919”, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_race_riot_of_1919.

[2]  Wikipedia, “Red Summer”, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Summer.

[3]  History, “Red Summer of 1919:  How Black WWI Vets Fought Back Against Racist Mobs” by Abigail Higgins, https://www.history.com/news/red-summer-1919-riots-chicago-dc-great-migration.

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