In Chicago's Bronzeville neighborhood, the 100th anniversary of day that ignited the 1919 Chicago Race Riot ( CRR19 ) will be commemorated with a couple events on Saturday, July 27.
At 8:30-9:30 a.m., there will be a bike tour of Bronizeville, with participants meeting at 35th and Green streets, and ending at 29th Street and the lakefront. At 10 a.m.-noon, the Chicago Race Riots Commemorative Project will take place at IIT MTCC Auditorium, 3201 S. State St.; photographer, author and journalist Lee Bey will provide the keynote.
See "Chicago Race Riot of 1919 Commemoration Project" on Twitter, or email chicagoraceriot1919@gmail.com .
Also, there will be a forum on July 27 at Washington Square Park, 901 N. Clark St. ( across from Newberry Library ), 12-4 p.m.
The day will begin with readings from Carl Sandburg's visceral reporting on the 1919 Race Riots and from the seminal account of the riots as described in The Negro in Chicago, written by the Chicago Commission on Race Relations and published in 1922.
Then Natalie Moore ( South Side Reporter for WBEZ Chicago and author of The South Side: A Portrait of Chicago and American Segregation ), and Charles Whitaker ( interim dean and professor at the Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University ) will facilitate a conversation with the audience about race, space and the media in Chicago.
Visit chicago1919.org/bughouse-square for more information.
The Chicago Race Riot of 1919 is considered the most severe of approximately 25 race riots throughout the country in what was called the "Red Summer" ( meaning "bloody" ) following World War I, Britannica.com noted. The riot ran July 27-Aug. 3; 38 people ( 23 Black, 15 white ) died.
