Red Summer

The  Red Summer  was a period in mid-1919 during which  white supremacist terrorism  and  racial riots  occurred in more than three dozen cities across the  United States , and in one rural county in  Arkansas . The term "Red Summer" was coined by  civil rights activist  and author  James Weldon Johnson , who had been employed as a  field secretary  by the  National Association for the Advancement of Colored People  (NAACP) since 1916. In 1919, he organized  peaceful protests  against the  racial violence . [1] [2] 

 In most instances, attacks consisted of  white -on- black  violence. Numerous African Americans fought back, notably in the  Chicago  and  Washington, D.C., race riots , which resulted in 38 and 15 deaths, respectively, along with even more injuries, and extensive property damage in  Chicago . [3]  Still, the highest number of fatalities occurred in the rural area around  Elaine, Arkansas , where an estimated 100–240 black people and five white people were killed—an event now known as the  Elaine massacre . 

 The   anti-black   riots developed from a variety of post- World War I   socio-economic tensions, generally related to the   demobilization   of both black and white members of the   United States Armed Forces   following World War I ; an   economic slump ; and increased competition in the job and housing markets between ethnic   European Americans   and African Americans. [4]   The period would also be marked by episodes of   labor unrest , wherein certain industrialists employed black people as   strikebreakers , further inflaming the resentment of white workers. 

 The riots and killings were extensively documented by the   press , which, along with the   federal government , feared   socialist   and   communist   influence on the black   civil rights movement of the time   following the 1917   Bolshevik Revolution   in Russia. They also feared foreign   anarchists , who had   bombed the homes and businesses of prominent figures and government leaders . 

 

 Family leaving damaged home after the   Chicago race riot of 1919 

 Great Migration 

 With the  mobilization  of troops for  World War I , and with immigration from Europe cut off, the  industrial cities  of the American  Northeast  and  Midwest  experienced severe  labor shortages . As a result, northern manufacturers recruited throughout the South, from which an exodus of workers, many black, ensued. [5] 

 By 1919, an estimated 500,000  African Americans  had emigrated from the  Southern United States  to the industrial cities of the Northeast and Midwest in the first wave of the  Great Migration  (which continued until 1940). [3]  African-American workers filled new positions in expanding industries, such as the  railroads , as well as many existing jobs formerly held by whites. In some cities, they were hired as  strikebreakers , especially during the strikes of 1917. [5]  This increased resentment against blacks among many  working-class  whites, immigrants, and  first-generation Americans . 

 

 Will Brown, victim of Omaha, Nebraska lynching [31] 

 Racism and Red Scare 

 In the summer of 1917, violent racial riots against blacks due to labor tensions broke out in  East St. Louis, Illinois , and  Houston, Texas . [6]  Following the war, rapid  demobilization  of the military without a plan for absorbing veterans into the job market, and the removal of  price controls , led to massive unemployment and inflation that increased competition for jobs. Jobs were very difficult for African Americans to get in the South due to systemic racism and employment segregation. [7] 

 During the  First Red Scare  of 1919–20, following the  1917 Russian Revolution ,  anti-Bolshevik  sentiment in the United States quickly followed on the  anti-German sentiment  arising in the war years. Many politicians and government officials, together with much of the press and the public, feared an imminent attempt to overthrow the U.S. government to create a new regime modeled on that of the  Soviets . Authorities viewed with alarm African-Americans' advocacy of  racial equality  and  labor rights , and incidents involving the deaths of whites furthered fears. [4]  In a private conversation in March 1919, President  Woodrow Wilson  said that "the American  Negro  returning from abroad would be our greatest medium in conveying  Bolshevism  to America." [8]  Other whites expressed a wide range of opinions, some anticipating unsettled times and others seeing no signs of tension. [9] 

 In the autumn of 1919, following the violence-filled summer,   George Edmund Haynes   reported on the events as a prelude to an investigation by the   U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary . He identified 38 separate racial riots against black people in widely scattered cities, in which whites attacked black people. [3]   Unlike earlier racial riots against African Americans in U.S. history, the 1919 events were among the first in which black people in number resisted white attacks and fought back. [13]   A. Philip Randolph , a civil rights   activist   and leader of the   Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters , publicly defended the right of black people to   self-defense . [1] 

 Government activity 

 During the Chicago racial violence against people of color the press was incorrectly told by  Department of Justice  officials that the  IWW , socialists, and  Bolsheviks  were "spreading propaganda to breed race hatred". [55]  FBI agents filed reports that leftist views were winning converts in the black community. One cited the work of the  NAACP  "urging the colored people to insist upon equality with white people and to resort to force, if necessary. [50]   J. Edgar Hoover , at the start of his career in government, analyzed the riots for the Attorney General. He blamed the July Washington, D.C., riots on "numerous assaults committed by Negroes upon white women". [22]  For the October events in Arkansas, he blamed "certain local agitation in a Negro lodge". [22]  A more general cause he cited was "propaganda of a radical nature". [22]  He charged that socialists were feeding propaganda to black-owned magazines such as  The Messenger , which in turn aroused their black readers. He did not note the white perpetrators of violence, whose activities local authorities documented. As chief of the Radical Division within the U.S. Department of Justice, Hoover began an investigation of "negro activities" and targeted  Marcus Garvey  because he thought his newspaper  Negro World  preached Bolshevism. [22]  He authorized the hiring of black undercover agents to spy on black organizations and publications in Harlem. [55] 

 On November 17, Attorney General  A. Mitchell Palmer  reported to Congress on the threat that anarchists and Bolsheviks posed to the government. More than half the report documented radicalism in the black community and the "open defiance" black leaders advocated in response to racial violence and the summer's rioting. It faulted the leadership of the black community for an "ill-governed reaction toward race rioting.… In all discussions of the recent racial riots against blacks there is reflected the note of pride that the Negro has found himself. That he has 'fought back,' that never again will he tamely submit to violence and intimidation." [56]  It described "the dangerous spirit of defiance and vengeance at work among the Negro leaders." [56] 

 

 African American being stoned by whites during 1919 Chicago race riot