Chicago unveils permanent memorials for 1919 Race Riot
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Photo: Courtesy of Walter S. Mitchell III, City of Chicago
More than a century after the start of the 1919 Chicago Race Riot, the city is commemorating all 38 people killed during one of its worst episodes of racial violence.
The big picture: As part of the city's ongoing effort to show a more truthful history of race, segregation and inequity in its public monuments, it has completed the installation of permanent markers for each of the people killed during the unrest.
Flashback: On July 27, 1919, as Black teen Eugene Williams and his friends cooled off in Lake Michigan on a hot summer day, Williams' raft floated into the unmarked "whites only" area. George Stauber, a 24-year-old white man, started throwing rocks at Williams, who then drowned.
- As word of the killing spread, white people from neighborhoods like Back of the Yards and Bridgeport descended on the primarily Black South Side, shooting and setting fire to buildings.
- Twenty-three Black and 15 white men died in the riot.
- The Chicago Race Riot was one of the deadliest episodes of the 1919 Red Summer, a wave of racial violence that erupted in more than two dozen cities across the country.
Driving the news: The Chicago Race Riot of 1919 Commemoration Project (CRR19) and city officials will make comments at 10am Saturday at 125 Fort Dearborn Drive (north of 31st Street Beach), the site of the newly installed commemorative markers.
- CRR19 will then lead a 7-mile guided bike tour highlighting all 38 markers and other historical sites connected to the riot.
Zoom in: Youth artists from Project FIRE, a trauma recovery program for young people affected by gun violence, collaborated on the permanent markers.
Zoom out: The installation is part of the Chicago Monuments Project, which the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events launched in 2020 to address inequities in Chicago's public monuments.
Go deeper: CRR19 presents biographies of each victim on its website, as well as a detailed history of the riot.
If you go: The free bike tour departs at 10:30am Saturday at 125 Fort Dearborn Drive and ends at Illinois Institute of Technology parking lot D5.
- CRR19 also offers a self-guided bike tour.