Red Summer: Chicago Race Riot Erupts as White Mobs Attack Black Neighborhoods, 38 Killed

On July 27, 1919, the drowning of Black teenager Eugene Williams - who drifted into a white beach area on Lake Michigan and was stoned by white beachgoers - triggered eight days of racial violence in Chicago that killed 38 people (23 Black, 15 white), injured 537, and left over 1,000 Black families homeless. The Chicago riot was the most severe of more than two dozen racial massacres during the “Red Summer” of 1919.

The violence reflected structural tensions in a transformed city. The Great Migration had brought thousands of Black southerners to Chicago, where they faced housing segregation enforced through restrictive covenants, bombings, and white violence. Competition for housing and jobs intensified after World War I as white soldiers returned. Irish American “athletic clubs” functioned as organized gangs that attacked Black residents with impunity. When violence erupted, police largely stood aside or participated, arresting Black residents for self-defense while ignoring white attackers.

Governor Frank Lowden delayed deploying the National Guard for three days as white mobs burned Black homes and murdered residents. The violence finally subsided on August 3, but its causes remained unaddressed. A Chicago Commission on Race Relations investigation documented police complicity and housing segregation but produced no significant reforms. White violence successfully reinforced residential segregation - the “Black Belt” of Chicago’s South Side would remain rigidly segregated for decades. Red Summer demonstrated that the federal government and local authorities had no intention of protecting Black citizens from white terrorism, institutionalizing inequality through violence while maintaining legal and political systems that served white supremacy.