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July 1919

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Achievement · politics
Chicago Race Massacre Kills 38, Displaces Thousands

Following the drowning of Black teenager Eugene Williams after white youths stoned him at a segregated lakefront, thirteen days of racial violence erupted in Chicago. Thirty-eight people were killed, over 500 injured, and more than 1,000 Black families left homeless. The massacre accelerated Black political consciousness and NAACP membership growth in Chicago.

Events

  1. July 27, 1919
    Chicago Race Massacre Kills 38, Displaces Thousands

    Following the drowning of Black teenager Eugene Williams after white youths stoned him at a segregated lakefront, thirteen days of racial violence erupted in Chicago. Thirty-eight people were killed, over 500 injured, and more than 1,000 Black families left homeless. The massacre accelerated Black political consciousness and NAACP membership growth in Chicago.

  2. July 1919
    Claude McKay's "If We Must Die"

    Published amid the Red Summer's racial violence, McKay's defiant sonnet becomes a touchstone of Black resistance poetry.