“Several Killed in Race Riot at Charleston, S.C.” article in the El Paso Herald, May 12, 1919. Source: Visualizingtheredsummer.com
White sailors ignited violent rioting in Charleston, South Carolina, on May 10, 1919 during what would become known as Red Summer.
Reports from the night pin-point a few events that helped spark the city-wide terror: One group of white sailors ran down a Black man who had not stepped off the sidewalk for them. Another group killed a Black man at a pool hall after a bootlegger reportedly took their cash but did not return with the promised alcohol.
When rumors of these incidents reached the Charleston Navy Yard, hundreds of white sailors flooded into Black Charleston neighborhoods to wreak havoc.
Civil rights activist Septima Clark was a young woman living in Charleston at the time. In an interview with the since-closed Charleston Chronicle, Clark described the scene on May 10th:
We had trolley cars then, and these sailors got on and started beating every Black [person] they could find. They killed one or two of them. That Sunday night, nobody could go out, you had to stay in.
Yet many Black people did not stay indoors. In fact, many fought back. Some armed themselves.
For details, visit BlackPast.org and find resources to learn more and teach about Red Summer below.
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