January 1919

The summer and fall of 1919 saw anti-Black race riots in at least 25 American cities — Washington DC, Chicago, Elaine Arkansas, Omaha, Knoxville, Longview Texas, Charleston South Carolina, and others — making it the bloodiest period of racial violence in American history outside of the Civil War era. At least 97 Black Americans were lynched that year alone, including 10 veterans still in military uniform. The NAACP's James Weldon Johnson named it the 'Red Summer.' The violence was a direct response to Black military service, Great Migration, and demands for equality.

As Black veterans returned from WWI — where over 380,000 Black Americans had served — many were attacked while still in uniform. At least ten Black veterans were lynched in 1919, several still in their military uniforms. Sergeant Wilbur Little was beaten to death in Blakely, Georgia after appearing in public in his uniform. Daniel Mack was lynched in Sylvester, Georgia. The attacks reflected white anxiety about Black men asserting equal citizenship through military service. France had treated Black American soldiers as equals; white Southerners were determined to reimpose subordination.

The Progressive Farmers and Household Union of America was organized by Black sharecroppers in Phillips County, Arkansas in 1919 to collectively negotiate cotton prices. Led by Robert Hill, it had attracted hundreds of members by the fall. Their peaceful economic organizing was the direct provocation for the Elaine Massacre, which killed 100-237 Black residents.

By 1919, Harlem, New York had become the center of Black American intellectual, cultural, and political life, concentrated by the Great Migration and by New York's somewhat less restrictive racial environment. The NAACP's headquarters, A. Philip Randolph's Messenger, Marcus Garvey's Negro World, and W.E.B. Du Bois's Crisis all operated from New York. Harlem hosted political debates, cultural events, and organizing that would define the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s. The concentration of Black talent, capital, and institutions created conditions for the most significant flowering of Black American culture since Reconstruction.

The Progressive Farmers and Household Union of America was organized by Black sharecroppers in Phillips County, Arkansas in 1919 to collectively negotiate cotton prices with planters and obtain better contracts. Led by Robert Hill, it had attracted hundreds of members by the fall. Their organizing was the direct provocation for the Elaine Massacre, in which white mobs and federal troops killed 100-237 Black residents. The response to their peaceful economic organizing — massacre and mass imprisonment — illustrated the violent enforcement of racial economic hierarchy.

By 1919, Harlem had become the center of Black American intellectual, cultural, and political life. The NAACP's headquarters, A. Philip Randolph's Messenger, Marcus Garvey's Negro World, and W.E.B. Du Bois's Crisis all operated from New York. Harlem hosted political debates, cultural events, and organizing that defined the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s.

Sergeant Wilbur Little returned to Blakely, Georgia from WWI in his military uniform. Local white men warned him not to wear the uniform in public. He continued to wear it. A white mob beat him to death. His murder was among the most documented of the cases of Black veterans killed for wearing their uniform after WWI — the uniform symbolized the claim to equal citizenship that white Southerners were determined to deny. No one was prosecuted for his murder.