Washington DC race riot 1919 more detail!

Race Riot at Capital
White soldiers and Sailors Make Raid on Negro Quarter

WASHINGTON, July 19 1919 -- White soldiers, sailors, and marines on liberty in the city, said to have been aroused by repeated attacks on white women by colored men during the last few days, invaded a colored residential district tonight and one colored man George Montgomery, 55-year-old was severely beaten.

Several shots were fired before police and provost guards got to the scene.

Several other negroes were caught by the crowd, but made their escape with only trifling injuries, though shots were fired at them.

The uniformed men participating in the attack were gathered together in the downtown district after individual fights had taken place and were inflamed, it was said, by reports that another white woman, and the wife of a sailor, had been attacked by a negro.

Reserves from three police stations besides the military guard and a detachment of marines on guard answered emergency calls, but found the mob dispersed when they arrived at the scene of trouble. About 100 service men were said to have been involved.

A patrol was continued after midnight through the area to prevent any repetition of the violence.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------- race riots renewed white soldiers and sailors attack negroes on Pennsylvania Avenue July 20 1919-- Police reserves rushed to the heart of Washington, DC, in the "Centre Market district, Seventh and Pennsylvania Avenue," to quell several hundred white soldiers, sailors, marines, and a thousand civilians who made attacks on negroes "in retaliation for attacks on white women in Washington during the past month," "Negroes were hauled from street cars and from automobiles, Francis Thomas, a black 17-year-old, reported to the NAACP,"A mob of sailors and soldiers jumped on the [street]car and pulled me off, beating me unmercifully from head to foot, leaving me in such a condition that I could hardly crawl back home." Thomas said he saw three other blacks being beaten, including two women."Before I became unconscious, I could hear them pleading with the Lord to keep them from being killed." Aggression toward blacks had started on sweltering Saturday and Sunday, July 19 and 20, 1919, when white civilians, and soldiers, sailors, and Marines freshly home from Europe collected in a spot and pointed to any black who might be passing and yelled,"There he goes!""Such outcries generally were followed by an attack upon the negro by some of the sailors and soldiers." Lawrence Johnson, a black man was beaten up by rioting white Marines just spitting distance from the White House. Using rocks wrapped in handkerchiefs, they beat him about the head, until one finally pulled out a club and knocked him to the pavement. He lay there, bleeding, until an ambulance picked him up 20 minutes later. At Fourteenth street and Pennsylvania Avenue an white overseas soldier climbed through an open window of a street car and, grabbing a negro passenger by the coat collar, dragged him from the car. Police put the number of negroes taken to the hospital at 15, one of the men attacked on 7th street had his collar bone broken. ''White women being assaulted by negroes in washington'' is what we all have noticed in our every-day papers as each publication comes into our hands. But my fellow citizens, as I glanced throught the papers last evening and saw our white soldiers, sailors and marines have taken the matter into their own hands, it filled my heart with joy. Are we going to allow Negroes to assault our sisters, wives and possibly mothers? I will say no, never, not if it costs the life of every true American. Allow me to say, dear editor, that I am not prejudiced toward the negro race, but when our women, whom we crossed the sea to fight and die for, are assaulted in our own country,it boils the blood in our veins, and if the police department in Washington are incapable of protecting our women, then our white service men who crossed the sea to protect them will, if need be, protect them in our grand and glorious capital. Allow me to say that in my opinion our capital is today being run by Negroes, and a white man has about as much chance of accomplishing anything as a Bolshevik has. Why are white men being discharged from positions in various departments in Washington and Negroes put in their places? I recollect one case where an Assistant Librarian of one of our Government Libraries who has the ''honor'' of the civilized white man.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 11 WHITES AND 5 NEGROES KILLED; SCORES HURT AS RACES BATTLE
IN STREETS OF WASHINGTON, DEFYING CAVALRY, INFANTRY AND MARINES
DETECTIVE SERGEANT WILSON VICTIM;
OTHER OFFICERS HURT; NEGRO RUNS
AMUCK, WOUNDING MANY IN FLIGHT

Fighting Spreads to Many Sections
After Troops Form a Cordon
Around Center of City.
Martial Law Virtually in Force Downtown
From White House to Mall and Capitol,
Thence to H, K and L Streets Northwest.,
One Policeman Wounded—Negroes Fired
on Whites From Speeding Autos.
BULLETIN.
July 22 1919- In the negro district along u street to fourteenth streets the negroes began early in the evening to take
vengeance for the assaults on their race in the downtown
district the night before
In the early evening crowds of colored men formed and
roughly handled half a dozen white men in this section. As the evening
progressed the crowds of negroes grew, knives and guns appeared
and the serious conflicts began. W.E. Mitchell, white, of 1436 V street northwest. was taken to the hospital at 5 o'clock suffering from bruises and cuts on the head. He was attacked by a crowd of negroes. Phelan William Eatman, of the nanceman apartments, Twenty-second and N street
northwest, was set upon by 4 negroes as he was leaving his apartment about 10;45 and was cut on the shoulder and arm. He was taken to the hospital in a private automobile. From trolley cars and swiftly moving automobiles, negro desperados dispatched in parties, singly and in pairs rained revolver shots into groups of whites whenever they found them. All night there was scattered firing from houses where negroes terror stricken but not quelled barricaded themselves. William H. Thomas, white, seventeen, was taken to the hospital at 11;45 o'clock with a bullet in his hip. He said he had been shot by a negro from a southbound car on Seventh street, near Pennsylvania Avenue. Frank Daosod, white of 415 Franklin street Northwest, was shot in the head at Florida avenue northwest he died. Vernon Pemleff, white twenty years old, of 1242 Eleventh street northwest, shot in the head died. James H McGuigan, white, seventeen, of 1406 A street southeast, shot in the left knee. Frank Mancuso, white, 14, of 733 I street northwest, shot in leg.Carl Martin, white, age 16 shot in hip. Shots fired from a street car resulted in the injury of two whites, Albert Finlayson, age 31, and Ernest, Albert Giovanetti. The negro who fired was George Gentry, and he was shot five times by Detective Scrivenver before he was captured. All three was sent to the hospital. Finlayson was shot in the hip and Giovanetti was shot in the foot. Gentry's condition is serious. Inspecter Grant, and Detectives Sweeney, Hewlett, Kelley, and Beckley helped catch Gentry. randell Neal, 22, black, died he was shot and his skull crushed by the butt of a rifle, he was killed by white marine. Herbert Barber, black, was taken to the hospital at 11 o'clock, he was beaten by white soldiers, sailors and civilians. Harris Gross, black was taken to the hospital at 11'40 , beaten by white soldiers, sailors and civilians. Kenneth Crall, white, seventeen, Shot in head, died. George H Parker, age fifty, jaw dislocated when attacked and knocked down by 4 negroes on Thirteenth Street between N and O Streets Northwest. The rioting grew in intensity after midnight and 11 whites and 5 negroes were killed and fully a dozen persons
wounded, some fatally, in clashes along New York avenue and Florida avenue section of the city. race war galloped wildley through the streets of Washington last night, reaping a death toll of 16 and a list of wounded running wildley into the hundreds. Bands of blacks and whites hunted for each other like clansmen throughout the night. From nightfall to dawn ambulances bore there steady stream of dead and wounded to the hospital.The fighting cost the life if a policeman, Detective Sergeant Wilson,white. Wilson was shot by a negro girl. Carrie Minor Johnson, seventeen, turned to sniping from the second story window of her home 220 G Street Northwest, and Detectives decided to go up and get her. He broke the door down but was felled by a bullet. Inspecter Grant Hurried Wilson to an automobile, which flashed through Pennsylvania Avenue at fast speeds. The machine skidded beyond control and in front of Willard it leaped the street car platforms and crashed into a store front of Poli's Theater. Wilson died on his way to the hospital before the accident. The NAACP sent a telegram of protest to President Wilson
...the shame put upon the country by the mobs, including United States soldiers, sailors, and marines, which have assaulted innocent and unoffending negroes in the national capital. Men in uniform have attacked negroes on the streets and pulled them from streetcars to beat them. Crowds are reported ...to have directed attacks against any passing negro....The effect of such riots in the national capital upon race antagonism will be to increase bitterness and danger of outbreaks elsewhere. National Association for the Advancement of Colored People calls upon you as President and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the nation to make statement condemning mob violence and to enforce such military law as situation demands.
HOME GUARD IS SHOT DEAD; Halbfinger on Duty in Colored Section When Negro, Fires on Him. CARDON AROUND SLAYER Armed Men Picketed on Roofs to Prevent Escape--White Youth Badly Wounded. MAJ.GEN. HAAN IN CHARGE Takes Command of the Military Forces--House Calls for Declaration of Martial Law. Death Concealed From Widow. Jumps to Adjoining Roof. Says Situation Is Under Control. Strong Forces in the City. Acts With Police Chief. 300 Mounted Army Guards. Police Get Machine Guns. Suppressed Tension Everywhere Detective Killed Was New Yorker. Heavy Police Court Fines. MANY URGE MARTIAL LAW. House Members Attack Washington's Police for Failure in Riots.












WASHINGTON, July 22.--Race rioting was renewed here at 10 o'clock to-night, despite the concentration here of large numbers of cavalry, infantry and marines under direction of Major General Haan, and the best efforts of the police and more than a thousand special officers drawn largely from the Home Guard.
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