After WWI Lesson 1: Red Summer of 1919

It's known as the Red Summer, but it actually stretched well into the fall of 1919. From April through November of that year, a wave of white mobs attacked Black communities in cities across the country, killing hundreds, if not thousands of civilians. Red Summer refers to the blood they shed.

The post World War I period was marked by a spike in racial violence, much of it directed toward African American veterans returning from Europe, where they were often treated much better there than by white Americans, despite their brave service to the country. The bloodiest incident occurred in Elaine, Arkansas, where it is estimated that over 100 African Americans were killed. The racial violence of the Red Summer erupted in many other Southern locations as well as in the North, most notably in Chicago. The presence of racial hostility in the North was partly a reaction of Northern whites to the large influx of African Americans into Northern cities during the Great Migration, though this hostility did not prevent large numbers of African Americans from heading North.

Watch this video on the Red Summer.

Read the Tulsa Race Riots and the Red Summer of 1919.  Pay attention to the lynching map on page 5 - no state was exempt (except Utah) even though some of them are worse than others.