Chicago: 58 Bombings of Black Homes in White Neighborhoods 1917–1921

Between 1917 and 1921, 58 Black-owned homes and the offices of real estate agents selling to Black buyers in white Chicago neighborhoods were bombed. The bombings, documented by the Chicago Commission on Race Relations, were organized by white 'improvement associations' determined to enforce residential segregation. Police rarely investigated. The city's response was to pressure Black families to move rather than arrest the bombers. This campaign of terror enforced racial geography more effectively than legal covenants alone, establishing the Black Belt's boundaries through violence.