TODAY IN HISTORY

        |The Chicago Race Riots|

State militia faces off with an African American Veteran during the 1919 Chicago race riots

        On this day in 1919, Eugene Williams, a young African American man was hit by a rock while floating into the area of a segregated beach in Chicago by a caucasian man in the beach area.  Williams fell off his raft and drowned.  When the police arrived, they arrested an African American man for a minor complaint and refused to arrest the caucasian man who threw the rocks that resulted in the death of Williams.  This caused a major racial conflict that concluded on August 3, 1919 with 38 people killed and over 500 injured.

A white gang looking for African Americans during the Chicago race riots of 1919