Chicago Race Riot

July 27, 1919

Seven days of rioting begins in which 23 blacks and 15 whites are killed, with more than 500 people injured. Between 1,000 and 2,000 residents, most of them black, lost their homes. The riot began when Eugene Williams, a 17-year-old African American, drifted into a white-only beach on the South Side while holding onto a railroad tie. A white man began throwing stones at Williams and his friends, hitting him in the head and causing him let go of the railroad tie and drown. When police refused to arrest the man who threw the rocks, tensions escalated, leading to riots. The violence ended on August 3 after the National Guard was called in.