AVL: "The Negro In Chicago"
History.com: "The Chicago Race Riot of 1919"
Yale.edu; The Gilder Lehrman Center For The Study Of Slavery, Resistance, & Abolition
Chicago Gangs UIC.edu
Northwestern.edu; University of Law "Homicide in Chicago 1870-1930"
University of Michigan; "Student Project"
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Friday, February 8, 2013
The Chicago Race Riots of 1919
On July 27, 1919 a boy by the name of Eugene Williams went to Lake Michigan to enjoy a day at the beach. What he did not know was that the beach was unofficially segregated, which meant Eugene Williams was not supposed to be on the beach in the minds of most white people. When a group of white males walked by and saw Eugene in the segregated beach they took it upon themselves to do something about it. They threw rocks at Eugene while he was swimming in the lake and some of the rocks struck Eugene and sent him drowning down to the bottom of Lake Michigan. Many African American people were outraged by this incident, they called the police and fought back against the white extremists. When the police arrived on the scene they found a man that was reportedly seen by eye witnesses to have thrown the rock at Eugene Williams, this mans name was Ges Stauber. The police at first refused to arrest Stauber but finally they arrested him and took him to jail.
According to Yale University some of the most probably causes could have been: Race Prejudice, Economic Competition, Political Corruption and Exploitation of Negro Voters, Police Inefficiency, Newspaper lies about Negro Crimes, Unpunished crimes against Negroes, Housing, and Reaction of whites and Negroes after coming home from war. But before 1915, the city of Chicago was well known for the well treatment of Negroes. But when the white men left for the war someone had to work in the railroad hub of the country. From 1916 to 1919 the black population in the city increased by over 148%.
All of this pent up aggression sparked riots and fights in the south side of Chicago. During these riots 15 white people died, 23 black people died, 500 people total were injured, and more than 1,000 black families were left homeless due to their houses being torched by angry white men. At one period of time there were 6,000 state militia roaming the streets fighting against the riots. At one riot there were 1,500 angry black men trying to fight against 100 armed policemen.
The president at the time Woodrow Wilson blamed the whites for instigating the riots. One suggestion to stop these riots presented was to create a Chicago Commission on Race Relations which would include, 6 white men and 6 black men, and would help solve issues on the topics of competition for jobs, inadequate housing, and inconsistent law enforcement. Some people even suggested zoning laws but everyone in Chicago knew that different zoning was not going to stop the tension that was created between these two groups of people.
One man described these riots in a statement, "Five days of terrible hate and passion let loose, cost the people of Chicago 38 lives, wounded and maimed several hundred, destroyed property of untold value, filled thousands with fear, blemished the city and left in it's wake fear and apprehension for the future." The riots finally ended on August 3, 1919.
Chicago was not the only city struck down by these race riots, in the Summer of 1919 there were riots of racial tension in Washington D.C.; Knoxville, Tennessee; Longview, Texas; Detroit, Michigan; and Phillips County, Arkansas. The KKK (Ku Klux Klan) had a resurgence during this time period where there were 64 lynchings and 83 lynchings in 1919. This may have had something to do with the causes of these race riots.
Friday, January 18, 2013
Monday, January 14, 2013
Researching
I am working on a new project in US History. I am learning about a man from Chattanooga, Tennessee who traveled with the White Fleet and made postcards from pictures he took on the cruise. Right now I am trying to recreate the postcards that he created. Right now I am working on the research that I am going to use in these postcards.
Monday, November 19, 2012
The Creation of the NCAA
The Creation of the NCAA
College football is the favorite national past time of many people in the United States, today it is still played with the same passion as it was in the late 19th century when the first colleges started playing the sport. The sport of football was appreciated by more of the elite upper class males in the United States. The morals of College football became corrupt many universities would hire tramp athletes called "ringers" to come and represent the certain university on the gridiron.
The sport became known for its gang tackling and mass formations and became known nationally as one of the nations most dangerous sports. Although some people did not believe that the game was not dangerous to the health of the athletes, like one man said in a newspaper article, "Football is anything but a hazard and we will gladly insure any number of football players who come up to the standard in other respects. It would be really ridiculous to consider Football a hazard. Just consider the fact that there are thousands and thousands of men playing football in the country today and yet football accidents are very few." But most of the nation sided with the fact that the game was dangerous to the health of the players. Some of the injuries that were published in newspapers at the time, were reports of displaced shoulder blades, sore arms, week ankles, dislocated shoulders, twisted knees, fractured skulls, broken collar bones, broken legs, broken ribs, losing conscience, and even death. An astonishing fact 48 deaths occurred in a 4 month period of time during the college football season. One report of death was, "William Moore right halfback of the Union College Football Team died from injuries playing New York University, 19 Years Old." These types of injuries set off an alarm inside the heads of the population of the United States.
In 1896 a man by the name of Amos Alonzo Stagg, athletic director and coach at the time at the University of Chicago led in forming the nations first conference the Western Conference or better know today as the Big Ten. This creation led to some minor rule changes but still left many very hungry to reform the game of football.
The wave of shock and alarm sent the whole nation in panic. A man had to step up and change the rules of the game to settle the commotion down. Theodore Roosevelt summoned many leaders of the college football world to the white house to encourage rule changes and reforms of the game of football. In early December of 1905, the chancellor of New York University Henry M. MacCracken met with 13 other colleges and universities to talk about possible rule changes in the game of football. Later on in December, 62 different Universities and colleges met in New York City and decided to become members of the Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States (IAAUS). This committee created the 10 yard rule where you have to gain 10 yards in three plays to gain a first down and many other rules that reformed the game of college football to the way we know it today. The IAAUS changed its name to the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) in 1910 to the name it still holds today.
Sources:
Thursday, October 25, 2012
Faces Of America
In the TV series Faces Of America, I learned about how important it is to learn about your ancestors and heritage of your family. I learned that even if you dont think that you have a lot of history in your family that if you looked into it more that you can find a lot about where your ancestors came from. I learned that many families from around the world came to America for a new oppertunity.
Being a Nation of immigrants means that you have a huge melting pot of diversity and backgrounds.
Being a Nation of immigrants means that you have a huge melting pot of diversity and backgrounds.
Thursday, October 18, 2012
William H. Vanderbilt
William Henry Vanderbilt was a very self made man, he did not have much help from anyone including his father his father regarded him as incompetent and not hardworking. The only way that Vanderbilt would change his fathers opinion would be if he showed that he could work hard at something and bring it to the success that his father Cornelius had done in his lifetime. William was given the opportunity when he gained control of the Staten Island Railroad from 1857 - 1863. William inherited a bankrupt Staten Island Railroad and then he took it to a very successful Railroad. His father had been proven wrong about his son and that he could work hard and he could be successful at things that he did in life.
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| William H. Vanderbilt |
His father with his new opinion about his son gave him the great title of Vice President of the New York and Harlem Railroad in the year 1864, which his father Cornelius Vanderbilt was the President. He then won his fathers full respect with the success that he showed his father at the New York and Harlem Railroad.
When his father died in 1877 he was given the position of President of New York Central. But then he hit a rough patch and fell into a little bit of down spiral "and was only able to get himself out of the down spiral by securing his position as President by giving favorable treatment to commercial customers, and covered his tracks with bribes to officials investigating the preferential treatment." William also contributed to many other organizations like the YMCA and the Metropolitan Museum of Art for a few examples.
When he did retire in 1883 as President of New York Central, he had doubled his family fortune, thus proving that his father was wrong.
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0772002.html
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/622945/William-Henry-Vanderbilt
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0772002.html
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/622945/William-Henry-Vanderbilt
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