1919, The Year of Racial Violence: How African Americans Fought Back

by David Krugler

1919, The Year of Racial Violence recounts African Americans' brave stand against a cascade of mob attacks in the United States after World War I. The emerging New Negro identity, which prized unflinching resistance to second-class citizenship, further inspired veterans and their fellow black citizens. In city after city - Washington, DC; Chicago; Charleston; and elsewhere - black men and women took up arms to repel mobs that used lynching, assaults, and other forms of violence to protect white supremacy; yet, authorities blamed blacks for the violence, leading to mass arrests and misleading news coverage. Refusing to yield, African Americans sought accuracy and fairness in the courts of public opinion and the law. This is the first account of this three-front fight - in the streets, in the press, and in the courts - against mob violence during one of the worst years of racial conflict in US history.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Race, African American, Audiobook

344 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 1, 2014

About the author

David F. Krugler grew up in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. He left his home state to attend Creighton University, in Omaha, Nebraska, in the late 1980s. After graduating with degrees in English and history, he earned a M.A. and Ph.D. in history from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He moved back to Wisconsin in 1997 to teach at the University of Wisconsin—Platteville, where he’s now Professor of History. A historian of the modern United States, he has published books on several different topics: Cold War propaganda, nuclear warfare, and racial conflict in the United States. Krugler is the author of The Voice of America and the Domestic Propaganda Battles, 1945-1953 (University of Missouri Press, 2000) and This Is Only a Test: How Washington, D.C., Prepared for Nuclear War (Palgrave Macmillan, 2006). In December 2014, Cambridge University Press released his third book, 1919, The Year of Racial Violence: How African Americans Fought Back. Krugler frequently serves as a faculty leader for teacher education programs at the Newberry Library in Chicago and the Master of American History and Government program at Ashland University in Ashland, Ohio. He is the past recipient of research grants and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Organization of American Historians, the White House Historical Association, and the University of Wisconsin System Institute on Race and Ethnicity. He appeared in the National Geographic Channel documentary American Doomsday in 2010. In Spring 2011, he was a fellow at the Institute for Research in the Humanities at the University of Wisconsin—Madison. When he’s not teaching and writing, Krugler enjoys overseas travel (most recent trip: Copenhagen, Denmark), going to art museums, and reading mysteries (latest favorite author: Charles Willeford).

Reviews

[Randall Wallace · Rating 3 out of 5]

After the Stamp Act of 1765, “hundreds of riots broke out in the colonies”. Then came thirty-nine race riots between 1824 and 1849, all caused by challenges to white supremacy. Richard Maxwell Brown called it “living together violently.” Between 1865 and 1875, in just Louisiana alone, 2,141 blacks lost their lives to white violence, while another 2,115 were wounded. The term for this is anti-black collective violence. Black soldiers returning from WWI rightfully expected respect, but the “New Negro” in his uniform returning home stillwas fought around the country. W.E.B. DuBois said of black soldiers returning from WWI, “we return from fighting, we return fighting. Make way for democracy.” Think of 1919 not as the year of “race riots” but as the launching of black collective resistance in the U.S. – “fighting back, counter-attacking, repelling violence,” and coordinating. In 1919, you see, in response to physical attacks, the black press across the board advocated self-defense (“no surrender, no cringing”). The New York Call wrote how blacks were organizing to defend themselves.

In Blakely, Georgia, in May 1919, one black veteran was told by whites to take off his uniform which he was still legally allowed to wear. He refused and was beaten to death by a mob. In the same state, another black veteran was lynched for not yielding to a white driver. A third black veteran was lynched for not addressing a white man as “mister.” A white woman falls for Henry Bryant, who, as a black man, refuses to encourage her and clearly starts avoiding her. You guessed it, they find him and lynch him. “In Georgia, white retaliation for black self-defense was swift and fierce.” For example, Berry Washington gets lynched “because he protected his own women, in his part of town.” Light skinned black Walter White got deputized mistakenly in Tulsa where they told him, “Now you can go out and shoot any nigger you see and the law’ll be behind you.” Some whites remarked post WWI that blacks no longer stood aside when they walked past. The horror. Such pre-MAGA whites wanted to permanently return to the time when blacks were passive and afraid. After Washington DC’s 1919 white mob attacks, blacks had openly celebrated their resistance to white supremacy. White newspapers enflamed tensions by never distinguishing between “self-defense and retaliation.” After the Chicago riots, you have packs of roving white children out stealing from black homes. A photograph in this book show the self-satisfaction of the morally bankrupt local white children posing for a formal portrait with what they stole from black families. 1919 kick starts “black armed resistance” and black solidarity. 1919 even had cases of white women deliberately attacked by men in black face to cause “panic among the women for political purposes”. After the lynching of Willie Brown (the formal photo of which sears itself into your brain) the rope used on him was cut into pieces and sold for a dime each. The black press noted that the white court’s inability to provide justice for blacks had only emboldened mob violence.

A comedy subplot of 1919, was how many federal officials then could only see black resistance as a communist plot (a fantasy soon frozen in time by crossdresser J. Edgar Hoover). Interestingly, 1919, was also a year of unrest across the non-Western world after Paris peace proceedings did nothing toward self-determination for colonized nations. In fact, India’s anti-colonial movement for independence traces back to the 1919 betrayal of the colonized by the West. As for this book, there are nine books on this topic of the Red Summer of 1919 and I’m reviewing all of them for my 100th anniversary remembrance. Each of the nine offer things the others don’t have. This book was good as an overview of the year in terms of racial violence across the U.S.

[Melissa Barker · Rating 5 out of 5]

"1919, The Year of Racial Violence: How African Americans Fought Back" by David F. Krugler was not a book I would have picked up on my own. I was part of a book club that decided to read this book. I am glad that I read it because it was part of the United States history that I knew nothing about. Most of us know about the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960's but this book tells the story of racial inequality and violence way before the 1960's. The author does a great job of telling the stories of each instance, his references, end notes an bibliography were very good. I found myself wondering if we as a nation could have just learned from the events of 1919 that maybe, just maybe, we would not have repeated them in the 1960's or any other time since. I would recommend this book to anyone for the simple reason that we need to know about all aspects of our history.

[Kristi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was completely unaware of the racial violence that took place in 1919, but understood the basis for increased white supremacist hatred as Soldiers of Color returned from WWI. These men had proved themselves brave and capable in "making the world safe for democracy" but were expected to accept the racism of their own country. From the National Archives: When war broke out in Europe in 1914, Americans were very reluctant to get involved and remained neutral for the better part of the war. The United States only declared war when Germany renewed its attacks that affected international shipping, in April 1917. African Americans, who had participated in ******every military conflict since the inception of the United States****, enlisted and prepared for involvement. However, many of those who enlisted or were drafted found themselves in noncombative support roles. Many African Americans served under the Services of Supply section of the American Expeditionary Forces. This section comprised of stevedore, labor, and engineers service battalions and companies. The notable exception were the soldiers who fought on the front lines in the 92nd and 93rd Infantry Divisions. The 369th Infantry Regiment, known as the "Harlem Hellfighters", were assigned to the French Army in April 1918. In this post the Hellfighters saw much action, fighting in the Second Battle of the Marne, as well as the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. For his valiant and brave actions during World War I, Private Henry Johnson became ******the first American to receive the Criox de Guerre***** - NOT THE FIRST BLACK AMERICAN, THE FIRST AMERICAN - , and an additional 170 members of the 369th were also awarded the French medal. The 370th Infantry Regiment, given the name "Black Devils" by Germans, were also assigned to the French Army. This was the only unit to be commanded by Black officers. Corporal Freddie Stowers was a standout soldier among the 371st Infantry. During the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, Stowers lead troops through a German line in spite of receiving mortal wounds. He was recommended for the Medal of Honor shortly after his death, *****but it was not processed and awarded until 1991*****. From the Department of Defense: More than 380,000 African-Americans served in the Army during World War I. The Army Historical Foundation: On 18 May 1917 Congress passed the Selective Service Act requiring all male citizens between the ages of 21 and 31 to register for the draft. When it came to the draft, however, there was a reversal in usual discriminatory policy. Draft boards were comprised entirely of white men. Although there were no specific segregation provisions outlined in the draft legislation, blacks were told to tear off one corner of their registration cards so they could easily be identified and inducted separately. Now instead of turning blacks away, the draft boards were doing all they could to bring them into service, southern draft boards in particular. One Georgia county exemption board discharged forty-four percent of white registrants on physical grounds and exempted only three percent of black registrants based on the same requirements. On 11 November 1918 at 1100, the armistice between the Allies and Central Powers went into effect. Like all other American soldiers, the African American troops reveled in celebration and took justifiable pride in the great victory they helped achieve. It was not without great cost: the 92d Division suffered 1,647 battle casualties and the 93d Division suffered 3,534. International Encyclopedia of the First World War: For the combined Army, Navy and Marine forces of 4.7 million (Army of 4.1 million and a Navy of 600,000), the U.S. Department of Defense official figures for the period from 1 April 1917 to 31 December 1918 stand at 116,516 deaths. . Fully two-thirds of all American deaths occurred in the last three months of the war due to the influenza pandemic of 1918 and the AEF's greatest battle, the Meuse-Argonne . The United States was also unique in that - due largely to the epidemic - almost half of the losses occurred in training camps in the homeland rather than on the battlefields of Europe. The United States consequently lost more soldiers and sailors to disease than in combat, with 53,402 battle deaths and 63,114 non-combat deaths. ****Some medical officers also attributed African American soldiers’ higher mortality rates during the influenza epidemic to racial inferiority.**** In the training camps the October 1918 hospital admission rates for influenza were 198 percent for whites and 158 percent for blacks, while death rates were 9.5 percent and 11.1 percent, respectively. In the AEF the same month, white and black admissions were virtually the same, 39 to 40 percent, but whites had a lower death rate than blacks, 3.3 percent to 5.0 percent. These differential rates are best explained by racial discrimination in the segregated Army, which often afforded black personnel inferior living conditions and second-class health care. African American units in the training camps and in France were often the last to receive warm clothing and bedding, assigned the less desirable living quarters, and were even served rations with fewer calories than white troops. African American personnel were also often reluctant to go to sick call or consult an all-white medical staff and therefore did not get the prompt and proper medical attention and nursing care required to stave off deadly influenzal pneumonia. (Just a note that the pandemic was known as the "Spanish flu", but did not originate in Spain. During WWI Spain was neutral. The countries actually involved in the war on both sides censored information about the epedemic in Europe. Thus the first and most consistent news of the flu came out of Spain, hence the name. The pandemic actually originated in the U.S. and was carried across the world by troop movements. ) The reason I wanted to stress the role of American Men of Color in WWI is that it was perhaps the main source for the racial violence of 1919. Brave men were expected to assume the subservient roles of Jim Crow laws and practices both in the south and north. Another contributing factor to the violence was that many of these returning soldiers were armed, having retained their service weapons. White racists hated Black men and armed Black men even more. I should never encourage violence, but in the riots of 1919 the Men of Color were better able to fight back and defend themselves. Better than peacefully submitting to lynching. Violent riots broke out in cities across the nation, not just in the south, but Chicago, Washington and even Omaha. The description of event after event certainly demonstrated the enormitiy of the violence, but I would have liked to have had perhaps one engagement singled out with more detail about the individuals involved. This is important history about the African American struggle about which I fear too few white people are aware. Recommend. Kristi & Abby Tabby

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Omaha Nebraska and Tom Dennison. Crimes that should never be forgotten.

I interviewed David Krugler for our library's 1619 Project Discussion group.
Professor Krugler discusses his book, 1919: the Year of Racial Violence and How African Americans Fought Back. We specifically focus on Chicago and Knoxville riots with an eye on how Black World War I veterans factored into de-escalating the White mobs. We, also, talk about how the Summer of 1919 led to gun control within Black communities and fueled white fear.

You may watch the whole interview below:
David Krugler on 1919 the Summer of White Terrorism

[Brandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book as part of my summer seminar for my dual credit US history class I teach. As a history teacher I know the history of 1919 and Race riots, this book did an excellent job detailing and telling stories of specific people involved. It intertwined analysis and story to explain the the three pronged attack of black Americans of the era.

[Michael Harbour · Rating 4 out of 5]

"If we must die, let it not be like hogs
Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot,
While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs,
Making their mock at our accursed lot.
If we must die, oh, let us nobly die
So that our precious blood may not be shed
In vain; then even the monsters we defy
Shall be constrained to honor us, though dead!
Oh, kinsman! We must meet the common foe;
Though far outnumbered, let us still be brave,
And for their thousand blows deal one death-blow!
What though before us lies the open grave?
Like men we’ll face the murderous, cowardly pack,
Pressed to the wall, dying, but - fighting back!"
— Claude McKay, published in the September 1919 issue of Messenger



"Black veterans and active-duty servicemen consistently repelled antiblack collective violence or resisted the assertion of white supremacy. Working class and professional black men also organized self-defense efforts: Arkansas sharecroppers, Indiana steel workers, the Texas doctor, a Chicago editor. Nor was armed resistance limited to men; black women took up arms to defend besieged homes in Washington and Chicago. Whether coordinated or unplanned, resistance to mob violence brought together diverse sections of the black population. African Americans' sustained, armed self-defense during the year of racial violence stands out as an early - and as yet, understudied - landmark of the twentieth century black freedom struggle."

"Mainstream newspapers blamed African Americans for the riots, characterizing self-defense and armed resistance as unprovoked violence against whites. The black press, supported by the NAACP, fought back against these fallacious stories using eyewitness accounts, affidavits, and other evidence. At the same time, the black press celebrated a “New Negro,” one who had served his country in the fight to make the world safe for democracy. The New Negro now expected - now demanded - democracy in his native land."

"Contempt for the so-called Old Crowd negroes was another feature of the New Negro movement. Although members of the Old Crowd were often not named, the pejorative typically referred to black clergy and community leaders who counseled restraint in the face of white mob violence and reliance on white authorities to keep the peace. Hubert Harrison criticized the Old Crowd for not doing enough to help blacks secure equality and opportunity. William Bird castigated ministers who called on blacks to stand down during riots. “Gentlemen, you are not rioting, but you are doing your duty,” Byrd addresses self-defenders, adding, “don’t start anything but when something is started make it hot for them and finish it.” The Crusader called on the “Old Negro” to pass in peace. Fifty years of quiescence and cowering brought only lynchings, Jim Crow, and disfranchisment, but now the New Negro led the race. “Can the Old Leaders deny that there is more wholesome respect for the Negro following the race riots … than there was before those riots and when there were only lynchings and burnings of scared Negroes and noone of the fear in the white man’s heart that comes from the New Negro fighting back?” Calvin Chase, of the Washington Bee, excoriated two black leaders who appeared before a Congressional committee to speak against a bill abolishing segregated railcars in the South. No longer could such men be trusted. “It is the young colored Americans who are defending the rights and the liberties of their people, and the old school politician is the dangerous element in society,” wrote Chase. James Weldon Johnson called them “rabbit-hearted,” the supposed “leaders” who advised blacks to let southern whites take care of racial tensions""

"Black Washingtonians “would not receive a square deal from the white soldiers,” they told (D.C. Board of Commissioners president Louis) Brownlow and Cheif of Police Pullman, both of whom balked at the delegates’ proposal to “commission some of the discharged colored soldiers and officers” for riot duty. Instead, the chief and commissioner sought assurances that blacks would not fight back. It is your duty to preserve order and peace, the delegation replied indignantly, declaring that the black men of Washington “had determined not to stand up and be shot down like dogs, but they were prepared to protect their families and themselves.

Denied a chance to defend themselves as soldiers, blacks armed themselves privately. An estimated 500 firearms were sold on Monday, prompting the police to ask weapons dealers to suspend sales. When the gun dealers complied, black bootleggers turned their smuggling operation into an "underground railway” by driving to Baltimore to buy weapons and ammunition they then handed out to black Washingtonians. “It was splendid,” remarked an observer, to see the “poolroom hangers-on and men from the alleys and side streets, people from the most ordinary walks of life,” preparing to defend their community from mobs."


"Black armed resistance was one of the most notable features of Chicago’s riot, especially when compared to the self-defensive measures taken in Charleston, Bisbee, Longview, and Washington. In those four cities, African Americans hed responded to attacks by whited with increasing degrees of coordination. In Charleston and Bisbee, self-defense had been instinctive and reactive. (Recall the blacks in the Charleston pool hall who fought off attacking sailors with billiard balls, the troopers in Bisbee who reached for their sidearms when police and deputies harassed them.) In Longview, the resistance was preemptive; Dr. C. P. Davis had hastily deployed a volunteer force to protect his friend S. L. Jones from a lynch mob. In Washington, black self-defenders had rushed in weapons from Baltimore and organized a paramilitary force to halt mob incursions into black neighborhoods. The League for Democracy, a black veterans’ group, had even posted fliers celebrating and justifying armed resistance. In Chicago, self-defense measures reached their highest levels yet during 1919; not coincidentally, black veterans figured prominently in these efforts. Donning their uniforms, veterans of the Eighth Illinois had taken up arms and roved the streets to halt white mobs and drive-by shooters. But these veterans had plenty of civilian comrades, as evidenced by the number of black residents who had defended their homes or thronged State Street as part of the so-called Hindenburg Line."

"After the (Chicago) riot, a Bureau of Investigation agent interviewed Ida B. Wells, who now lived in Chicago. She emphatically rejected his suggestion that radical elements like the IWW were behind the city’s racial clash. “Her statement was the old, old story about the maltreatment of the colored people in the South,” the agent scornfully reported. “She further stated that the black race had become exasperated with the treatment it has received at the hands of the United States Government; and the Negroes of America are now ready to demand their rights as Citizens, even if they have to take up arms and die fighting for these rights”" - Speaker at a Chicago post-riot gathering.

"After the (Chicago) riot, a Bureau of Investigation agent interviewed Ida B. Wells, who now lived in Chicago. She emphatically rejected his suggestion that radical elements like the IWW were behind the city’s racial clash. “Her statement was the old, old story about the maltreatment of the colored people in the South,” the agent scornfully reported. “She further stated that the black race had become exasperated with the treatment it has received at the hands of the United States Government; and the Negroes of America are now ready to demand their rights as Citizens, even if they have to take up arms and die fighting for these rights”"

"For their safety, Omaha’s African American residents did not merely rely on the protection of police and white onlookers. Some blacks drove to Council Bluffs to shelter with its black community. Many African Americans who remained in Omaha armed themselves. As had happened throughout 1919, the police treated these self-defensive measures as crimes. A taxi driver carrying a gun was jailed for possessing a concealed weapon. When a teenager named Lester price drew a gun aboard a streetcar to fend off attackers, the police arrested him. At least four other black men faced concealed weapons charges. When a local white leader asked Reverend John Williams, the NAACP branch president, to urge black residents to stay home, Williams responded that they had no intention of hiding from mobs and were ready to defend themselves. Will Brown’s lynchers received this message, too. Some planned to drag brown’s body to 24th and Lake Streets, the center of Omaha’s black community, but a young white man dissuaded them. “Those negroes there are all armed,” he shouted. According to the Chicago Whip, another mob abandoned its aim of storming the home of Police Commissioner Ringer when its leaders realized they would need to march through a black neighborhood."

"Concern over restrictions on black gun ownership prompted Archibald Grimke, president of the Washington, D.C. NAACP branch to write directly to Secretary of War Newton Baker. The pogrom in Phillips County, Arkansas, had recently ended, and Grimke was troubled by Associated Press reports suggesting the federal troops had only disarmed African Americans during the upheaval … “It must readily occur to you,” he told Baker, “that any use of Federal forces in such a way as to convey the impression to the minds of Negroes and the public in general, that the right to bear and keep arms as not being protected as freely and completely by the Federal and State Constitutions relating to that subject, as the same right is protected in the case of other citizens, is a matter of the very deepest concern.”"

"New Negro writers and their supporters reported and lauded weapons purchases by blacks. The ‘New York Call’ listed Norfolk, Atlanta, New Orleans, Memphis, and East St. Louis as cities where black residents were arming and organizing themselves. The 'Commoner’, also of New York, offered a rallying cry: “Let every Negro arm himself and swear to die fighting in defense of his home, his rights and his person.” in the 'Cleveland Gazette’, Henrly Clay Smith warned readers that because Cleveland might well be the next city to suffer white mob attacks, they should “have a U.S. Army Riot Gun” in their home."

"During 1919, African Americans’ procurement and use of arms to repel mobs forged the crux of resistance to antiblack collective violence. Even an avowal or exhortation to carry weapons was an exercise of resistance because it challenged white supremacists to first consider the personal risks of attacking blacks. The bearing of arms had another purpose. By carefully linking armed self-defense to the failure of authorities to prevent white mob attacks, New Negro writers challenged local, state, and federal governments to uphold the law, fully and fairly. The BI (Bureau of Investigation) and MID (Military Intelligence Division), however, ignored this connection and perceived the postwar freedom struggle as nothing more than an appendage of socialism and communism. Recurrent, histrionic rumors of black uprisings consumed the attention and resources of the BI and MID, stoked the Red Scare, and brought a national initiative to deny African Americans’ access to legal firearms and ammunition."

"The federal campaign to link the Red Scare to 1919’s racial conflict is thoroughly documented. Less well known, however, is the sustained drive undertaken in 1919 to disarm African Americans because of fears that they were plotting violent uprisings. With the cooperation of state and local officials as well as white gun dealers, federal and military officials seized weapons from individual black gunowners, monitored weapons sales to blacks, and asked gun dealers not to sell weapons and ammunition to African Americans. In many cases, gun dealers needed no prompting; on their own initiative, they had turned away black customers. This attempted disarming of African Americans represented a national expansion of practices already being carried out by riot troops and police during outbreaks of antiblack collective violence: the seizure of weapons from black self-defenders, who were they often charged with carrying concealed weapons."


"When a white mob pounded on the door of the Bryant home in late November 1918, the men of the family scrambled for their weapons. The Bryants were prosperous farmers who owned their land and had lived in Early County for several decades. one of the sons, Henry, had just mustered out of the army. He and his younger brother opened fire on the mob. According to the ‘Pittsburgh Courier’, a young white woman who lived nearby “was infatuated with Henry Bryant, but he refused to encourage the same.” His avoidance of the woman was no protection against a mob, however - not when the “honor” of a white woman was involved. Henry and his brother reportedly held off the mob until their ammunition ran out. The younger Bryant was wounded but escaped; according to the 'Courier’, Henry was lynched."

"Although armed resistance to lynching was not as widespread as the self-defense undertaken during the riots, African Americans deterred mobs on several occasion in the South and in the North. African Americans and their allies also waged war against lynching on 1919’s other two fronts: they worked to document and report the fact about individual lynchings, and they fought to bring the perpetrators to justice. The NAACP also publicized select episodes of black resistance in order to build support for antilynching legislation at the state and federal levels. likewise the legal effort to halt the execution of a black soldier, Sergeant Edgar Caldwell, who had killed a white man in self-defense in late 1918 highlighted the national significance of individual acts of resistance."

"No bombings occurred in Canaryville and the adjoining neighborhoods of Bridgeport and Back of the Yards. Here residents had an even more powerful force to deploy than bombs: “athletic clubs.“ The Dirty Dozen. The Sparklers. Our Flag. Ragen’s Colts. For years, boys and young men had flocked to these gangs, dividing the blocks west of Wentworth Avenue as their turf. The membership and activities of the Colts, the most powerful gang, revealed the intertwined Irish-American, political, and class dimensions of these gangs. In command of the twenty blocks lying between 43rd and 63rd Streets, the Colts took their name from their sponsor, Cook County Commissioner Frank Ragen, who paid for their clubhouse and funded sporting events and social activities. In return, the Colts served as muscle for Ragen and the Democratic Party, menacing suspected Republican voters at polling places. The Hamburg Athletic Club, in Bridgeport, enjoyed the patronage of Alderman Joseph McDonough and could later boast it groomed the city’s most powerful mayor: Richard J. Daley, a member since his teens, was elected club president in 1924, when he was twenty-two. The young men in these clubs came from working class homes; many of their fathers worked at Union Stock Yard or served on the police force. The Colts were a "very disturbing element,” recalled August L. Williams, a black Chicago lawyer. If African Americans crossed Wentworth, the “Irish really cracked their skulls."