East St. Louis Massacre: 100-200 Black Residents Killed, 6,000 Driven from Homes

On July 2, 1917, white workers and residents of East St. Louis, Illinois attacked Black neighborhoods over two days. White mobs shot Black residents fleeing their burning homes, beat people to death, and hanged bodies from telephone poles. Estimates of Black deaths range from 100 to 200; the official figure was set artificially low. Six thousand Black residents were driven from their homes and entire neighborhoods burned. The attack was triggered by white labor resentment of Black workers recruited from the South by industries during WWI. Congressional investigations documented it as one of the worst massacres in US history.