| Part of Red Summer | |
 Map of Whatley, Clarke County, Alabama | |
| Date | Friday, August 1, 1919 |
|---|---|
| Location | Whatley, Alabama, United States |
| Non-fatal injuries | Multiple gunshots |
The Whatley, Alabama race riot of 1919 was a riot, gun battle between the local Black and White community on August 1, 1919.
From July 27, 1919, to August 3, 1919, there was a Chicago Race Riot that was covered extensively in national media. This increased tension in both the Black and White communities. Also, in July 1919 there were a number of racial incidents in Alabama including a race riot in Tuscaloosa, Alabama and in Hobson City, Alabama the black mayor, Newman O'Neal, faced death threats and was assaulted forcing him to flee.
On August 1, 1919, a fight broke out between a White man and a group of Black youths. The violence quickly spiralled out of control and a gun battle broke out between White and Black communities where two white men and one Black man were shot but not seriously. However on August 2, 1919, a black man by the name of Archie Robinson and another black man were taken from their home and lynched. They are memorialized in the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama. [1] A few of those wounded were Fred Bates and Charles Chapman who received a bullet in the hip. [2] [3] The Chattanooga News reported that at one point a white mob had surrounded a group of Blacks in the woods. [3] Media reports later said that local Sheriff C. E. Cox, of Clarke County was able to suppress the riot with his police presence. [3]
At the time the Alabama legislature was worried about racial strife and passed a resolution. This resolution says:
Be it resolved by the house of representatives of the state of Alabama, the Senate concurring:
- That the legislature of Alabama views with much concern and anxiety the highly disordered condition of various communities in the north and the middle west, particularly as evidenced by the race riots taking place in the cities of Washington and Chicago, in which there was large loss of human life and property.
- That the apparent hatred which exists between the races in these communities is to be deeply deplored, and the sympathy of the people of the United States Is extended the conservative and law-abiding citizens of those sections, and who are believed to be wholly out of sympathy with such conditions.
- That the people of this state believe that the political and business leaders of these sections ought to be animated by a better spirit of fraternity and high mindedness and fair dealing in their conduct toward the large number of colored people which have migrated into their midst.
- That it is believed that if those leaders and the people of those states generally were prompted more by human considerations and a sense of Justice, which would manifest themselves in a practical way rather than in a course of conduct based on purely idealistic and theoretical conditions a better spirit would prevail.
- That as an example of a nearly ideal approach to cordial and friendly relations, they are referred to the fine spirit of mutual understanding which exists between the races In the south.
-Representative Dickson of Jefferson county [3]
The resolution went to the senate at once and was adopted by that body.
This uprising was one of several incidents of civil unrest that began in the so-called American Red Summer of 1919. Terrorist attacks on black communities and white oppression in over three dozen cities and counties. In most cases, white mobs attacked African American neighborhoods. In some cases, black community groups resisted the attacks, especially during the Chicago Race Riot and Washington D.C. race riot which killed 38 and 39 people respectively. Most deaths occurred in rural areas during events like the Elaine Race Riot in Arkansas, where an estimated 100 to 240 black people and 5 white people were killed. [4]
Notes
References
Red Summer was a period in mid-1919 during which white supremacist terrorism and racial riots occurred in more than three dozen cities across the United States, and in one rural county in Arkansas. The term "Red Summer" was coined by civil rights activist and author James Weldon Johnson, who had been employed as a field secretary by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) since 1916. In 1919, he organized peaceful protests against the racial violence.
Jim McMillan was lynched in Bibb County, Alabama on June 18, 1919.
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 Baltimore riots of 1919 were a series of riots connected to the Red Summer of 1919. As more and more African-Americans moved from the south to the industrial north they started to move into predominantly white neighborhoods. This change in the racial demographics of urban areas increased racial tension that occasionally boiled over into civil unrest.
The Port Arthur riot happened on July 15, 1919, in Port Arthur, Texas. Violence started after a group of white men objected to an African American smoking near a white woman on a street car. A "score" of whites and twice that number of African Americans battled in the streets leaving two seriously injured and dozens with minor injuries.
The Morgan County, West Virginia race riot of 1919 was caused by big business using African-American strikebreakers against striking white workers in Morgan County, West Virginia.
The Putnam County, Georgia arson attack was an attack on the black community by white mobs in May of 1919.
The New London riots of 1919 were a series of racial riots between white and black Navy sailors and Marines stationed in New London and Groton, Connecticut.
The Dublin, Georgia riot of 1919 were a series of violent racial riots between white and black residents of Dublin, Georgia.
The Garfield Park riot of 1919 was a race riot that began in Garfield Park in Indianapolis, Indiana on July 14, 1919. Multiple people, including a seven-year-old girl, were wounded when gunfire broke out.
The 1919 Coatesville call to arms was when the black community of Coatesville, Pennsylvania formed a large armed group to prevent a rumoured lynching. Only later when the armed group had surrounded the jail to prevent the lynching did they learn that there was no suspect and no white lynch mob.
The Syracuse riot of 1919 was a violent racial attack that occurred when the management of the Globe Malleable Iron Works pitted striking white unionized workers against black strikebreakers in Syracuse, New York on July 31, 1919.
The Newberry 1919 lynching attempt was the attempted lynching of Elisha Harper, Newberry, South Carolina on July 24, 1919. Harper was sent to jail for insulting a 14-year-old girl.
The Darby 1919 lynching attempt was the attempted lynching of Samuel Gorman in Darby, Pennsylvania on July 23, 1919. Samuel Gorman, a 17-year-old black boy was sent to jail for the alleged murder of William E. Taylor.
Newman O'Neal was the mayor of Hobson City, Alabama, until he faced death threats and was assaulted forcing him to flee.
The Wilmington, Delaware race riot of 1919 was a violent racial riot between white and black residents of Wilmington, Delaware on November 13, 1919.
The New York race riots of 1919 developed with increasing racial tension and violent incidents in New York City. These riots were a part of the Red Summer, a series of violent terrorist attacks on black communities in many cities in the United States during the summer and early autumn of 1919. The New York race riots were caused by social tensions such as competition for jobs, politics, and racial tension. Many historians and scholars view these riots as the culmination of racial tensions which had been rising due to the migration of African Americans from the rural South to northern cities. Tensions developed partly due to the competition for jobs, which was worsened by the presence of African Americans workers who could replace striking White workers.
The Laurens County, Georgia race riot was an attack on the black community by white mobs in August of 1919. In the Haynes' report, as summarized in the New York Times, it is called the Ocmulgee, Georgia race riot.
Miles Phifer and Robert Crosky were lynched in Montgomery, Alabama for allegedly assaulting a white woman.
This article focuses on African Americans who were lynched after World War I. After young African-American men volunteered to fight against the Central Powers, during World War I, many of them returned home but instead of being rewarded for their military service, they were subjected to discrimination and racism by the citizens and the government. Labor shortages in essential industries caused a massive migration of southern African- Americans to northern cities leading to a wide-spread emergency of segregation in the north and the regeneration of the Ku Klux Klan. For many African-American veterans, as well as the majority of the African-Americans in the United States, the times which followed the war were fraught with challenges similar to those they faced overseas. Discrimination and segregation were at the forefront of everyday life, but most prevalent in schools, public revenues, and housing. Although members of different races who had fought in World War I believed that military service was a price which was worth paying in exchange for equal citizenship, this was not the case for African Americans. The decades which followed World War I included blatant acts of racism and nationally recognized events which conveyed American society's portrayal of African-Americans as 2nd class citizens. Although the United States had just won The Great War in 1918, the national fight for equal rights was just beginning.