In 1908, a White mob incited a race riot in Springfield, Ill., leaving several people dead, hundreds injured and dozens of Black-owned businesses and homes burned and destroyed.<\/p>\n
On Friday, President Joe Biden will designate a national monument to commemorate the violent event, the White House confirmed to The Washington Post on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Biden, aiming to bolster his record on racial justice as he prepares to leave office in January, will sign the designation proclamation during an event at the White House with civil rights leaders and Illinois lawmakers. The proclamation, which has not previously been reported, will come during the 116th anniversary of the riot.<\/p>\n
It also follows the fatal July 6 shooting of Sonya Massey, a 36-year-old unarmed Black woman in south Springfield, by an Illinois sheriff\u2019s deputy. Massey\u2019s death has reignited a reckoning in her hometown and across the country over police brutality against Black Americans \u2014 four years after George Floyd\u2019s murder by Minneapolis police sparked global protests over racial inequality.<\/p>\n
Four lawmakers from Illinois \u2014 Sens. Tammy Duckworth (D) and Dick Durbin (D) and Reps. Nikki Budzinski (D) and Darin LaHood (R) \u2014 introduced legislation to create the national monument under the National Park Service. But the measure has stalled amid the gridlock on Capitol Hill in an election year.<\/p>\n
Biden will bypass the gridlock by using his executive authority under the Antiquities Act, a 1906 law that authorizes the president to protect lands and waters for the benefit of all Americans. He has designated five new national monuments and expanded four others, part of his ambitious plan to conserve 30 percent of the nation\u2019s lands and waters by 2030.<\/p>\n
The bipartisan bill \u201chas stalled in the House, unfortunately, but the president\u2019s action will make sure this monument will happen,\u201d Durbin said, adding that the riot demonstrated that \u201cracism was not confined to the Confederate states. And I hope that Springfield, after the tragedy of Sonya Massey, will move forward to reduce and eliminate racism.\u201d<\/p>\n
Duckworth agreed that the monument could help spread awareness of the racial violence that occurred outside the Jim Crow-era South. \u201cI don\u2019t think people think of the Midwest, and especially Illinois, as a place where these horrific events in American civil rights history happened,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The riot began on the evening of Aug. 14, 1908, when a mob of roughly 5,000 White people gathered outside the city jail. Tensions rose as the mob called for releasing and lynching two Black male prisoners: George Richardson, who had been accused of raping a White woman, and Joe James, who had been accused of murdering a White man.<\/p>\n
The sheriff, fearful of violence, secretly removed the two prisoners through a back door and put them on a train to a jail in Bloomington, Ill. Then he announced that the prisoners were gone, assuming the crowd would disperse.<\/p>\n
He was sorely mistaken. Members of the mob, angry that they had been tricked, rampaged through the city\u2019s Black neighborhoods, looting and destroying dozens of Black-owned businesses and homes. At least nine Black residents died, including two who were lynched: Scott Burton, a barber, and William Donnegan, a cobbler and conductor on the Underground Railroad.<\/p>\n
The financial losses from the violence totaled $150,000, or more than $5 million in today\u2019s dollars. The Illinois National Guard was eventually called in to restore order.<\/p>\n
Two weeks after the riot, Mabel Hallam, the White woman who had accused Richardson of rape, recanted her claims, and the charges against Richardson were dropped. James was sentenced to death and executed, despite little evidence linking him to the murder.<\/p>\n
The riot had immediate ripple effects; It led the founding of the NAACP in 1909. But more than a century later, some Black residents of Springfield say the community has literally and metaphorically buried the horrific incident in its past. The site of the riot has been paved over for a parking lot, and the incident is not taught in Springfield public schools.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you cover things up, the wound will eventually fester like a raisin in the sun,\u201d said Ken Page, president of the Springfield chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois. \u201cThere is now an opportunity for schoolchildren to visit that site and also to understand it. \u2026 I think it\u2019s extremely important for us to know our history so that we do not repeat it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Physical traces of the riot recently resurfaced in a surprising way. In 2014, an archaeological dig for a high-speed-rail project uncovered the foundations of five houses that burned down in the riot, along with artifacts from their occupants.<\/p>\n
Floyd Mansberger, director of Fever River Research, which conducted the archaeological work, said his team found several artifacts that helped counter racist and inaccurate reporting by early-20th-century newspapers, which described the city\u2019s Black residents as \u201cdisreputable\u201d and \u201cliving in huts and shanties.\u201d<\/p>\n
For example, the firm found three military medals that belonged to a young Black man named Robert Wright, who had enlisted in the 8th Infantry Regiment of the Illinois National Guard, the nation\u2019s first all-Black officer corps. The team also uncovered the burned remains of a book, clothing and jewelry \u2014 including a 14-carat gold wedding ring \u2014 that belonged to a young Black woman named Bessie Black.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe archaeology really helps us understand the reality of who these people were versus the perception of who these people were,\u201d Mansberger said. \u201cAnd that goes to great lengths to help us learn who was impacted by this horrific event and how we can move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
Springfield, the capital of Illinois and a city of roughly 110,000, is known for its connections to two U.S. presidents who made history on issues of race: Abraham Lincoln and Barack Obama. They both launched their political careers in Springfield, and tributes to them are everywhere.<\/p>\n
But in recent weeks, the city has made national news for a different, darker reason \u2014 Massey\u2019s death. On July 6, Massey called 911 to report a possible intruder in her home in south Springfield. Sangamon County Sheriff Jack Campbell and Deputy Sean Grayson responded to the call after midnight.<\/p>\n
According to body-camera footage, Massey lifted a pot of boiling water from the stove, and Grayson said he was stepping back \u201caway from your hot steaming water.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI rebuke you in the name of Jesus,\u201d Massey said in response.<\/p>\n
Grayson warned Massey not to rebuke him and threatened to shoot her in the face. Then he drew his gun, ordered her to drop the pot and fired at least two shots at her.<\/p>\n
Massey was pronounced dead in the same hospital as Donnegan, the Black cobbler who was lynched during the 1908 race riot. According to her family, Massey was also a direct descendant of Donnegan \u2014 a \u201ctragic parallel,\u201d said Cedric Haynes, vice president of policy and legislative affairs for the NAACP.<\/p>\n
The day before Massey was shot, her mother called 911 to report that her daughter was having a mental breakdown. The mother implored law enforcement officers not to harm her daughter, 911 recordings show.<\/p>\n
Grayson, 30, is charged with first-degree murder and has pleaded not guilty, saying he acted in self-defense. He has since been fired. In the face of public outcry, Campbell has said he will retire by the end of the month.<\/p>\n
Austin Randolph, president of the Springfield chapter of the NAACP, said the community is still reeling from Massey\u2019s death. He said the new monument could help bring greater attention to Black Americans\u2019 ongoing struggle for equality and justice in Springfield and nationwide.<\/p>\n
\u201cRacism has not gone away \u2014 it\u2019s been around for a long, long, long time,\u201d Randolph said. \u201cWe must fight against racism, segregation, hatred and violence. And this monument will stand as a testament to fighting that battle.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
In 1908, a White mob incited a race riot in Springfield, Ill., leaving several people dead, hundreds injured and dozens of Black-owned businesses and homes burned and destroyed. On Friday, President Joe Biden will designate a national monument to commemorate the violent event, the White House confirmed to The Washington Post on Wednesday. Biden, aiming […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":7845,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7844"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7844\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}