American Crime | revcom.us

THE CRIME: July 27, 1919. Late in the afternoon of a hot Chicago day, a Black teenager named Eugene Williams and some friends went out into Lake Michigan from an unofficial “colored” beach at 29th Street to cool off and have some fun—a simple act of the kind that has so often proved deadly for Black youth, from that time and before, on down to the present day.

The kids drifted across the invisible line to the adjacent “white” area. “A snarl of protest went up from the whites and soon a volley of rocks and stones were sent in his direction.” A rock struck one of the Black teenagers, knocking him into the water. Black men who were present attempted to go to his rescue, but they were kept back by the whites and the teen died.

This brazen murder by racist whites backed by the cops sparked an immediate clash between Blacks and whites on the adjoining sections of the beach, which spread like wildfire through a large part of the city.

There are various accounts of what happened, but what is clear is that gangs of racist white youths, soldiers, sailors, and other white racists went on a rampage against Chicago’s small Black community, which was less than 5% of the city’s population.