From June through December, as many as 25 race riots break out in cities across the country, with white mobs attacking blacks and looting their homes and businesses. The worst of the riots takes place in Chicago and is sparked when a group of whites attacks a black man who ventures into the white section of a Lake Michigan beach. Thirty-eight people are killed and more than 500 are injured.
America enters World War I in April. In July five thousand blacks march down Fifth Avenue in New York to protest a race riot by a white mob in East St. Louis. They carry a banner that reads, “Mr. President, Why Not Make America Safe for Democracy?”
World War I begins.
November
November
Woodrow Wilson, a Democrat, is elected to his first term as President. Although he later becomes famous for his support of progressive legislation and his promotion of the League of Nations, Wilson sympathizes with the Southern cause and once describes Reconstruction as the overthrow of civilization in the South. As President of Princeton University, he barred the entry of black students. As President of the United States, he presides over the extensive expansion of segregationist practices in the federal government, helping to make Washington, D.C. one of the most segregated cities in America. The Post Office begins to segregate black clerks, the Treasury Department establishes segregated toilets, and Wilson defends segregation as being to the advantage of blacks themselves.
America enters World War I in April. In July five thousand blacks march down Fifth Avenue in New York to protest a race riot by a white mob in East St. Louis. They carry a banner that reads, “Mr. President, Why Not Make America Safe for Democracy?”
November
In Buchanan v. Warley, 245 U.S. 60 (1917), the Supreme Court strikes down a Louisville ordinance that prohibits black persons from residing on a block in which a majority of houses are occupied by whites and vice versa. Buchanan is one of the few cases during this period that does not follow the logic of Plessy v. Ferguson.
From June through December, as many as 25 race riots break out in cities across the country, with white mobs attacking blacks and looting their homes and businesses. The worst of the riots takes place in Chicago and is sparked when a group of whites attacks a black man who ventures into the white section of a Lake Michigan beach. Thirty-eight people are killed and more than 500 are injured.
