Black History Month - History - Grand Victoria Foundation

Cairo, Illinois

OVERVIEW

Strategically located at the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, Cairo had a history of racial violence and lynchings in the early 1900s.

In 1909, a lynching in Cairo garnered national media attention, with photographs of the event circulating widely, illustrating the brutality of mob violence.

SIGNIFICANCE

Emblematic of how river cities, with their blend of commerce and mobility, could become flashpoints for racial conflict.
Demonstrates that racial tensions weren’t confined to big cities; smaller Illinois communities grappled with Jim Crow-era violence too.

Alton Race Riots 1897

OVERVIEW

Alton, located near St. Louis, witnessed a race riot where tensions flared over issues of interracial relationships and deep-seated prejudices.

The unrest led to the burning of Black neighborhoods and attacks on African American residents.

SIGNIFICANCE

Alton had already been a hotbed of anti-slavery and pro-slavery tensions leading up to the Civil War.
The 1897 incident underscored continuing racial hostilities despite the end of slavery, foreshadowing broader patterns of violence that would erupt during the Jim Crow era.

Springfield Riots 1908

OVERVIEW

Occurred in the state capital of Illinois. A series of violent attacks on Black communities began when a mob sought to Lynch two Black men who were transferred out of Springfield’s jail, prompting rage toward local Black residents.

Over two days, rioters lynched and murdered Black citizens, burned homes, and destroyed Black-owned businesses.

SIGNIFICANCE

The riot shocked the nation, particularly because it happened in Abraham Lincoln’s hometown—long seen as a symbol of emancipation.
Led to a national outcry and the formation of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) the following year (1909).

East St. Louis Race Riots 1917

OVERVIEW

One of the most violent race-related episodes in U.S. history, it occurred in the summer of 1917 in East St. Louis, Illinois.

Sparked by labor tensions and white resentment over Black workers being hired as strikebreakers, mobs attacked Black neighborhoods, leading to widespread destruction and an estimated death toll of at least 39 Black residents (though some reports suggest much higher).

SIGNIFICANCE

Exposed the racial animosity and economic competition that accompanied the early wave of the Great Migration.
Galvanized civil rights activists and organizations; Ida B. Wells-Barnett and W.E.B. Du Bois were among those who protested and documented the atrocities.

The Chicago Race Riot of 1919

OVERVIEW

During the “Red Summer” of 1919, Chicago experienced one of the deadliest race riots in U.S. history, sparked by the stoning of a Black teenager, Eugene Williams, who drifted into a “whites-only” section of a Lake Michigan beach.

SIGNIFICANCE

The riot lasted nearly a week, left dozens dead, and highlighted racial tensions in rapidly growing Northern cities following the Great Migration.

The Assassination of Fred Hampton (1969)

OVERVIEW

On December 4, 1969, Chicago police, in coordination with the FBI, raided the apartment of 21-year-old Fred Hampton, chairman of the Illinois Black Panther Party. He was shot and killed while sleeping, alongside fellow Panther Mark Clark, in what was later exposed as an FBI COINTELPRO operation designed to dismantle Black activist movements.

SIGNIFICANCE

Hampton was a charismatic leader, known for his Free Breakfast for Children program, coalition-building efforts, and powerful speeches on racial and economic justice.
The raid was a premeditated assassination, with officers firing nearly 100 bullets while the Panthers fired just one in response.
His death symbolized the extreme lengths to which the government would go to suppress Black political movements.