Misplaced Pages

#69930

147-579: The Chicago race riot of 1919 was a violent racial conflict between white Americans and black Americans that began on the South Side of Chicago , Illinois , on July 27 and ended on August 3, 1919. During the riot, 38 people died (23 black and 15 white). Over the week, injuries attributed to the episodic confrontations stood at 537, two-thirds black and one-third white; and between 1,000 and 2,000 residents, most of them black, lost their homes. Due to its sustained violence and widespread economic impact, it

294-439: A Chicago fireman . One African-American policeman, John Simpson, was killed during the riot by persons unknown. The conduct of the white police force was criticized during and after the riots. State's Attorney Maclay Hoyne accused the police of arresting African-American rioters, while refusing to arrest white rioters. Hoyne began bringing the cases involving only African Americans to the sitting grand jury to be charged, causing

441-529: A railroad tie . He was subsequently hit by a stone as a white man threw rocks at him and other African Americans to drive them away from the white part of the 29th Street beach in the city's Douglas community on the South Side. A witness recalled seeing a single white male standing on a breakwater 75 feet (22.9 m) from the raft of the African Americans and throwing rocks at them. Williams

588-586: A department store, being arrested on May 31, 1921. On June 1, a confrontation between Black and White groups outside the courthouse led to a shootout which killed 10 Whites and 2 Blacks. The Black group then retreated back to the Greenwood District. Subsequently, a White mob attacked Black businesses, homes, and residents in the Greenwood District. The attack left over 35 city blocks burned, over 800 people injured, and between 100 and 300 people were killed. Over 6,000 Black residents were also arrested by

735-637: A game of brinksmanship with Illinois Governor Frank Lowden that may have exacerbated the riot, since Thompson refused to ask Lowden to send in the Illinois Army National Guard for four days, although Lowden had called up the guardsmen, organized in Chicago's armories and ready to intervene. After the riots, Lowden convened the Chicago Commission on Race Relations , a nonpartisan, interracial committee, to investigate

882-598: A grave marker was erected in Lincoln Cemetery at the previously unmarked grave of teenager Eugene Williams, the first victim at 29th Street Beach, whose death touched off the days of rioting. Mass racial violence in the United States Racial and ethnic cleansing was committed on a large scale after the end of the American revolution during the early period of time in the history of

1029-593: A large American army in the process, and set up a network of bases inland. Although there were Loyalists within the Southern colonies, they were concentrated in larger coastal cities and were not great enough in number to overcome the revolutionaries. The British forces at the Battle of Monck's Corner and the Battle of Lenud's Ferry consisted entirely of Loyalists with the exception of the commanding officer ( Banastre Tarleton ). Both white and black Loyalists fought for

1176-718: A large area north of the city (along the Mississippi) becoming known as the German Coast. Still greater numbers immigrated to Texas (especially after 1848), where many bought land and were farmers. Many more German immigrants arrived in Texas after the Civil War, where they created the brewing industry in Houston and elsewhere, became grocers in numerous cities, and also established wide areas of farming. By 1840, New Orleans

1323-847: A major destination in the Great Migration to industrial cities in the Northeast and Midwest, fleeing lynchings , segregation and disenfranchisement in the Deep South. The revived Ku Klux Klan in the South committed 64 lynchings in 1918 and 83 in 1919. With industrial jobs in the stockyards and meatpacking industry opening as European immigration was cut off by World War I , the African-American population in Chicago increased by 148%, from 44,000 to 109,000, from 1916 to 1919. The growing African-American population settling in

1470-526: A melee, which became days of unrest. Black neighbors near white areas were attacked, white gangs went into black neighborhoods, and black workers going to and from work were attacked. Meanwhile, some black civilians organized to resist and protect each other, and some whites sought to lend aid to black civilians, but the Chicago Police Department often turned a blind eye, or worse, to the violence. Chicago Mayor William Hale Thompson had

1617-440: A naval flotilla was sent to Charleston harbor, and the threat of landing ground troops was used to compel the collection of tariffs. A compromise was reached by which the tariffs would be gradually reduced, but the underlying argument over states' rights continued to escalate in the following decades. The second issue concerned slavery, primarily the question of whether slavery would be permitted in newly admitted states. The issue

SECTION 10

#1732772118070

1764-535: A number of riots occurred that were related to longstanding racial tensions between police and minority communities. The 1980 Miami riots were catalyzed by the killing of an African-American motorist by four white Miami-Dade Police officers. They were subsequently acquitted on charges of manslaughter and evidence tampering. Similarly, the six-day 1992 Los Angeles riots erupted after the acquittal of four white LAPD officers who had been filmed beating Rodney King , an African-American motorist. Khalil Gibran Muhammad ,

1911-418: A powerful Chicago family, whom Thompson opposed. President Woodrow Wilson pronounced white participants the instigators of the prolonged riots in Chicago and Washington, D.C. As a result, he attempted to promote greater racial harmony through the promotion of voluntary organizations and through the enactment of legislative improvements by Congress. Wilson did not reverse the policy of racial segregation within

2058-407: A racial code of ethics and to draw up racial boundaries for activities within the city. The Cook County Coroner 's Office took 70 day sessions, 20 night sessions and 450 witnesses examinations to collect evidence about the riots. Its report stated that, on July 27, 1919, Eugene Williams, an African-American youth, drifted towards an informally segregated beach on the South Side while holding onto

2205-459: A short time during Reconstruction. There were thousands of people on the move, as African Americans tried to reunite families separated by slave sales, and sometimes migrated for better opportunities in towns or other states. Other freed people moved from plantation areas to cities or towns for a chance to get different jobs. At the same time, whites returned from refuges to reclaim plantations or town dwellings. In some areas, many whites returned to

2352-468: A total of 260,000, out of a total white Southern population at the time of around 5.5 million. Based on 1860 census figures, 8% of all white males aged 13 to 43 died in the war, including 6% in the North and about 18% in the South. Northern military deaths were greater than Southern military deaths in absolute numbers, but were two-thirds smaller in terms of proportion of the population affected. After

2499-492: A white man threw stones at Eugene Williams when he crossed the unmarked and unofficial 'color line' between the white and black sections of the 29th Street beach. Williams drowned. Tensions escalated when a white police officer prevented a black police officer from arresting the white man responsible for Williams's death, but arrested a black man instead. Objections by black observers were met with violence by whites. Attacks between white and black mobs erupted swiftly. At one point,

2646-481: A white man's complaint of some minor offense. Anger over the arrest, coupled with Williams's death and rumors among both communities, escalated into five days of rioting. Most casualties were African Americans and most of the property damage was inflicted in African-American neighborhoods. Historians noted, "South Side youth gangs, including the Hamburg Athletic Club, were later found to have been among

2793-500: A white mob threatened Provident Hospital , many of whose patients were African American. The police successfully held them off. There were also attempts by the ethnic Irish gangs to incite Southern and Eastern European immigrant communities to violence against blacks, although they had no history of such hostility. In one instance, members of the Irish Ragen's Colts donned blackface and set fire to Lithuanian and Polish homes in

2940-501: A white swimming area at an informally segregated beach near 29th Street . A group of African-American youths were diving from a 14-foot by 9-foot raft that they had constructed. When the raft drifted into the unofficial "white beach" area, one white beachgoer was indignant; he began hurling rocks at the young men, striking Williams, and caused the teen to drown. When black beach-goers complained that whites attacked them, violence expanded into neighborhoods. Tensions between groups arose in

3087-522: Is considered the worst of the scores of riots and civil disturbances across the United States during the "Red Summer" of 1919 , so named because of its racial and labor violence. It was also one of the worst riots in the history of Illinois . In early 1919, the sociopolitical atmosphere of Chicago around its rapidly growing black community was one of ethnic tension caused by long-standing racism, competition among new groups, an economic slump, and

SECTION 20

#1732772118070

3234-409: Is hope,'" he wrote. [¶] But where black people saw opportunity, white Chicagoans saw a threat. "Here and there, slowly and by degrees, the line of color discrimination breaks," Sandburg wrote shortly before the [Chicago] riots. In 1917, two summers before the Chicago riot, large and deadly race riots broke out in the expanding cities of East St. Louis, Illinois and Houston, Texas , influencing

3381-558: The 15th Amendment (which extended the right to vote to African American males), African Americans in the South were made free citizens and were given the right to vote. Under Federal protection, white and black Republicans formed constitutional conventions and state governments. Among their accomplishments were creating the first public education systems in Southern states, and providing for welfare through orphanages, hospitals and similar institutions. Northerners came south to participate in politics and business. Some were representatives of

3528-634: The Back of the Yards in an attempt to incite this community to join them against African Americans. Contrary to the violence, some cooperation also occurred, with some whites seeking to help save Eugene Williams, reporting other whites to the police, denouncing the violence, and bringing food to black communities. The Chicago riot lasted almost a week, ending only after the Government of Illinois deployed nearly 6,000 Illinois Army National Guard troops around

3675-609: The British Isles before the American Revolution . In the 1980 census , 34% of Southerners reported that they were of English ancestry; English was the largest reported European ancestry in every Southern state by a large margin. The early colonists engaged in warfare , trade, and cultural exchanges. Those living in the backcountry were more likely to encounter Creek Indians , Cherokee , and Choctaws and other regional native groups. The oldest university in

3822-495: The California state government , incited, aided and financed miners, settlers, ranchers and people's militias to enslave, kidnap, or murder a major proportion of California’s Indigenous people, who were sometimes contemptuously referred to as "Diggers", for their practice of digging up roots to eat. California governor Peter Hardeman Burnett predicted in 1851: "That a war of extermination will continue to be waged between

3969-745: The Chesapeake Bay . The next region to be settled was the Deep South, beginning in Province of Carolina and later the Province of Georgia . The last region to be settled was Appalachia, also settled by the Scotch-Irish . King Charles II of England granted the Charter of Carolina in 1663 for land south of the British Colony of Virginia and north of Spanish Florida . He granted the land to eight lords proprietor . Charles granted

4116-495: The Civil War and Reconstruction era (1865–1877). Following effects included thousands of lynchings (mostly from 1880 to 1930), a segregated system of separate schools and public facilities established from Jim Crow laws that remained until the 1960s, and the widespread use of poll taxes and other methods to deny black and poor people the ability to vote or hold office until the 1960s. Scholars have characterized pockets of

4263-621: The Freedmen's Bureau and other agencies of Reconstruction; some were humanitarians with the intent to help black people. Some were adventurers who hoped to benefit themselves by questionable methods. They were all condemned with the pejorative term of carpetbagger . Some Southerners would also take advantage of the disrupted environment and made money off various schemes, including bonds and financing for railroads. White Southerners who supported Reconstruction policies and efforts became known as scalawags . Secret vigilante organizations such as

4410-552: The Illinois 8th Infantry . They expected to be treated as full citizens after fighting for the nation. Meanwhile, younger black men rejected the deference and passivity traditional in the South, and they promoted armed self-defense for control of their neighborhoods. In Chicago, the Irish-dominated social and athletic clubs were closely tied to the political structure of the city, some acting as enforcers for politicians. As

4557-552: The Ku Klux Klan  – an organization sworn to perpetuate white supremacy  – had arisen quickly after the war's end in the 1860s, and used lynching , physical attacks, house burnings and other forms of intimidation to keep African Americans from exercising their political rights. Although the first Klan was disrupted by prosecution by the Federal government in the early 1870s, other groups persisted. By

Chicago race riot of 1919 - Misplaced Pages Continue

4704-837: The Oklahoma National Guard , and taken to several internment centers. Though the Roosevelt administration, under tremendous pressure, produced anti-racist propaganda and helped push for African American employment in some cases, African Americans were still experiencing immense violence, particularly in the South. In March 1956, United States Senator Sam Ervin of North Carolina created the Southern Manifesto , which promised to fight to keep Jim Crow alive by all legal means. This continuation of support for Jim Crow and segregation laws led to protests in which many African-Americans were violently injured out in

4851-626: The Patriot cause . Virginia would provide leaders such as commander-in-chief George Washington , and the author of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson . In 1780 and 1781, the British largely halted reconquest of the northern states and concentrated on the south, where they were told there was a large Loyalist population ready to leap to arms once the royal forces arrived. The British took control of Savannah and Charleston, capturing

4998-596: The United States Census Bureau , A survey conducted by social geographers in 2010 selected thirteen states as the cultural south; Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Florida, Virginia, West Virginia, and Oklahoma. The Southern region of the United States includes sixteen states. As of 2010, an estimated 114,555,744 people, or thirty seven percent of all U.S. residents, lived in

5145-406: The green anole , the venomous cottonmouth snake, and the American alligator , mammals like the American black bear , the swamp rabbit , and the nine-banded armadillo , and birds such as the roseate spoonbill and the extinct but symbolic carolina parakeet . The question of how to define the boundaries and subregions in the South has long been the focus of research and debate. As defined by

5292-717: The military to disperse protesters by invoking the Insurrection Act of 1807 . Federal law enforcement agencies were eventually deployed to assist local authorities and protect public property in Washington, D.C. Southern United States The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie , also referred to as the Southern States , the American South , the Southland , Dixieland , or simply

5439-407: The state legislature in 1876, but even so, the community had been relatively small through the 19th century. While blacks in 1900 were only about one percent of the total population of a city that had seen large European immigration, Chicago's black population expanded dramatically in the early years of the 20th century. By 1910, thousands of African Americans were moving from the South to Chicago, as

5586-472: The 11th Illinois Infantry Regiment and its machine gun company, as well as the 1st, 2nd and 3rd reserve militia, a total of 3,500 men. The Cook County Sheriff deputized between 1,000 and 2,000 ex-soldiers to help keep the peace. With the reserves and militia guarding the Black Belt, the city arranged for emergency provisions to provide its residents with food. White groups delivered food and supplies to

5733-606: The 16th century, reaching a peak in the late 17th century, but the population was small because the Spaniards were relatively uninterested in agriculture, and Florida had no mineral resources. There were regional differences in the Southern colonies, with the three main regions of Tidewater , the Deep South , and Appalachia . The first region to be settled was Tidewater, containing the low-lying plains of southeast Virginia , northeastern North Carolina , southern Maryland and

5880-446: The Black Belt to prevent further white attacks. The majority of the rioting, murder, and arson was committed by white ethnic groups attacking the Black Belt on the South Side, while most of the casualties and property damage were suffered by black Chicagoans. Newspaper accounts noted numerous attempts at arson. For instance, on July 31, more than 30 arson fires were started in the Black Belt before noon, while rioters stretched cables across

6027-741: The British Governor Dunmore of Virginia's promise of freedom for service. Many others were removed by Loyalist owners and became slaves elsewhere in the British Empire. Between 1770 and 1790, there was a sharp decline in the percentage of blacks – from 61% to 44% in South Carolina and from 45% to 36% in Georgia. In addition, some slaveholders were inspired to free their slaves after the Revolution. They were moved by

Chicago race riot of 1919 - Misplaced Pages Continue

6174-737: The British Navy. The British Navy did arrive, but so did a stronger French fleet, and Cornwallis was trapped. American and French armies, led by George Washington, forced Cornwallis to surrender his entire army in Yorktown, Virginia in October 1781, effectively winning the North American part of the war. The Revolution provided a shock to slavery in the South and other regions of the new country. Thousands of slaves took advantage of wartime disruption to find their own freedom, catalyzed by

6321-637: The British at the Battle of Kemp's Landing in Virginia. Led by Nathanael Greene and other generals, the Americans engaged in Fabian tactics designed to wear down the British invasion force and to neutralize its strong points one by one. There were numerous battles large and small, with each side claiming some victories. By 1781, however, British General Cornwallis moved north to Virginia, where an approaching army forced him to fortify and await rescue by

6468-665: The California Indian Catastrophe, 1846–1873 by Benjamin Madley among others. Madley's book caused California governor Jerry Brown to recognize the genocide. In a speech before representatives of Native American peoples in June, 2019, California governor Gavin Newsom apologized for the genocide. Newsom said, "That's what it was, a genocide. No other way to describe it. And that's the way it needs to be described in

6615-697: The Census definition, two U.S. territories located southeast of Florida ( Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands ) are sometimes included as part of the Southern United States. The Federal Aviation Administration includes Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands as part of the South, as does the Agricultural Research Service and the U.S. National Park Service . The first well-dated evidence of human occupation in

6762-479: The Civil War, the South was devastated in terms of infrastructure and economy. Because of states' reluctance to grant voting rights to freedmen, Congress instituted Reconstruction governments. It established military districts and governors to rule over the South until new governments could be established. Many white Southerners who had actively supported the Confederacy were temporarily disenfranchised. Rebuilding

6909-553: The Confederacy. Though early in the war, the Confederacy controlled more than half of Kentucky and the southern portion of Missouri. By March 1862, the Union largely controlled all the border state areas, had shut down all commercial traffic from all Confederate ports, had prevented European recognition of the Confederate government, and was poised to seize New Orleans. The rugged mountainous East Tennessee region attempted to rejoin

7056-610: The Director of the Harlem-based Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture has identified more than 100 instances of mass racial violence in the United States since 1935 and has noted that almost every instance was precipitated by a police incident. The Cincinnati riots of 2001 were caused by the killing of 19-year-old African-American Timothy Thomas by white police officer Stephen Roach, who

7203-642: The East Coast to the Great Lakes. Some noted explorers who encountered and described the Mississippian culture, by then in decline, included Pánfilo de Narváez (1528), Hernando de Soto (1540), and Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville (1699). Native American descendants of the mound-builders include Alabama , Apalachee , Caddo , Cherokee , Chickasaw , Choctaw , Creek , Guale , Hitchiti , Houma , and Seminole peoples, all of whom still reside in

7350-544: The June assassination of Robert F. Kennedy in Los Angeles also led to nationwide rioting with similar mass deaths. During the same time period, and since then, numerous violent acts committed against African-American churches have been reported. Today racial violence has changed dramatically, because openly violent acts of racism are less prevalent, but acts of police brutality and the mass incarceration of racial minorities are continuing to be major issues within

7497-586: The Mississippi River in 1863. In the East, however, the Confederate Army under Robert E. Lee beat off attack after attack in its defense of their capital at Richmond. But when Lee tried to move north, he was repulsed (and nearly captured) at Sharpsburg (1862) and Gettysburg (1863). The Confederacy had the resources for a short war, but was unable to finance or supply a longer war. It reversed

SECTION 50

#1732772118070

7644-811: The South ) is one of the four census regions defined by the United States Census Bureau . It is between the Atlantic Ocean and the Western United States , with the Midwestern and Northeastern United States to its north and the Gulf of Mexico and Mexico to its south. Historically, the South was defined as all states south of the 18th-century Mason–Dixon line , the Ohio River , and 36°30′ parallel . Within

7791-404: The South Side bordered a neighborhood of Irish Americans existing since the mid-19th century, and the two groups competed for low-end jobs and housing, alongside earlier waves of immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe. Ethnic groups were possessive of their neighborhoods, which their young men often patrolled against outsiders. Because of agricultural problems, Southern whites also migrated to

7938-441: The South Side. By 1920, the area held 85% of Chicago's African Americans, whether middle class , upper class or poor . In the post-war period, military veterans of all groups were looking to re-enter the work force despite the post-war economic slump. Some whites resented African-American veterans . At the same time, African-American veterans exhibited greater militancy and pride serving to protect their country, in units such as

8085-409: The South and Eastern United States and were sent to Oklahoma. By 1856, the South had lost control of Congress, and was no longer able to silence calls for an end to slavery – which came mostly from the more populated, free states of the North. The Republican Party, founded in 1854, pledged to stop the spread of slavery beyond those states where it already existed. After Abraham Lincoln

8232-602: The South are different subregions such as the Southeast , South Central , Upper South , and Deep South . Maryland , Delaware , Washington, D.C. , and Northern Virginia have become more culturally, economically, and politically aligned in certain aspects with the Northeastern United States and are sometimes identified as part of the Northeast or Mid-Atlantic . The United States Census Bureau continues to define all four places as formally being in

8379-463: The South generally has a reputation as hot and humid, with long summers and short, mild winters. Most of the South—except for the areas of higher elevations and areas near the western, southern, and some northern fringes—falls in the humid subtropical climate zone. Crops grow readily in the South due to its climate consistently providing growing seasons of at least six months before the first frost. Some common environments include bayous and swamplands,

8526-445: The South include: Historically, the South was defined as all states south of the 18th century Mason–Dixon line , the Ohio River , and 36°30′ parallel . Newer definitions of the South today are harder to define, due to cultural and sub-regional differences throughout the region; however, definitions usually refer to states that are in the southeastern and south central geographic region of the United States. Although not included in

8673-498: The South, the College of William & Mary , was founded in 1693 in Virginia; it pioneered in the teaching of political economy and educated future U.S. Presidents Jefferson , Monroe and Tyler , all from Virginia. Indeed, the entire region dominated politics in the First Party System era: for example, four of the first five presidents – Washington , Jefferson , Madison and Monroe  – were from Virginia. The two oldest public universities are also in

8820-449: The South, the nation's most populous region. The Census Bureau defined three smaller divisions: The Council of State Governments , an organization for communication and coordination between states, includes in its South regional office the states of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia. Other terms related to

8967-479: The South. Other peoples whose ancestral links to the Mississippian culture are less clear, but those who were in the region before the European incursion include the Catawba and the Powhatan . The arrival of European settlers caused a massive population decline in Native Americans , due to Europeans unknowingly spreading diseases that the natives had no immunities towards, numerous violent conflicts, and forcibly relocating them. The predominant culture of

SECTION 60

#1732772118070

9114-413: The South. To account for cultural variations across the region, some scholars have proposed definitions of the South that do not coincide neatly with state boundaries. The South does not precisely correspond to the entire geographic south of the United States, but primarily includes the south-central and southeastern states. For example, California, which is geographically in the southwestern part of

9261-428: The South: the University of North Carolina (1789) and the University of Georgia (1785). Slavery was legal in all of the Thirteen Colonies prior to the American Revolution in 1776. Britain had slave island colonies in the Caribbean , including Jamaica , Barbados , Nevis , and Antigua , which provided a steady flow of profits from the slave labor that produced sugar. The Southern Colonies differed in that

9408-415: The Southern United States as being authoritarian enclaves from Reconstruction until the Civil Rights Act of 1964 . When looked at broadly, studies have shown that Southerners tend to be more conservative than most non-Southerners, with liberalism being mostly predominant in places with a Black majority or urban areas in the South. Although historically a Democratic stronghold , most states in

9555-400: The Southern transportation system depended primarily on river and coastal traffic by boat; both were shut down by the Union Navy . The small railroad system virtually collapsed, so that by 1864 internal travel was so difficult that the Confederate economy was crippled. The Confederate cause was hopeless by the time Atlanta fell and William T. Sherman marched through Georgia in late 1864, but

9702-520: The Southside, where Irish Americans and Black residents were crowded into substandard housing and competed with each other for jobs at the stockyards. The Irish Americans had lived in the city for a longer period of time, and they also organized themselves around athletic and political clubs. Violence broke out across the city in late July. White mobs, many of which were organized around Irish athletic clubs, pulled Black people off trolley cars, attacked Black businesses, and beat victims. City officials closed

9849-421: The Stock Yards on August 3, the management banned African-American employees from the stockyards in fear of further rioting. Governor Lowden noted his opinion that the troubles were related to labor issues rather than race. Nearly one-third of the African-American employees were non-union, and were resented by union employees for that reason. African-American workers were kept out of the stockyards for ten days after

9996-415: The Union as a new state , having opposed secession and slavery compared to most of Tennessee. In the four years of war 1861–65 the South was the primary battleground, with all but two of the major battles taking place on Southern soil. Union forces led numerous campaigns into the western Confederacy, controlling the border states in 1861, the Tennessee River, the Cumberland River and New Orleans in 1862, and

10143-477: The United States , particularly against American indians , who were forced off their lands and relocated to reservations . Along with them, Chinese Americans in the Pacific Northwest and African Americans throughout the United States (particularly in the American south ) were rounded up and expunged from towns under threat of mob rule, the white mobs frequently intended to harm their African American targets . Following California 's transition to statehood,

10290-566: The United States dropped from the 1880s to the 1920s, but there were still an average of about 30 lynchings per year during the 1920s. A study of 100 lynchings which was conducted from 1929 to 1940 revealed that at least one third of the victims were innocent of the crimes of which they were accused. Labor and immigrant conflicts were sources of tensions that served as catalysts for the East St. Louis riot of 1917. White rioters killed an between 39 and 150 Black residents of East St. Louis, after Black residents had killed two White policemen, mistaking

10437-452: The United States. From 1860 to 1861, eleven Southern states plus an additional two Southern states that were claimed and partially controlled seceded from the Union , forming the Confederate States of America . Following the American Civil War , these states were subsequently added back to the Union. Sociological research indicates that Southern collective identity stems from political, historical, demographic, and cultural distinctiveness from

10584-452: The United States. The war on drugs has been noted as a direct cause of the dramatic increase in the number of incarcerations in the nation's prison system, which has risen from 300,000 in 1980 to more than 2,000,000 in 2000, though it does not account for the disproportionately high African American homicide and crime rates, which peaked before the War on Drugs began. During the 1980s and '90s

10731-780: The United States. The beating and rumored death of cab driver John Smith by police, sparked the 1967 Newark riots . This event became, per capita, one of the deadliest civil disturbances of the 1960s. The long and short term causes of the Newark riots are explored in depth in the documentary film Revolution '67 and many news reports of the times. The riots in Newark spread across the United States in most major cities and over 100 deaths were reported. Many inner city neighborhoods in these cities were destroyed. The April 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in Memphis, Tennessee and

10878-411: The arguments over states' rights that culminated in secession and the Civil War. One of these issues concerned the protective tariffs enacted to assist the growth of the manufacturing sector, primarily in the North. In 1832, in resistance to federal legislation increasing tariffs, South Carolina passed an ordinance of nullification , a procedure in which a state would, in effect, repeal a Federal law. Soon

11025-654: The car which they were riding in for another car which was full of White occupants who previously drove through a Black neighborhood and randomly fired their guns into a crowd of Black people. Other White-on-Black race riots included the Atlanta riots (1906), the Omaha and Chicago riots (1919), some of a series of riots which occurred in the volatile post- World War I environment, and the Tulsa massacre (1921). The Chicago race riot of 1919 grew out of tensions which existed on

11172-577: The causes and to propose solutions to racial tensions. Their conclusions were published by the University of Chicago Press as The Negro in Chicago: A Study of Race Relations and a Race Riot . U.S. President Woodrow Wilson and the U.S. Congress attempted to promote legislation and organizations to decrease racial discord in America. Governor Lowden took several actions at Thompson's request to quell

11319-415: The city as a result of the riots and damage. Illinois Attorney General Edward Brundage and State's Attorney Hoyne gathered evidence to prepare for a grand-jury investigation. The stated intention was to pursue all perpetrators and to seek the death penalty as necessary. On August 4, 1919, seventeen indictments against African Americans were handed down. Richard J. Daley was a member, and years later

11466-582: The city, about 20,000 by this period. The rapid influx of migrants caused overcrowding from a lack of low-cost housing. "Earlier in 1919, there were race riots in Memphis, Tenn.; Charleston, S.C.; and Philadelphia, so his editor sent [Carl] Sandburg to take the pulse of Chicago's impoverished areas. [¶] Walking its streets, Sandburg foresaw an inevitable clash between dreams and fears. Black Southerners had come to Chicago envisioning opportunities long denied them. "A door once inscribed, 'No hope,' now says, 'There

11613-634: The codes are not an exact copy, such as Virginia and Maryland , the influence of the Barbados Slave Code can be traced throughout various provisions. In the mid-to-late-18th century, large groups of Ulster Scots (later called the Scotch-Irish ) and people from the Anglo-Scottish border region immigrated and settled in the back country of Appalachia and the Piedmont . They were the largest group of non-English immigrants from

11760-399: The competitive labor and housing markets. Overcrowding and increased African-American resistance against racism, especially by war veterans , contributed to the racial tension, as did white-ethnic gangs unrestrained by police. The turmoil came to a boil during a summer heat wave with the murder of the 17-year-old Eugene Williams, an African-American teenager who inadvertently had drifted into

11907-407: The country, is not considered part of the South. However, the geographically southeastern state of Georgia is. The South, being home to some of the most racially diverse areas in the United States, is known for having developed its own distinct culture , with different customs, fashion, architecture , musical styles , and cuisines , which have distinguished it in many ways from other areas of

12054-420: The deaths took place in what he defined as more than 370 massacres (defined as the "intentional killing of five or more disarmed combatants or largely unarmed noncombatants, including women, children, and prisoners, whether in the context of a battle or otherwise"). Professor Ed Castillo , of Sonoma State University , estimates that more were killed: "The handiwork of these well armed death squads combined with

12201-581: The eleven Confederate states, states such as Tennessee (especially East Tennessee ), Virginia (which included West Virginia at the time), and North Carolina were home to the largest populations of Unionists. Many areas of Southern Appalachia harbored pro-Union sentiment as well. As many as 100,000 men living in states under Confederate control would serve in the Union Army or pro-Union guerrilla groups. Although Southern Unionists came from all classes, most differed socially, culturally, and economically from

12348-553: The end of the 15th century – the Mississippian culture . The Mississippian culture was a complex, mound-building Native American culture that flourished in what is now the Southeastern United States from approximately 800 AD to 1500 AD. Natives had elaborate and lengthy trading routes connecting their main residential and ceremonial centers extending through the river valleys and from

12495-464: The end of the riot because of continued unrest. On August 8, 1919, about 3,000 non- union African Americans showed up for work under protection of special police, deputy sheriffs , and militia . The white union employees threatened to strike unless such security forces were discontinued. Their main grievance against African Americans was that they were non-union and had been used by management as strikebreakers in earlier years. Many African Americans fled

12642-456: The federal bureaucracy imposed at the beginning of his first term in office, however. The Chicago Race Riot of 1919 shocked the nation and raised awareness of the problems that African Americans faced every day in the early 20th century United States. Float , a public art performance conducted by Jefferson Pinder in 2019, commemorated the death by stoning of Eugene Williams, the first victim at 29th Street Beach, who accidentally had floated into

12789-419: The federal government originally stationed troops in the South in order to protect these new freedoms, this time of progress was cut short. By 1877, the North had lost its political will in the South and while slavery was gone, Jim Crow laws erased most of the freedoms which were guaranteed by the 14th and 15th amendments. Through violent economic tactics and legal technicalities, were gradually removed from

12936-546: The first major group of 19th-century European immigrants to settle in the city, the Irish had established formal and informal political strength. The Irish had long patrolled their neighborhood boundaries against all other ethnic groups, especially African Americans, and, as white-ethnic gangs began attacking people in African-American neighborhoods, the police — overwhelmingly white and increasingly Irish American — seemed little inclined to stop them. An example of ethnic territoriality

13083-494: The history books." Riots which are defined by " race " have taken place between ethnic groups in the United States since at least the 18th century and they may have also occurred before it. During the early-to-mid- 19th centuries, violent rioting occurred between Protestant " Nativists " and recently arrived Irish Catholic immigrants. The San Francisco Vigilance Movements of 1851 and 1856 have been described as responses to rampant crime and government corruption. But, since

13230-510: The institution became even more deeply an integral part of the South's economy. With the opening up of frontier lands after the government forced most Native Americans to move west of the Mississippi, there was a major migration of both whites and blacks to those territories. From the 1820s through the 1850s, more than one million enslaved Africans were transported to the Deep South in forced migration, two-thirds of them by slave traders and

13377-567: The invention of the cotton gin , short staple cotton could be grown more widely. This led to an explosion of cotton cultivation, especially in the frontier uplands of Georgia, Alabama and other parts of the Deep South, as well as riverfront areas of the Mississippi Delta. Migrants poured into those areas in the early decades of the 19th century, when county population figures rose and fell as swells of people kept moving west. The expansion of cotton cultivation required more slave labor, and

13524-500: The jurors to walk out. "What the ------ is the matter with the state's attorney? Hasn’t he got any white cases to present?" a juror complained. The jury then deferred hearing evidence of all cases against African Americans until whites were also charged. Similarly a judge lectured police: "I want to explain to you officers that these colored people could not have been rioting among themselves. Bring me some white prisoners." Roaming gangs of Bridgeport whites, mostly Irish, perpetrated much of

13671-520: The labor-intensive cultivation of tobacco, the first cash crop of Virginia. Tobacco exhausted the soil quickly, requiring that farmers regularly clear new fields. They used old fields as pasture, and for crops such as corn wheat, or allowed them to grow into woodlots. The Barbados Slave Code served as the basis for the slave codes adopted in the British American colonies, including Carolina , Georgia , and Antigua . In other colonies where

13818-451: The lakeshore further into the lake) The Chicago Race Riots Commemoration Project (CRR19), launched in 2019, is working to install 38 markers around the South Side to pay tribute to the 38 lives that were lost. The first five markers were unveiled at a ceremony in June of 2024. CRR19 also hosts an annual bike tour in late July that explores the history of the Chicago race riots of 1919 and the city's legacy of residential segregation. In 2021,

13965-574: The land in return for their financial and political assistance in restoring him to the throne in 1660. The granted lands included all or part of the present-day U.S. states of North Carolina, Tennessee, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida. In the British colonies, immigration began in 1607 and continued until the outbreak of the Revolution in 1775. Settlers cleared land, built houses and outbuildings, and on their own farms. The Southern rich owned large plantations that dominated export agriculture and used slaves. Many were involved in

14112-504: The land to farm for a while. Some freedpeople left the South altogether for states such as Ohio and Indiana, and later, Kansas. Thousands of others joined the migration to new opportunities in the Mississippi and Arkansas Delta bottomlands, and Texas. With passage of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States (which outlawed slavery), the 14th Amendment (which granted full U.S. citizenship to African Americans) and

14259-690: The late 19th and early 20th centuries, Italian immigrants were subjected to racial violence. In 1891, eleven Italians were lynched by a mob of thousands in New Orleans . In the 1890s, a total of twenty Italians were lynched in the South . As the American Civil War ended, antislavery political forces demanded rights for ex-slaves. This led to the passage of the 14th and 15th amendments, which theoretically granted African-American and other minority males equality and voting rights. Although

14406-612: The late 19th century, historians have noted that the vigilantes had a nativist bias; they systematically attacked Irish immigrants, and later, they attacked Mexicans and Chileans who came as miners during the California Gold Rush , as well as Chinese immigrants. During the early 20th century, whites committed acts of racial or ethnic violence against Filipinos , Japanese , and Armenians , all of whom had arrived in California during waves of immigration. During

14553-419: The line established by the military, who passed them on to African Americans for distribution within the Black Belt. While industry was closed, the packing plants arranged to deliver pay to certain places in the city so that African-American men could pick up their wages. Once order was restored, Lowden was urged to create a state committee to study the cause of the riots. He proposed forming a committee to write

14700-672: The mid-to-late-1870s, some upper class Southerners created increasing resistance to the altered social structure. Paramilitary organizations such as the White League in Louisiana (1874), the Red Shirts in Mississippi (1875) and rifle clubs, all "White Line" organizations, used organized violence against Republicans , both black and white, to remove Republicans from political office, repress and bar black voting, and restore

14847-532: The murders of Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd sparked racial unrest over systemic racism and police brutality against African Americans. Riots during the summer resulted in destruction of property, mass looting, monument removals , and incidences of violence by counter-protesters and police across the United States. The Trump administration condemned violence during the movement and responded by threatening to quell demonstrations, for which it drew criticism. In June, president Donald Trump threatened to use

14994-632: The number of immigrants arriving at Southern ports began to increase, although the North continued to receive the most immigrants. Huguenots were among the first settlers in Charleston, along with the largest number of Orthodox Jews outside of New York City. Numerous Irish immigrants settled in New Orleans, establishing a distinct ethnic enclave now known as the Irish Channel . Germans also went to New Orleans and its environs, resulting in

15141-426: The open at lunchroom counters, buses, polling places and local public areas. These protests did not eviscerate racism, but they prevented racism from being expressed out in the open and forced it to be expressed in more coded or metaphorical linguistic terms. By the 1960s, decades of racial, economic, and political forces, which generated inner city poverty, resulted in race riots within minority areas in cities across

15288-816: The original Southern states was English . In the 17th century, most voluntary immigrants were of English origin and settled chiefly along the eastern coast but had pushed as far inland as the Appalachian Mountains by the 18th century. The majority of early English settlers were indentured servants , who gained freedom after working off their passage. The wealthier men, typically members of the English landed gentry , who paid their way received land grants known as headrights to encourage settlement. The Spanish and French established settlements in Florida , Texas , and Louisiana . The Spanish settled Florida in

15435-559: The others by masters who moved there. Planters in the Upper South sold slaves in excess of their needs as they shifted from tobacco to mixed agriculture. Many enslaved families were broken up, as planters preferred mostly strong males for field work. Two major political issues that festered in the first half of the 19th century caused political alignment along sectional lines, strengthened the identities of North and South as distinct regions with certain strongly opposed interests, and fed

15582-584: The perpetrators and their supporters openly acknowledged a desire to destroy the Indians as an ethnic entity, might indeed be regarded under the terms of the convention as exhibiting genocidal intent ." By one estimate, at least 4,500 California Indians were killed between 1849 and 1870. Contemporary historian Benjamin Madley has documented the numbers of California Indians killed between 1846 and 1873; he estimates that during this period at least 9,400 to 16,000 California Indians were killed by non-Indians. Most of

15729-428: The primary instigators of the racial violence. For weeks, in the spring and summer of 1919, they had been anticipating, even eagerly awaiting, a race riot" and, "On several occasions, they themselves had endeavored to precipitate one, and now that racial violence threatened to become generalized and unrestrained throughout Chicago, they were set to exploit the chaos." Early reports detailed injuries to police officers and

15876-468: The principles of the Revolution, along with Quaker and Methodist preachers who worked to encourage slaveholders to free their slaves. Planters such as George Washington often freed slaves by their wills. In the Upper South , more than 10% of all blacks were free by 1810, a significant expansion from pre-war proportions of less than 1% free. Cotton became dominant in the lower South after 1800. After

16023-463: The proportion of their populations that were African American slaves was much higher than in the Middle Colonies and New England Colonies , as shown on the map. According to Bertram Wyatt-Brown , "Bondage was an answer to an economic need. The South was not founded to create slavery; slavery was recruited to perpetuate the South." The Barbados Slave Code of 1661 served as the basis for

16170-563: The racially segregated area of Lake Michigan. In it, an interracial group of participants were arranged on the water, floating near a Chicago beach. In 2019, Eve Ewing published a collection of poetry on the Chicago Race Riots of 1919, called 1919 . A boulder at 29th Street near the lakefront, with a plaque installed in 2009, commemorates the Race Riots. (29th Street Beach no longer exists, as land reclamation has extended

16317-572: The rebels fought on until Lee's army surrendered in April 1865. Once the Confederate forces surrendered, the region moved into the Reconstruction Era (1865–1877), in a partially successful attempt to rebuild the destroyed region and grant civil rights to freed slaves. Southerners who were against the Confederate cause during the Civil War were known as Southern Unionists . They were also known as Union Loyalists or Lincoln's Loyalists. Within

16464-624: The region have in recent decades come to favor Republicans , although both the Republican and Democratic Party are competitive in certain Southern swing states . The region contains almost all of the Bible Belt , an area of high Protestant church attendance, especially evangelical churches such as the Southern Baptist Convention . Historically, the South relied heavily on agriculture as its main economic base and

16611-446: The region were historically dominated by a small rural elite. The historical and cultural development of the South has been profoundly influenced by the institution of slave labor , especially in the Deep South and coastal plain areas, from the early 1600s to mid-1800s. This includes the presence of a large proportion of African Americans within the population, support for the doctrine of states' rights , and legacy of racism magnified by

16758-444: The regions dominant pre-war planter class . The South suffered more than the North overall, as the Union strategy of attrition warfare meant that Lee could not replace his casualties, and the total war waged by Sherman, Sheridan and other Union armies devastated the infrastructure and caused widespread poverty and distress. The Confederacy suffered military losses of 95,000 soldiers killed in action and 165,000 who died of disease, for

16905-429: The rest of the United States; however, this has declined since around the late 20th century, with many Southern areas becoming a melting pot of cultures and people. Ethnic groups in the South were the most diverse among American regions, and include strong European (especially English , Scots-Irish , Scottish , Irish , French , and Spanish ), African , and Native American ancestries. The politics and economy of

17052-434: The riot and promote greater harmony in its aftermath. Sections of Chicago industry were shut down for several days during and after the riots to avoid interaction among the opposing groups. Thompson drew on his association with the riot to influence later political elections. One of the most lasting effects may have been decisions in both white and black communities to seek greater racial separation. Unlike Southern cities at

17199-516: The riots. In 1930, Mayor William Hale Thompson , a flamboyant Republican, invoked the riot in a misleading pamphlet urging African Americans to vote against the Republican nominee, Rep. Ruth Hanna McCormick , in the United States Senate race for her late husband's seat. She was the widow of Sen . Joseph Medill McCormick as well as the sister-in-law of Chicago Tribune publisher Robert Rutherford McCormick . The McCormicks were

17346-548: The slave codes adopted in the British American colonies of the Province of Carolina and the Province of Georgia . In other colonies where the slaves codes were not an exact copy, such as the Colony of Virginia and the Province of Maryland , the influence of the Barbados Slave Code can be traced throughout various provisions. During the American Revolutionary War , the Southern colonies helped embrace

17493-462: The social changes engendered by World War I . With the Great Migration , thousands of African Americans from the American South had settled next to neighborhoods of European immigrants on Chicago's South Side, near jobs in the stockyards , meatpacking plants, and industry. Meanwhile, the long-established Irish fiercely defended their neighborhoods and political power against all newcomers. Post-World War I racism and social tensions built up in

17640-513: The south United States occurs around 9500 BC with the appearance of the earliest documented Americans, who are now referred to as Paleo-Indians . Paleoindians were hunter-gatherers that roamed in bands and frequently hunted megafauna . Several cultural stages, such as Archaic ( c.  8000 –1000 BC) and the Woodland ( c.  1000 BC – AD 1000), preceded what the Europeans found at

17787-532: The southern pine forests , the warm temperate montane forest of the Appalachians, the savannas of the southern Great Plains, and the subtropical jungle and maritime forests along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts. Unique flora include various species of magnolia, rhododendron, cane, palm, and oak, among others. Fauna of the region is also diverse, encompassing a plethora of amphibian species, reptiles such as

17934-426: The state and federal governments paying millions of dollars to militias to murder Indians, while many starved on Federal Reservations because of their caloric distribution reducing from 480–910 to 160–390 and between 1,680 and 3,741 California Indians were killed by the U.S. Army themselves. Between 1850 and 1852 the state appropriated almost one million dollars for the activities of militias, and between 1854 and 1859

18081-402: The state appropriated another $ 500,000, almost half of which was reimbursed by the federal government. Guenter Lewy , famous for the phrase "In the end, the sad fate of America's Indians represents not a crime but a tragedy, involving an irreconcilable collision of cultures and values" wrote that what happened in California may constitute genocide: "some of the massacres in California, where both

18228-444: The state of Kentucky attempted to remain neutral, and it could only do so briefly. When Lincoln called for troops to suppress what he referred to as "combinations too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary" judicial or martial means, four more states decided to secede and join the Confederacy (which then moved its capital to Richmond, Virginia). Although the Confederacy had large supplies of captured munitions and many volunteers, it

18375-575: The street car system, but the rioting continued. A total of 23 Black people and 15 White people were killed. The 1921 Tulsa race massacre took place in Greenwood , which was a prosperous Black neighborhood in Tulsa, Oklahoma, home to around 10,000 Black residents and frequently called America's Black Wall Street. The race riot was precipitated by 19-year-old Dick Rowland , a shoeshine accused of attacking 17-year-old White elevator operator Sarah Page at

18522-493: The streets to keep out fire trucks. The Chicago mayor's office was informed of a plan to burn down the black area and run its residents out of town. There were also sporadic violent attacks in other parts of the city, including the Chicago Loop . Because of the rioting, 38 people died (23 African American and 15 white), and another 537 were injured, two-thirds of them African American; African-American patrolman John W. Simpson

18669-489: The time, Chicago did not segregate most public accommodations. According to Walter Francis White of the NAACP , pre-1915 Chicago had a good reputation for equitable treatment of African Americans. However, in the early 20th-century, Chicago beaches were unofficially racially segregated. African Americans had a long history in Chicago, with the city sending Illinois's first African-American representative, John W. E. Thomas , to

18816-478: The top news story of 2014 was police killings of unarmed Black people, including Brown, as well as the investigations and the protests afterward. During the 2017 Unite the Right rally , an attendee drove his car into a crowd of people protesting the rally, killing 32-year-old Heather D. Heyer and injuring 19 others, and was indicted on federal hate crime charges. In 2020, the police killing of Breonna Taylor and

18963-462: The traditional low-tariff policy of the South by imposing a new 15% tax on all imports from the Union. The Union blockade stopped most commerce from entering the South, and smugglers avoided the tax, so the Confederate tariff produced too little revenue to finance the war. Inflated currency was the solution, but that created distrust of the Richmond government. Because of low investment in railroads,

19110-509: The two races until the Indian race becomes extinct, must be expected. While we cannot anticipate the result with but painful regret, the inevitable destiny of the race is beyond the power and wisdom of man to avert." California state forces, private militias, Federal reservations, and sections of the US Army all participated in the campaign that caused the deaths of many California Indians with

19257-620: The violence. Although the local newspapers carried accounts of African Americans setting fires, "later the office of State Fire Marshal Gamber proved conclusively that the fires were not caused by Blacks, but by whites." The New York Times coverage of the riot clearly conveyed that whites were responsible for coordinated large-scale arson against black areas and for numerous mob attacks. With early police failures to arrest whites (other than for Williams's death), most deaths were not prosecuted, and only two white Chicagoans were ultimately convicted of murder. The one man prosecuted for Williams's death

19404-491: The violent events of Red Summer across the nation and in Chicago. The postwar period also found tensions rising in numerous rapidly growing cities where people from different cultures jostled against each other and competed for space. In 1917, the privately run Chicago Real Estate Board established a policy of block-by-block segregation. New arrivals in the Great Migration generally settled in older black neighborhoods on

19551-550: The voting process . Lynching is defined as “a form of violence in which a mob, under the pretext of administering justice without a trial, executes a presumed offender, often after inflicting torture and corporal mutilation on him or her.” It was a particularly ritualistic form of murder , and it frequently involved the majority of the members of the local White community. Lynchings were sometimes announced in advance and they were frequently turned into spectacle lynchings which audiences could witness. The number of lynchings in

19698-621: The widespread random killing of Indians by individual miners resulted in the death of 100,000 Indians in the first two years of the gold rush." Numerous books have been written on the subject of the California Indian genocide, such as Genocide and Vendetta: The Round Valley Wars in Northern California by Lynwood Carranco and Estle Beard, Murder State: California's Native American Genocide, 1846–1873 by Brendan C. Lindsay, and An American Genocide: The United States and

19845-402: Was a cosmopolitan port with a variety of jobs that attracted more immigrants than other areas of the South. Because of lack of investment, however, construction of railroads to span the region lagged behind the North. People relied most heavily on river traffic for getting their crops to market and for transportation. Between 1830 and 1850, Native Americans were removed from their home states in

19992-672: Was acquitted. The rioting impacted Chicago's economy . Low-income areas, such as tenement housing , were especially impacted as areas of possible riots. Some of the South Side's industry was closed during the riot. Businesses in the Loop also were affected by closure of the street cars. Many workers stayed away from affected areas. At the Union Stock Yard , one of Chicago's largest employers, all 15,000 African-American workers initially were expected to return to work on Monday, August 4, 1919. But after arson near white employees' homes near

20139-514: Was difficult as people grappled with the effects of a new labor economy of a free market in the midst of a widespread agricultural depression. In addition, the limited infrastructure the South had was mostly destroyed by the war. At the same time, the North was rapidly industrializing. To avoid the social effects of the war, most of the Southern states initially passed black codes . During Reconstruction, these were mostly legally nullified by federal law and anti-Confederate legislatures, which existed for

20286-622: Was elected president, of the Hamburg Athletic Club in Bridgeport. Daley served as Chicago's mayor from 1955 to 1976. In his long political career, he never confirmed or denied involvement in the riots. Illinois Governor Frank Lowden appointed In 1922, six whites and six African Americans were commissioned to discover the true roots of the riots. The commission's final report, submitted on January 1st, 1921 and primarily written by Charles S. Johnson , claimed that returning soldiers from World War I not receiving their original jobs and homes instigated

20433-480: Was elected the first Republican president in 1860, seven cotton states declared their secession and formed the Confederate States of America before Lincoln was inaugurated. The United States government, both outgoing and incoming, refused to recognize the Confederacy, and when the new Confederate President Jefferson Davis ordered his troops to open fire on Fort Sumter in April 1861, war broke out. Only

20580-469: Was initially finessed by political compromises designed to balance the number of "free" and "slave" states. The issue resurfaced in a more virulent form, however, around the time of the Mexican–American War , which raised the stakes by adding new territories primarily on the Southern side of the imaginary geographic divide. Congress opposed allowing slavery in these territories. Before the Civil War,

20727-470: Was predominantly rural until after World War II . Since the 1940s, the region has become more economically diversified and metropolitan , helping attract both national and international migrants. In the 21st century, it is the fastest-growing region in the United States, with Houston being the region's largest city. The South is a diverse meteorological region with numerous climatic zones, including temperate , sub-tropical , tropical , and arid —though

20874-567: Was slower than the Union in dealing with the border states. While the Upland South border states of Kentucky, Missouri, West Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware, as well as the District of Columbia , continued to permit slavery during the Civil War, they remained with the Union though Kentucky and Missouri both had rival Confederate governments that formed that were admitted and recognized by

21021-433: Was struck in the forehead. He then panicked, lost his grip on the railroad tie, and drowned. The assailant ran toward 29th Street, where a different fight already had started when African Americans tried to use a section of the beach there, in defiance of its tacit segregation. The rioting escalated when a white police officer refused to arrest the man who threw the stone at Williams. He instead arrested an African American on

21168-571: Was subsequently acquitted on charges of negligent homicide. The 2014 Ferguson unrest occurred against a backdrop of racial tension between police and the Black community of Ferguson, Missouri in the wake of the police shooting of Michael Brown ; similar incidents elsewhere such as the killing of Trayvon Martin sparked smaller and isolated protests. According to the Associated Press ' annual poll of United States news directors and editors,

21315-634: Was the Bridgeport community area , an Irish neighborhood just west of the Black Belt . There, the Hamburg Athletic Club, whose members included a 17-year-old Richard J. Daley , future mayor of Chicago, contributed to gang violence in the area. Meanwhile, newspapers carried sensational accounts of African-American crime. Longstanding racial tensions between whites and blacks exploded in five days of violence that started on July 27, 1919. On that hot summer day, on an unofficially segregated Chicago beach,

21462-407: Was the only policeman killed in the riot. Approximately 1,000 residents were left homeless after the fires. Many African-American families left by train during the riot, returning to their families in the South. To help restore order, Chief of Police John J. Garrity closed "all places where men congregate for other than religious purposes". Illinois Governor Frank Lowden authorized the deployment of

21609-414: Was the wealthiest city in the country and the third largest in population. The success of the city was based on the growth of international trade associated with products being shipped to and from the interior of the country down the Mississippi River. New Orleans also had the largest slave market in the country, as traders brought slaves by ship and overland to sell to planters across the Deep South. The city

#69930