Before there was Trayvon Martin, Tamir Rice, and Laquan McDonald, there was 17-year-old Eugene Williams.
Williams’s death and its aftermath sparked the weeklong Chicago 1919 race riots that disproportionately affected the city’s Black community: 38 people died (23 of them Black and 15 white), another 520 people were injured, and 1,000 Black people were displaced by fires that were intentionally set by white mobs.
Such was the state of alarm during the race riots that Black Chicagoans lived in fear, and simple errands such as going to the grocery store or work compromised their safety. The Urban League, which was founded in 1916 with a mission to “open the doors of opportunity for African Americans through advocacy, collaboration and innovation,” served as a site for Black residents to pick up food and other resources.
“It’s important that people also take away from the programming solutions on how we get equity for all of the city’s residents.” v
