27 July-3 August 1919: The Chicago Race Riot—Economic migration, veterans returning from the World War, & a heat wave exploded into rioting after a murder at an informally segregated beach; Irish gangs, closely allied with the corrupt police, donned blackface & attacked white neighborhoods to incite reprisals; thirty-eight souls were lost before the Illinois National Guard restored order.
Lest we forget.
Commentary: The Chicago Race Riot was one of dozens of violent conflagrations across the United States throughout 1919, what civil rights campaigner James Weldon Johnson (1871-1938) called the "Red Summer."
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