Springfield Race Riots Research Paper

Springfield Race Riots Throughout American history, there has been many racial issues that have occurred and it is still a huge issue to this day. Starting on August 14th, 1908, a mass civil disturbance erupted in the city of Springfield, Illinois (Senechal). It all started with the arrest of two African Americans who were accused of raping a white woman within hours of each other. Joe James was accused of the first rape that occurred earlier in the day. The second person accused was George Richardson, a factory worker. The two men were brought into custody, and starting later that day, hundreds of people were in front of the jail trying to get the police to hand the suspects to them so they could solve the issue their way. The cops refused to do so creating a bad environment in the downtown part of Springfield, because the two men were held in custody where the mob could not get to them, they began to take their anger out on civilians, stores, and businesses. The Springfield Race Riots are a great example of the everyday struggles that African American suffered from. …show more content…
Since they could not get to them, they started to turn on other black people throughout the community. The person who got it the worst was a barber, names Scott Burton. The mob captured him, and lynched him (Senechal). This was a turning point because it showed the black community that they are at serious risk for injury, even death. The rioters destroyed businesses, stealing and wrecking things, downtown. The third place the mob went to was the badlands. This was a bad because the badlands were where most of the black community lived, and had many businesses there

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