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In the broader context of racism in the United States, mass racial violence in the United States consists of ethnic conflicts and race riots, along with such events as:
The Omaha Race Riot occurred in Omaha, Nebraska, September 28–29, 1919. The race riot resulted in the lynching of Will Brown, a black civilian; the death of two white rioters; the injuries of many Omaha Police Department officers and civilians, including the attempted hanging of Mayor Edward Parsons Smith; and a public rampage by thousands of white rioters who set fire to the Douglas County Courthouse in downtown Omaha. It followed more than 20 race riots that occurred in major industrial cities and certain rural areas of the United States during the Red Summer of 1919.
The Springfield race riot of 1908 consisted of events of mass racial violence committed against African Americans by a mob of about 5,000 white Americans and European immigrants in Springfield, Illinois, between August 14 and 16, 1908. Two black men had been arrested as suspects in a rape, and attempted rape and murder. The alleged victims were two young white women and the father of one of them. When a mob seeking to lynch the men discovered the sheriff had transferred them out of the city, the whites furiously spread out to attack black neighborhoods, murdered black citizens on the streets, and destroyed black businesses and homes. The state militia was called out to quell the rioting.
The People's Grocery lynchings of 1892 occurred on March 9, 1892, in Memphis, Tennessee, when black grocery owner Thomas Moss and two of his workers, Will Stewart and Calvin McDowell, were lynched by a white mob while in police custody. The lynchings occurred in the aftermath of a fight between whites and blacks and two subsequent shooting altercations in which two white police officers were wounded.
Roy Belton was a 19-year-old white man arrested in Tulsa, Oklahoma with a female accomplice for the August 21, 1920 hijacking and shooting of a white man, local taxi driver Homer Nida. He was taken from the county jail by a group of armed men, after a confrontation with the sheriff, and taken to an isolated area where he was lynched.
White caps were groups involved in the whitecapping movement who were operating in southern Indiana in the late 19th century. They engaged in vigilante justice and lynchings, with modern viewpoints describing their actions as domestic terrorism. They became common in the state following the American Civil War and lasted until the turn of the 20th century. White caps were especially active in Crawford and neighboring counties in the late 1880s. Several members of the Reno Gang were lynched in 1868, causing an international incident. Some of the members had been extradited to the United States from Canada and were supposed to be under federal protection. Lynchings continued against other criminals, but when two possibly innocent men were killed in Corydon in 1889, Indiana responded by cracking down on the white cap vigilante groups, beginning in the administration of Isaac P. Gray.
The Knoxville riot of 1919 was a race riot that took place in the American city of Knoxville, Tennessee, on August 30–31, 1919. The riot began when a lynch mob stormed the county jail in search of Maurice Mays, a biracial man who had been accused of murdering a white woman. Unable to find Mays, the rioters looted the jail and fought a pitched gun battle with the residents of a predominantly black neighborhood. The Tennessee National Guard, which at one point fired two machine guns indiscriminately into this neighborhood, eventually dispersed the rioters. Headlines in the immediate aftermath stated five people were killed, while the Washington Times reported "Scores dead." Other newspapers placed the death toll at just two, though eyewitness accounts suggest it was much higher.
In Forsyth County, Georgia, in September 1912, two separate alleged attacks on white women in the Cumming area resulted in black men being accused as suspects. First, a white woman reportedly awoke to find a black man in her bedroom; then days later, a white teenage girl was beaten and raped, later dying of her injuries.
The Perry massacre was a racially motivated conflict in Perry, Florida, in December 1922. Whites killed four black men, including Charles Wright, who was lynched by being burned at the stake, and they also destroyed several buildings in the black community of Perry after the murder of Ruby Hendry, a white female schoolteacher.
The Old Vanderburgh County Jail, commonly referred to as "the Old Jail," was built in 1890 in Evansville, Indiana. The Old Jail is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Old Jail consists of two different structures that are attached: (1) the actual jail and (2) the former Vanderburgh County sheriff's residence.
David Wyatt was an African-American teacher in Brooklyn, Illinois. In June 1903, Wyatt was denied renewal for his teaching certificate by the district superintendent, Charles Hertel. After hearing about his denial, Wyatt shot Hertel and was immediately arrested. While in jail, a mob captured Wyatt, lynched him in the public square, and set his body on fire.
Berry Washington was a 72-year-old black man who was lynched in Milan, Georgia, in 1919. He was in jail after killing a white man who was attacking two young girls. He was taken from jail and lynched by a mob.
The Jenkins County riot of 1919 took place on Sunday, April 13, 1919, a black man killed two white police officers in an altercation during a traffic stop. In response, a white mob burned several buildings in the black community and killed four black men.
The Johnson–Jeffries riots refer to the dozens of race riots that occurred throughout the United States after African-American boxer Jack Johnson defeated white boxer James J. Jeffries in a boxing match termed the "Fight of the Century". Johnson became the first black World Heavyweight champion in 1908 which made him unpopular with the predominantly white American boxing audiences. Jeffries, a former heavyweight champion came out of retirement to fight Johnson and was nicknamed the "Great White Hope". After Johnson defeated Jeffries on July 4, 1910, many white people felt humiliated and began attacking black people who were celebrating Johnson's victory.
The Evansville Race Riot occurred in July 1903 in Evansville, Indiana and was the worst riot in the city's history. The riots occurred after a black man shot and killed a white policeman and ultimately resulted in 13 deaths.
Paul Jones was lynched on November 2, 1919, after being accused of attacking a fifty-year-old white woman in Macon, Georgia.
The lynching of Richard Dickerson took place in Springfield, Ohio, on 7 March 1904. Dickerson was an African American man arrested for the fatal shooting of a white police officer, Charles B. Collis. A mob broke into the jail and seized and lynched Dickerson. Riots and attacks on Black-owned businesses followed.
The lynching of F. W. Stewart occurred shortly after midnight on November 7, 1898, about a mile outside of Lacon, Illinois. Stewart had been accused of the assault of a miner's daughter in Toluca. About one hundred miners formed a mob and broke into the Marshall County jail to retrieve Stewart, whom they subsequently hanged.
The lynching of William Johnson occurred at Thebes, Illinois on April 26, 1903. Johnson had been accused of assaulting a 10-year-old girl. He was apprehended by a mob of farmers and hanged.
John "Cockey" Glover was a 35-year-old African-American man who was lynched in Holton in Bibb County, Georgia by a mob of 300 white men on August 2, 1922. It was the 43rd of 61 lynchings during 1922 in the United States.
References
- 1 2 3 "Negro Driven from Evansville Lynched by a Mob in Race War at Danville, Ill". The Evansville Courier . July 26, 1903. Retrieved January 18, 2022– via Newspapers.com.
- ↑ Campney, Brent M. S. (2019). Hostile heartland: racism, repression, and resistance in the Midwest. Urbana Chicago Springfield: University of Illinois Press. pp. 1–2. ISBN 978-0-252-08430-0.
- ↑ "Militia Quells Danville Riot". The Champaign County News. July 29, 1903. Retrieved January 18, 2022.
- ↑ "The Rocky Mountain News (Daily) September 6, 1903 — Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection". www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org. Retrieved 2024-03-16.
- ↑ "Garnett Journal-Plaindealer from Garnett, Kansas". Newspapers.com. 1903-08-28. Retrieved 2024-04-03.
- ↑ "Sheriff refused to take bribe". Commercial News. 2017-08-13. Retrieved 2024-03-16.