Blood Lines: Historical Documents and Links
The Chicago Race Riots, July 1922, Carl Sandburg
Historical Newspaper Reports (courtesy of Ron Browne)
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Interactive map of the riot zone
Timeline
LINKS
Newberry Library Chicago 1919 Website
From Riots to Renaissance: 1919 Race Riot, WTTW. Part of the series DuSable to Obama: Chicago’s Black Metropolis.
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SAY THEIR NAMES extends the reading of Blood Lines names to include all other Black persons killed by law enforcement since 1919. Ron Browne—one of the original Blood Lines readers—along with NON:op, is building a database of Black persons killed by law enforcement since 1919. In the coming weeks we will post a spreadsheet containing names and details surrounding these killings. If you would like to contribute to this database, or if you would like to assist Ron with this important research please contact ronaldbrowne [at] nonopera [dot] org. Once this database is posted you may select and record yourself reading names from this list. Compensation for participation is the same as for Blood Lines above.
On July 27, 1919, an African-American teenager drowned in Lake Michigan after violating the unofficial segregation of Chicago’s beaches and being stoned by a group of white youths. His death, and the police’s refusal to arrest the white man whom eyewitnesses identified as causing it, sparked a week of rioting between gangs of Black and white Chicagoans, concentrated in the South Side neighborhoods surrounding the stockyards and what was known then as the Black Belt. When the riots ended on August 3, 23 Blacks and 15 whites had been killed and more than 500 people injured; an additional 1,000 Black families had lost their homes when they were torched by rioters. [ https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/chicago-race-riot-of-1919 ]
In the 100 years since the 1919 uprising, we are still witnessing the death of black persons by law enforcement. We remember Black persons killed in the 1919 uprising and we remember those who continue to be killed for being Black. SAY THE NAMES of those killed in the uprising or SAY THE NAMES of other Black persons killed by law enforcement for being Black, and join us in an online version of Blood Lines.