Black Lives History Timeline: 1919 - The Red Summer

This had always been on my list to write up next, but hadn't been sure how I would title this until I watched a video of Black History in Two Minutes hosted by Henry Louis Gates Jr covering this moment in time (link below). It is thanks to him I now know what to call this time. And now you do, too. This is closer to my previous event than I usually go, but really, this is what led to what happened in Tulsa, and every white person should know what white people did to Black soldiers returning from World War I.

1919: The Red Summer
The Red Summer is a period in 1919 known for a series of white supremacist attacks against Black people and Black communities from late winter through fall of 1919. The term was coined by Civil Rights Activist and author James Weldon Johnson, member of the NAACP, who helped organize some peaceful protests against the attacks in the summer of 1919. Most of the attacks during this period were white-on-Black crimes, though in some instances, the violence started because of Black response to an attack. The violence began because of tensions post World War I. Soldiers returned home, and the economic slump of people trying to find jobs and being able to afford things led to increased racial tension. In addition, returning Black soldiers rightly felt they should be respected more because of their service. Between housing, job, and labor unrest, white people began to attack Black people to "keep them in their place." This is the period of the rise of the KKK, and across the south and into the midwest, they began to attack communities or any Black person they felt too "uppity." While the press at the time covered the events extensively, the US Government did not step in to any great extent, due to worries that the Black protesters were being stirred up by "Bolsheviks" and "foreign anarchists." In the end, they placed all blame on the Black protesters for fighting back at all.

Sources:

• Wikipedia: Red Summer
• Teen Vogue: The Red Summer of 1919, Explained
• Time: ‘It Just Goes On and On’: How the Race Riots of 1919's ‘Red Summer’ Helped Shape a Century of American History
• History: Red Summer of 1919: How Black WWI Vets Fought Back Against Racist Mobs
• The Red Summer (video)
• Poems to read:
• W.E.B DuBois: Returning Soldiers
• Claude McKay: If We Must Die
• Race Riots of 1919 - The Red Summer (Map)
• The Mob Violence of the Red Summer
• Hundreds of black deaths in the ‘Red Summer’ of 1919 are being remembered
• Remembering Red Summer - Which Textbooks Seem Eager to Forget
• Red Summer
• Red Summer of 1919
• Hundreds of black Americans were killed during 'Red Summer.' A century later, still ignored

Understand, this did not start after Black soldiers returned to America, and it did not end after Tulsa. Just read the pieces I have posted about later dates to reaffirm that fact in your mind. This is a systematic attack against Black people because white supremacists think they are beneath them, and hate it when Black people are confident. They hate it when Black people have things they do not have or when Black people are successful. They hate Black people. And the only way to stop them is to convict every single person who has ever caused harm to a Black person. Make it illegal, and it won't happen the way it is still happening today. As I write this piece, another Black man was shot and killed by white supremacists in my city, Seattle. It needs to stop. And that starts with making being white supremacist illegal, making the KKK a terrorist group because they are, and certainly not allowing white supremacists to be police or military. Which is why we need to dismantle all police departments at this time. Because they're not stopping them from joining the force. So we need to do it for them. My next post will be another attack of this sort, but I will go into more specifics about that particular attack.