1919

Eve L. Ewing

• Publisher: Haymarket Books
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781608466009
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: American Poetry
• Index: Literature

NPR Best Books of 2019
Chicago Tribune Best Books of 2019
Chicago Review of Books Best Poetry Book of 2019
O Magazine Best Books by Women of Summer 2019
The Millions Must-Read Poetry of June 2019
LitHub Most Anticipated Reads of Summer 2019
The Chicago Race Riot of 1919, the most intense of the riots comprising the nation's Red Summer, has shaped the last century but is not widely discussed. In 1919, award-winning poet Eve L. Ewing explores the story of this event—which lasted eight days and resulted in thirty-eight deaths and almost 500 injuries—through poems recounting the stories of everyday people trying to survive and thrive in the city. Ewing uses speculative and Afrofuturist lenses to recast history, and illuminates the thin line between the past and the present.

What Happened

On July 27, 1919, a race riot erupted in Chicago. With the benefit of hindsight, this unto itself is not surprising. Tensions and violence had been mounting in the weeks and months prior, with Black people being attacked seemingly at random by groups of young White men and boys. An ongoing bombing campaign targeted Black people who sought to move out of the city’s segregated “Black Belt” or anyone who assisted them with mortgages or realty services, and riots had taken place in nearby East St. Louis, Illinois, on May 28 and July 2. Still, the July 27 riot was devastating in its impact. Twenty-three Black people were killed, fifteen White people were killed, 537 people were injured, 1,000 were made homeless by attacks and arson, and between 5,000 and 6,000 members of the Illinois National Guard were deployed. Most of the violence ended by July 30, but the troops remained until August 8. Much of the violence was blamed on “athletic clubs,” organized street gangs of White youth that had powerful political sponsors. The most notable of these groups was “Ragen’s Colts,” sponsored by Cook County Commissioner Frank Ragen.

The riot began when seventeen-year-old Eugene Williams was killed. Williams had been swimming in an area of Lake Michigan tucked between unofficially segregated beaches. While in the water, he drifted into what was considered the “White area” of the beach, where White people were on the shore throwing rocks at approaching Black people. It is unclear whether Williams was struck by a rock and killed, or whether he remained in the water beyond his capability because he was afraid to return to the shore and be attacked, but ultimately, he drowned. Back on the beach, a group of Black people demanded that a police officer arrest the person deemed responsible, and he refused. Within a few hours, the riot had begun.

Exodus 5

Responsibility for many attacks was definitely placed by many witnesses upon the “athletic clubs,” including “Ragen’s Colts,” the “Hamburgers,” “Aylwards,” “Our Flag,” the “Standard,” the “Sparklers,” and several others. The mobs were made up for the most part of boys between fifteen and twenty-two. (598)

Daley was elected president of the [Hamburg Athletic] club in 1924, at age twenty-two, a post he held for the next fifteen years.… Daley always remained secretive about the riots, and declined to respond to direct questions on the subject.”

(American Pharaoh, Adam Cohen & Elizabeth Taylor)

And afterward the people went to the chambers of the Pharaoh and told him:

“Thus saieth the Lord God, the God of the prairie and the lake,

God of the flatlands and the railroads, God of vice and God of the disciple,

God of the meatpacker and God of the laundress, God of the lost child,

Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the bungalows.”

And Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice

to let the people go? I know not your God, neither will I set you free.

I am the one Pharaoh upon the land, and it is I who is Lord upon the flatland.

Lord of the bridge and of the port and the canal and the union, and all the streets

which bear their names. Lord of the bootleg and Lord of brass.”

And they said unto Pharaoh, “our God hath met with us: let us go, we pray thee,

lest the Lord our God meet you with plague and pestilence, or with the sword.”

And the Pharaoh heard them not, and sent them away, calling them idle.

Then the Lord said unto the people, “Now shalt thou see what I will do to Pharaoh.”

The Lord came unto Pharaoh in a dream, and spoke to him, saying,

“Pharaoh, you have been wicked and denied my will.

My people came to you as strangers in a strange land, and you denied them

the land of their pilgrimage, and you have kept them in bondage.”

Now you will be punished for your cruelty, and for...