Chicago Race Riots/Chapter 12
XII
NEGRO CRIME TALES
Outbreaks of race warfare reported from Washington, D. C, cause leaders of the colored people in Chicago to place emphasis on two points. (1) That Washington has had a large inflow of southern white population during recent years, while the regular army is known to have a larger proportion of whites from the southern states than from any other section; (2) that the reported clashes may be something else than racial hostilities and, perhaps, may be traced back to the same antagonisms as those which caused the sectional war from i860 to 1865.
John Hawkins, formerly with the federal department of justice and more recently in the second deputy superintendent's office of the Chicago police department, gives this view:
"The newspaper reports of what is happening in Washington have most frequently indicated that the causes of the outbreaks were attacks by colored soldiers on white women. Though this is a serious and sinister charge to repeat day after day in dispatches that go to the entire nation, the fact is that there have been no supporting details, no particulars of knowledge or information such as any court of law or any intelligent person requires before arriving at an opinion or a conviction.
"In one instance a dispatch contained the following three sentences: 'Even while the rioting was at its height early to-day reports of another attack upon a white woman came. Frightened away once, her assailant hid and seized her as she left her house. She escaped only when all but stripped of her clothing.'
"Here we have the gravest sort of a charge. No names are given, no locations, no witnesses—a wild inflammatory tale sent out on the swift wings of rumor and gabbled and tattled for the consumption of a nation of people struggling to set an example to the rest of the world on the value of self control during a great world crisis.
"In all cases where the old and familiar statement is made that 'a negro attacked a white woman,' let there be something more than this vague allegation. It has too often served to screen ulterior purposes. Unless such a statement is accompanied by names, dates and locations, and has at least a semblance of such facts as are required when a white man is similarly involved, it should be assumed that the vague allegations are camouflage behind which men are working to defeat the intent of the emancipation proclamation, men who hold to the feudal south's theory that the negro is biologically inferior to the white man."
The Anti-Vilification society has been organized by colored men in Chicago who believe that the United States as a republic is headed in the right direction, but that there is being carried on persistent propaganda that can bring no good to the nation. Lieut. Charles S. Duke, colored, a graduate of Harvard university, and Edward H. Morris, an able colored lawyer who is reported to have a fortune close to $1,000,000, are among the officers of the organization.
"A few days ago there was a lynching in a Mississippi town," said Lieut. Duke. "One New Orleans newspaper reported that the victim had confessed, while another newspaper said it was reported that he had confessed to a crime. On so vitally important a matter as whether a man to be burned by a mob had confessed guilt the mediums of public information did not agree."
A committee representing a number of organizations of colored people called on the Illinois state council of defense one day while the late war was on. They carried copies of a front page newspaper story wherein it was stated that at a north shore society event the hostess took particular pains not to shake hands with the members of the colored "jazz" orchestra. The members of the state council of defense recognized that the article was a gratuitous insult to the colored people, and the continuance of such a news policy during the war might seriously affect the colored fighters and workers.
Equality is a big word in the various public movements among the colored people. The following program adopted recently by the National Association for the Advancement of the Colored People contains in brief a statement of the kinds of equality they are seeking:
1. A vote for every negro man and woman on the same terms as for white men and women. This is accorded in practically all northern states, but not in the states south of Mason and Dixon's line.
2. An equal chance to acquire the kind of an education that will enable the negro everywhere to use his vote wisely.
3. A fair trial in the courts for all crimes of which he is accused by judges in whose election he has participated, without discrimination because of race.
4. A right to sit upon the jury which passes upon him.
5. Defense against lynching and burning at the hands of mobs.
6. Equal service on railroads and other public carriers, this to mean sleeping car service, dining car service, Pullman service, at the same cost and on the same terms as other passengers.
7. Equal right to the use of public parks, libraries and other community services for which he is taxed.
8. An equal chance for a livlihood in public and private employment.
9. The abolition of color-hyphenation and the substitution of "straight Americanism."