- Click here for this post from the TSHA.
I'm sorry to say that I'm unaware of this event - or the Red Summer it refers to. It's interesting to note that one of the factors leading to the conflict was a rumored interracial affair. In the wake of the gay marriage decision, some have revisited out history of laws against inter racial marriage and the Supreme Court decision that found them unconstitutional.
From the story:
The Longview Race Riot occurred during the Red Summer, as May to October of 1919 has been called. It was the second of twenty-five major racial conflicts that occurred throughout the United States during these months. In 1919 Longview, a rural cotton and lumbering community in Northeast Texas, had a population of 5,700; 31 percent were black. Racial tension was especially high immediately before the riot because two locally prominent black leaders, Samuel L. Jones and Dr. Calvin P. Davis, had urged black farmers to avoid local white cotton brokers and sell directly to buyers in Galveston. Then an article in the July 10 issue of the Chicago Defender, a sensationalistic nationwide black newspaper, described the death of a young black man, Lemuel Walters, in Longview. The article reported that Walters and an unnamed white woman from Kilgore, Texas, were in love and quoted her as saying they would have married if they had lived in the North. Walters, according to the article, was safely locked in the Gregg County Jail until the sheriff willingly handed him over to a white mob that murdered him on June 17.
And - of course - Wikipedia has a page on the Red Summer.
- Click here for it.
The riots are alleged to be tied into the end of WWI and fears of communism. Here's a taste:
The riots followed postwar social tensions related to the demobilization of veterans ofWorld War I, both black and white, and competition for jobs among ethnic whites and blacks. The riots were extensively documented in the press, which along with the federal government conflated black movements with bolshevism.
