The Invaders

The Invaders

After the skirmish at the Twenty-Ninth Street beach, many Irish-Americans reached the conclusion Chicago had been invaded by hordes of southern blacks. The Irish feared that competition with people they considered racially inferior threatened their hard-fought economic, social, and political gains. On July 28, 1919, they responded suddenly and violently to this threat by participating in the race riot. During the first stage of the riot, Irish mobs joined other whites attacking African-Americans who were riding streetcars through white neighborhoods on their way home from work. After dragging victims from the cars, the mobs beat blacks with baseball bats, clubs, and bricks. At Forty-Seventh Street and Normal Avenue at 5:35 p.m, a “mob of 300 or 400 white people, all ages,” stopped a streetcar forcing black passengers to hide under seats. More than twenty-five men boarded the train and began assaulting black passengers who ran to escape the mob. As he fled, a rock hit John Mills in the back causing him to fall. A young white man attacked Mills with a club beating him to death. Later that night, the race riot escalated to a second stage when gangs including Irish athletic clubs invaded the Black Belt. Some whites traveled in automobiles randomly shooting at blacks. The gangs also raided black houses destroying furniture, smashing windows, and setting fire to buildings. On the early morning of August 2, the riot achieved its final stage when arsonists burned down Polish and Lithuanian houses near the Union Stock Yards. The fires destroyed $250,000 worth of property and left 948 people homeless. To arouse anger among whites, the arsonists spread rumors that Negroes caused the fires. Many commentators suggested the Irish used arson as an effective means for inciting other whites to racial hatred against the black invaders.