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Class Date: October 16th
Location: Your couch! See your weekly e-mail for Zoom link!
Red Summer Roots
Red Summer Roots
This week we turn to look at what is now known as “Red Summer” - a rash of racial violence that swept the nation in 1919. Though we have discussed or covered some of these events before, we start back further in the timeline because the context of racial violence stretches back to before the founding of the United States and continues to build to violent breaking points. So we will do a brief review of the events leading to 1919 here:
1619 - The first African indentured servants arrived in the British North American colonies
Initially Africans were brought as indentured servants, meaning they were forced to work for a period of time before being granted freedom. At the time, some Englishmen and women arrived under these terms as well, to ‘pay’ for their passage over the Atlantic with their labor. However, less than a decade later, the first African slaves were brought to New Amsterdam. By 1690, there were African slaves being forcibly held in every colony.
1773 - Phillis Wheatley published her poetry
Phillis publishes Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral, in London, England. Her book also becomes popular in the colonies, though many struggle with the clear illustration that enslaved African Americans have souls, minds, and thus deserve human treatment and liberty.
1793 - Eli Whitney invents the cotton gin
The cotton gin easily separated cotton from its seeds, making it a more lucrative crop to grow. The South would transition largely to growing cotton, reinforcing their reliance on slave labor to yield more profit.
1808 - Congress bans the importation of enslaved people
Many in Congress thought that banning the importation of more people would help limit slavery in the country and it would eventually die off as a practice. However, the 1793 invention of the cotton gin increased the demand for free labor across the South. Many slave owners encouraged families among their enslaved people, ensuring generations of free labor.
1850 - The Fugitive Slave Act
Angry about escaped slaves finding refuge in Northern states, Southern lawmakers pushed the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act, requiring government entities to assist in the return of escaped slaves. Many seeking freedom along the Underground Railroad had to travel all the way to Canada.
1847 - Dred Scott Decision
The Supreme Court decided in Scott v. Sanford that enslaved people were not citizens and had no legal right to sue. Scott had been taken from the slave state of Missouri to the Illinois and Wisconsin territories, where slavery was outlawed. He argued that his removal to free soil made him free. The verdict effectively ruled that all territories were open to slavery and could only exclude it when they became states. While the Southern states were thrilled with the decision, abolitionists in the North were furious.
For a wonderful 11 minute review of the Supreme Court case, click here:
1861 - The Civil War
Growing tensions over the issue of slavery boiled over with the election of Abraham Lincoln. The Southern economy relied on forced slavery to profit, but more and more lawmakers were committed to ending the abhorrent practice. Though Southern states were readmitted to the Union, slavery was ended as a legal practice.
Even though we have covered people during the Civil War, we haven’t reviewed the entire war yet. To see a 4 minute overview of the War, click here
1863 - Emancipation Proclamation
President Lincoln declares that all enslaved people in rebellious states are freed forever. While it does not officially end all slavery in the United States, it paves the way for outlawing slavery permanently.
1865 - 13th Amendment is ratified
The Civil War ended in April of 1865, when Robert E. Lee surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse. The 13th Amendment was passed in January of 1865, ending slavery, but it was not ratified until December of that year, after Lincoln had been assassinated. Section 1 of the 13th Amendment states:
Neither slavery no involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crive whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
Section 2 of the Amendment gives Congress the power to “enforce this article by appropriate legislation”, setting up the ability for Congress to pass future legislation to reshape the South without slavery.
1866 - White mob attacks Louisiana Constitutional Convention
Frustrated that the Louisiana Constitution did not extend voting rights to Black people, Progressive Republicans, with a mix of Black and white men, convened a convention to discuss reform. After the meeting, they met a group of Black marchers with a band. An armed group of whites set on the group, ultimately killing approximately 50 people, almost all of them Black.
1869 - John Willis Menard is the first Black man elected to Congress, but he is never seated
John Willis Menard ran in a special election to succeed the late James Mann, who represented New Orleans in the House of Representatives. Though Menard received 64% of the vote, his opponent, Caleb Hunt, contested the election. The House deemed that neither candidate was qualified and left the seat vacant for the remainder of the session.
1870-1871 - The Force Acts
Also known as the Klu Klux Klan Acts, these Force Acts were passed by Congress in an attempt to combat the terrorist organization’s disruption of Black voting and increasing violence against Black citizens. The acts placed national elections under the control of the federal government and empowered the president to use armed forces to combat those who would deny Constitutional rights.
1879 - African American migration
Confined by Black Codes across the South and organized terror from the Klu Klux Klan, Black citizens began an exodus from the South. Sometimes referred to as ‘Exodusters’, many people moved to Kansas and other Western regions. This movement shifted Black populations that would shape cities for decades to come. To read more about the importance of these population shifts, check out this article here: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/investigations/2019/03/06/black-migrations-black-history-slavery-freedom/2807813002/
1881 - Tuskegee University founded
The beginning of this Historically Black Colleges and University (HBCU) can actually be credited to Lewis Adams, a formerly enslaved man, who never received a day of formal education, though he could read and write. W.F. Foster was running for Alabama Senate reelection and asked Adams to help him with the support of the Black community. Instead of asking for money, Adams asked that Foster help establish an educational institution for the Black population. To read more about this and how they recruited Booker T. Washington to teach at the Institute, click here: https://www.tuskegee.edu/about-us/history-and-mission
1890 - Jacob Riis published How the Other Half Lives
Jacob Riis, a photojournalist, took a series of photographs revealing the shocking living conditions of the poor in New York City. Many were shocked by the unsanitary and cramped conditions immigrants were living in. The book inspired many to found organizations to help the immigrant population and many pushed for legislation to create better living and working conditions.
1896 - Plessey v. Ferguson
In 1892, Home Plessey, a man who had ⅛ Black ancestry, deliberately violated Louisiana’s Separate Car Act of 1890 and boarded a whites only train car. He was charged with violating the law and he pleaded not guilty, saying the law was unconstitutional. He took his case all the way to the Supreme Court. In May of 1896, in a 7-1 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that the 14th Amendment did not eliminate legal distinctions based on color. Essentially, the case established that “separate but equal” was legal, according to the Constitution.
1901 - Booker T. Washington dined at the White House
After meeting with President Theodore Roosevelt, Washington was invited to stay for dinner with him, making him the first Black American to dine at the White House with the President. There was a general uproar from racists at the inclusion of a Black man at the White House.
1905 - The Niagara Movement begins
A group of Black intellectuals, including W.E.B. Du Bois and William Monroe Trotter, formed an organization to call for civil and political rights for African Americans. The organization served as a frontrunner for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the civil rights movement. To read more about this group, please click here: https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/niagara-movement
1913 - Federal Segregation begins
President Woodrow Wilson, newly inaugurated, began implementing a policy of racial segregation across the federal government. A Southerner himself, he had appointed several segregationists to his Cabinet and they were eager to separate employees along racial lines. This action would prove to have far reaching consequences, especially on the economic development of the Black community. To read more about this program and these effects, click here: https://theconversation.com/segregation-policies-in-federal-government-in-early-20th-century-harmed-blacks-for-decades-145669
That is where our timeline leaves us for this week! Check below for additional reading resources and check your e-mail for a link to this week’s lecture!
Recommended Reading
Recommended Reading
Racial Justice in American Histories: Tulsa Race Riots and the Red Summer of 1919 by Kevin P. Winn and Kelisa Wing
The Racial Justice in America: Histories series explores moments and eras in America's history that have been ignored or misrepresented in education due to racial bias. Tulsa Race Riots and the Red Summer of 1919 explores the events in a comprehensive, honest, and age-appropriate way. Developed in conjunction with educator, advocate, and author Kelisa Wing to reach children of all races and encourage them to approach our history with open eyes and minds.
Black Birds In the Sky by Brandy Colbert
A searing new work of nonfiction from award-winning author Brandy Colbert about the history and legacy of one of the most deadly and destructive acts of racial violence in American history: the Tulsa Race Massacre.
For Adults:
Damaged Heritage: The Elaine Race Massacre and A Story of Reconciliation by J. Chester Johnson
An illuminating journey to racial reconciliation experienced by two Americans—one black and one white.
The 1919 Elaine Race Massacre, arguably the worst in our country’s history, has been widely unknown for the better part of a century, thanks to the whitewashing of history. In 2008, Johnson was asked to write the Litany of Offense and Apology for a National Day of Repentance, where the Episcopal Church formally apologized for its role in transatlantic slavery and related evils.
In his research, Johnson came upon a treatise by historian and anti-lynching advocate Ida B. Wells on the Elaine Massacre, where more than a hundred and possibly hundreds of African-American men, women, and children perished at the hands of white posses, vigilantes, and federal troops in rural Phillips County, Arkansas.
As he worked, Johnson would discover that his beloved grandfather had participated in the Massacre. The discovery shook him to his core. Determined to find some way to acknowledge and reconcile this terrible truth, Chester would eventually meet Sheila L. Walker, a descendant of African-American victims of the Massacre. She herself had also been on her own migration in family history that led straight to the Elaine Race Massacre. Together, she and Johnson committed themselves to a journey of racial reconciliation and abiding friendship.
Damaged Heritage brings to light a deliberately erased chapter in American history, and Chester offers a blueprint for how our pluralistic society can at last acknowledge—and deal with— damaged heritage and follow a path to true healing.
Blood in Their Eyes: The Elaine Massacre of 1919 by Grif Stockley, Brian K. Mitchell, and Guy Lancaster
On September 30, 1919, local law enforcement in rural Phillips County, Arkansas, attacked black sharecroppers at a meeting of the Progressive Farmers and Household Union of America. The next day, hundreds of white men from the Delta, along with US Army troops, converged on the area “with blood in their eyes.” What happened next was one of the deadliest incidents of racial violence in the history of the United States, leaving a legacy of trauma and silence that has persisted for more than a century. In the wake of the massacre, the NAACP and Little Rock lawyer Scipio Jones spearheaded legal action that revolutionized due process in America.
The first edition of Grif Stockley’s Blood in Their Eyes, published in 2001, brought renewed attention to the Elaine Massacre and sparked valuable new studies on racial violence and exploitation in Arkansas and beyond. With contributions from fellow historians Brian K. Mitchell and Guy Lancaster, this revised edition draws from recently uncovered source material and explores in greater detail the actions of the mob, the lives of those who survived the massacre, and the regime of fear and terror that prevailed under Jim Crow.
Works Cited
Works Cited
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