Historical Events of the Revolutionary World Movement

Red Summer 1919

Hundreds of black deaths in 'Red Summer'

African American men, women and children were burned alive, shot, hanged or beaten to death by white mobs. Thousands of homes and businesses were burned to the ground, their owners driven out — many never to return.

Nothing changed after 100 years ...

Social misery in America is not due to race antagonism, but the

CLASS ANTAGONISM

between capital and labor.

From April to August 1919, numerous race riots would occur throughout the United States that resulted in dozens of African-Americans being murdered by white mobs and hundreds more were wounded and driven from their homes.

Although each of the riots had their own factors, many had very similar causes including the bourgeoisie's fear of facing the same fate as the Tsar and Russian bourgeoisie, competition between black and white veterans over jobs and housing since factories in the Northeast and Midwest faced severe labor shortages during the war and employed African-Americans from the South, increased class-consciousness among both white and (especially) black workers, racial chauvinism, and widespread rumors of attacks and conspiracies committed by blacks against whites, whether they were real or imagined.

These riots, which totalled around 25, would bring at least 165 deaths (mostly blacks) and hundreds more were wounded and driven from their homes.

Jenkins County, Georgia

April 13th, 1919

The first riot occured on April 13th during a celebration of the anniversary of the Carswell Grove Baptist Church where at least 3,000 black people were present.

During the celebration, two white policemen attempted to arrest Edmund Scott, a black man, for possession of alcohol (Georgia was a dry state back then), but couldn't find any so they arrested him for owning a pistol instead. Scott's friend, Joe Ruffin attempted to pay for his bail, but the police refused. Eventually, one of the officers pulled out his pistol and began beating Ruffin with it, accidentally firing it and caused a fight thst killed the two officers and Scott.

Word of the two dead officers quickly spread and hundreds of white people formed mobs and attacked the black community, killing two of Ruffin's sons. They then broke a black prisoner, Willie Williams, out of jail and lynched him and burned down several black buildings in the following days.

Ruffin was later wrongfully charged with the officers' murders, but had to be moved to different prisons because lynch mobs repeatedly attempted to break him out and kill him. He was eventually acquitted, but had to spend the rest of his life in poverty and live in South Carolina because he was no longer safe in Georgia.

Charleston, South Carolina

May 10th-11th, 1919

On May 10th at around 10:00pm, five white sailors attempted to beat a black man whom they accused of cheating them, but instead decided to attack other blacks at random when they couldn't find him.

One black man started firing at the sailors, but was killed and soon, over a thousand sailors as well as white civilians arrived in the black neighborhoods and attacked black people as well as their homes and businesses and some rioters even stole guns from the shooting galleries and would drag blacks out of streetcars so they could beat them.

It wasn't long until martial law was imposed and the marines and naval officers were called in to restore order.

By the time order in the city was restored at 2:30am the next morning, five blacks were killed (as well as another who later died from his injuries), many more people were severely wounded and hospitalized, and numerous homes and buildings were greatly damaged. Three sailors were put on trial and two were sentenced to a year in naval prison and were later dishonorably discharged.