Red Summer
1919 saw the peak of this phenomenon. In no fewer than 39 cities across the U.S. that year, African American communities were targeted by white mobs in spasms of violence that saw untold numbers of people killed, injured, and displaced. Termed “Red Summer” by the NAACP’s James Weldon Johnson, the violence in fact occurred as early as February 8 (four dead in Blakely, Georgia) and as late as October (over 100 dead in Elaine, Arkansas). There were riots in small towns and large cities, including Philadelphia and Baltimore, and took place as far west as Bisbee, Arizona. Perhaps the violence that caused the greatest worry in Congress occurred July 19-24 in Washington, D.C.
Many of these riots were sparked by lynchings, or attempted lynchings, following reports of white women molested by Black men. While down from the late-19th century highs, anti-Black lynchings remained a major problem in the U.S., and too often local law enforcement either allowed or participated in the violence. A federal anti-lynching bill—one of the main legislative civil rights campaigns at the time—was never passed. Increasingly, however, African Americans were more likely to engage in organized self-defense when targeted for lynching.
Other sparks included labor unrest and clashes involving groups of returning veterans. However, prominent white media at the time—encouraged by Department of Justice propaganda—often sought to pin the blame for increased African American demands for equality on the Bolsheviks, Socialists, and organizations like the Industrial Workers of the World (I.W.W.), as part of the Red Scare. Newspapers spread sensationalized or false stories of Black criminality or plots to “kill all whites.”
1919 was not the end of anti-Black mob violence in early 20th century America. Among the most prominent later episodes included the destruction of Tulsa, Oklahoma’s Greenwood District (known as “Negro Wall Street”) in 1921 and the 1923 Rosewood, Florida massacre.
