Thursday, October 31, 2019

The early Fall of the Red Summer. October 31, 1919

On this date, the Red Summer reappeared.

In Corbin Kentucky the summer came in reaction to a stabbing of a local resident two days prior. The victim was white and the the reported assailants black.  In reaction, on this day nearly all of the town's 200 black residents of all ages were forced on to freight cars and made to leave town, depopulating the town of its black residents.  The Town had about 3,600 people (it now has about 7,304, with the population declining in recent years), making the percentage of African American residents appreciable if not large.  Probably around 6% of the population, by my rough math.

The impact has lasted until the present day and the town is nearly all white, with a tiny number of African Americans (.26% of the population) being outnumbered by a tiny number of American Indians (.31%) and Asian Americans .64%).  For the contemporary United States, the town is a real demographic anomaly.

In Butte Montana, while not directly related, police were instructed by Federal authorities to round up for deportation all Mexicans who could not prove citizenship, something not easy to do in 1919 prior to most people carrying any sort of identification.

Butte was a multicultural city due to mining, with a population drawn from all over the world.  Mining itself was headed into strike, and October 1919 was proving to be a bad time to be Hispanic in Butte or Black in Corbin, with no real protection being offered under the law.

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