Red Summer The Summer of 1919 and the Awakening of Black America

by McWhirter, Cameron

• ISBN13: 9781250009067
• ISBN10: 1250009065
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-07-03
• Publisher: Griffin

Summary

After World War I, black Americans fervently hoped for a new epoch of peace, prosperity, and equality. Black soldiers believed their participation in the fight to make the world safe for democracy finally earned them rights they had been promised since the close of the Civil War. Instead, an unprecedented wave of anti-black riots and lynchings swept the country. Millions of lives were disrupted, and hundreds of lives were lost. Blacks responded by fighting back with an intensity and determination never seen before. Their resistance began the great dismantling of institutional prejudice that had long marred American society. Red Summer is the first narrative history written about this epic encounter. Focusing on the worst riots and lynchings - including those in Chicago, Washington, D.C., Charleston, Omaha and Knoxville - Cameron McWhirter chronicles the mayhem, while also exploring the first stirrings of a civil rights movement that would transform American society forty years later.

Author Biography

Cameron McWhirter is a staff reporter for The Wall Street Journal. He was awarded a Nieman Foundation Fellowship for Journalism at Harvard in 2007. He lives outside Atlanta, Georgia.

Table of Contents

Carswell Grove	p. 1
Things Fall Apart	p. 12
The World Is on Fire	p. 18
The NAACP	p. 25
National Conference on Lynching	p. 33
Charleston	p. 41
Bombs and the Decline of the West	p. 55
Ellisville	p. 68
Cleveland	p. 76
Longview	p. 82
Washington	p. 96
Chicago Is a Great Foreign City	p. 114
The Beach	p. 127
Like a Great Volcano	p. 149
Austin	p. 162
Knoxville	p. 170
A New Negro	p. 183
Omaha	p. 192
Phillips County	p. 208
Let the Nation See Itself	p. 236
Capitol Hill	p. 246
Coda: Carswell Grove	p. 265
Acknowledgments	p. 273
Notes	p. 275
Bibliography	p. 325
Index	p. 339
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