Springfield Illinois Riot: White Mob Burns Black Neighborhood, Triggers NAACP Founding

In Abraham Lincoln's hometown of Springfield, Illinois, a white mob of thousands attacked Black residents over two days. Two Black men were lynched, six more were killed, and 2,000 Black residents fled the city. The mob destroyed businesses and homes in the Black commercial district. The event shocked Northern white liberals; journalist William English Walling wrote an article asking 'who will stand for the Negro?' that directly led Mary White Ovington, Oswald Garrison Villard, and others to organize a founding conference in 1909 that became the NAACP.