Three Major Cases of Colour Violence in the United States

Allen D. Grimshaw , 'Factors Contributing to Colour Violence in the United States and Britain ', Race, vol. III, no. 2, May 1962 .

This account of the rioting in Tulsa draws heavily on the reports in the New York Times (hereinafter cited as Times), 70: 23,140; 23,143, 23; 146, 23,158; 23,164 and 23,167, June 1921. A shorter account drawing on a number of newspapers for details and editorial comment is 'Mob Fury and Race Hatred as a National Danger', The Literary Digest, 69, 12, 18 June 1921.

United States Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, 1920 Census of the United States, vol. III. Population: Composition and Characteristics of Population by States, Washington, D.C., 1920.

Times, 70: 23,141, 3 June 1921.

Times, 70: 23,142, 4 June 1921.

Times, 70: 23,143, 5 June 1921.

No urban race riot in the United States has received more complete coverage than that which occurred in Chicago in 1919. The Negro in Chicago, Chicago Commission on Race Relations, Chicago, 1922, is the best single study of a race riot available and served as source for most of this account. The Times gave the riot full coverage, publishing not only news stories but feature articles and editorials as well. Articles and commentary appeared in many periodicals of the day.

Otis D. and Beverly Duncan, The Negro Population of Chicago: A Study of Residential Succession, Chicago, 1957, is probably the best study available of the growth and changes in a Negro population of any major American city.

See the discussion in Grimshaw, op. cit., 1962.

See, e.g., Times, 68: 22,465; 22,471; 22,472; 22,494, and 22,495 (all during the summer of 1918).

The Negro in Chicago, (see footnote 7 above).

Ibid., and E. Frank Gardiner , 'Vice and Politics as Factors in Chicago Riots ', Times, 68: 22,471, 3 August 1919.

A coroner's jury ruled that he died of drowning because he feared to swim in to shore, The Negro in Chicago, Chicago Commission on Race Relations, Chicago, 1912.

The Negro in Chicago, op. cit.

This account is based in large part on United States Congress, House of Representatives, Special Committee Authorised by Congress to Investigate the East St. Louis Riots, Report, House of Representatives, 65th Congress, Second Session, House Document 1231, vol. 114, 7444, Washington, D.C., 1918. Substantial coverage was given by the Times to these riots and to the investigations which followed.

Times, 66: 21,675, 29 May 1917.

Times, 66: 21,677, 31 May 1917.

The chronology of the riot in the Times, especially in 66; 21,710-21,713, is somewhat more complete than that found in the Congressional report.

Times, 66: 21,712, 5 July 1917.

Cf. Allen D. Grimshaw , 'Police Agencies and the Prevention of Racial Violence', Journal of Criminal Law, Criminology and Police Science, 54, 1, March 1963, pp. 110-113.