Friday, July 19, 2019

Saturday, July 19, 1919. South Bend to Chicago Heights, 80 miles in 9 hours. The Red Summer hits Washington D. C.

July 19, 1919, Saturday Evening Post.


The Motor Transport Convoy suffered an accident, at least the second it experienced to date, the first one that we have record of being a vehicle v. vehicle collision. This one saw a Dodge truck hit a pedestrian, who was injured as a result.

The Riker truck mentioned was likely a Liberty Truck.

The Red Summer spread to Washington D. C. on this Saturday, with riots breaking out and lasting for several days.

Servicemen, probably National Guardsmen, confronting a black resident of Washington D. C. during the riots.

The underlying cause of the riots was the evolution of the city as the Great Migration, amplified during the war, continued to bring large numbers of black residents into or on the outskirts of the city, which in fact was basically a southern city to start with in some ways.  In 1919 the city remained 75% white, but black migration was occurring and laws that had restricted black residence in the nation's capitol were retreating.  The reaction on the part of the white citizenry was not welcoming and the newspapers, including the Washington Post, were hostile to black residents.  On this occasion a false story reporting that a black man had raped a white woman commenced the riots in which servicemen participated and which the newspapers fanned, the Post even urging vigilante action.

National Guardsmen patrolling by motorcycle.

The lack of police protection ultimately caused black citizens to take up arms to protect themselves and their neighborhoods and the riot took on the character, to some degree, of a low grade street battle by the 21st. The number of people killed is unknown, but the white casualties outnumbered the black ones, which is unusual for these events.  President Wilson called out the National Guard, which the city oddly has even though its not a state, to put down the violence, but a torrential rain storm ultimately operated to do that to a greater degree than the troops did.

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