In late June and early July, in the year of our Lord 1917, gossip spread that a white man was murdered by a black man and tensions reached a breaking point. How many rumors have caused racial riots?? The next day, July 2nd, East St. Louis erupted in one of the worst racial rioting the USA had ever seen.
On July 8th, 1917, the UNIA’s (The Universal Negro Improvement Association ) President, Marcus Garvey said “This is a crime against the laws of humanity; it is a crime against the laws of the nation, it is a crime against Nature, and a crime against the God of all mankind.” He also believed that the entire riot was part of a larger conspiracy against African Americans who migrated North in search of a better life: “The whole thing, my friends, is a bloody farce, and that the police and soldiers did nothing to stem the murder thirst of the mob is a conspiracy on the part of the civil authorities to condone the acts of the white mob against Negroes.”
A year after the riot, a Special Committee was formed by the US House of Representatives investigating law enforcement actions during the riots. They found both the police and the national guard did not perform their duties adequately during the riots with the committee report stating police officers fled the scenes of murder and arson.
For days, months, years, decades and now centuries, racial tensions still fill our headlines today. This particular riot in East St. Louis represents a significant moment that bears striking similarities to contemporary developments. The East St. Louis “Race Riot,” much like current events, offers a distressing example of how the federal government has failed to protect Black citizens. It’s also an example of how local law enforcement and state agencies have often stood side by side with white vigilantes as they unleash violence on black people.
50th anniversary of Selma March of 1965
As we celebrate the 246 years of our country’s founding may we always strive to be a more perfect union and take the racial riots etchings found in our history as the scars that they are. So, when you hear the word riot, it is not always Black people going on a rampage and burning down business because one of the worst riots in our country’s history that was not the case.
