100 years ago this week, The Washington Post told its readers to meet for a "clean-up" operation.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

I knew the anniversary was coming up, but I hadn't thought it was right now.

The Washington Post Retweeted

100 years ago this week, The @washingtonpost told its readers to meet at 7th + Pennsylvania Avenue at 9pm for a “clean-up” operation. It was code signalling a white mob to riot.

Link to tweet

The Post, along with three other DC papers at the time, had spent weeks whipping white readers into a frenzy over supposed serial attacks by a black man.

Link to tweet

This is from 1998. I held on to my dead tree edition of the Washington City Paper; two copies.

Lost Riot

Thirty years ago this week, Washington burned. Seventy-nine years ago this summer, the city bled. Why we shouldn't forget the riots of 1919.

MICHAEL SCHAFFER APR 3, 1998 12 AM

Late on the Monday night of July 21, 1919, James E. Scott came back to Washington from a weekend out of town. His train pulled into Union Station right around midnight. ... The World War I veteran had picked a good time to get away. D.C. was in the midst of an unusually hot summer, even by its own swampy standards. Humidity hung in the air over the train yard and must have lingered under the high ceiling of the opulent railway station.

During that long, sewery summer, another kind of heat had been beating down on the city as well. The war had temporarily ballooned Washington's population and opened up thousands of new jobs. But now that it was over, all kinds of folks were still around, trying to hang on. Stories about a crime wave filled the newspapers. The news ratcheted up the pressure in the sweltering city, most dangerously along the city's precarious racial fault line.

The reports, written with lurid and inflammatory flair, suggested that black rapists were menacing D.C.'s white women. In response, white Washingtonians were forming posses. Talk of bringing back the lynchings of yore filled the air. Race relations were in a downward spiral nationwide—riots had already hit Charleston, S.C., and Longview, Texas—and the tense, nasty capital city was no exception. Scott knew about the trouble, of course, but he had no idea what he was in store for upon his return.

Stepping off the train, Scott walked out of the station and waited outside for the first of the streetcars that would carry him homeward. ... He took the Rock Creek Bridge line trolley up New Jersey Avenue to Florida Avenue. At 7th Street NW, Scott got off to wait for a transfer. About five minutes later, a streetcar bound for the Brightwood neighborhood arrived, rumbling up through deserted midnight streets. Scott and a uniformed Army captain—one of the endless stream of demobilized soldiers hanging around postwar D.C.—boarded the northbound car and headed off.

It was only after he got on the second streetcar that Scott noticed anything unusual. Seventh and Florida lay near the heart of black D.C. Yet this evening, the weary traveler didn't see a single other African-American aboard the trolley. ... Scott paid his fare and headed toward a vacant seat. But a soldier stuck his arm out and stopped him. "Where are you going, nigger?" he asked. Stammering, Scott replied that he was only going to sit down. But by then, his words were being drowned out by the other passengers.

"Lynch him," said one.

"Kill him," said another.

"Throw him out of the window," said a third.

{snip}

[elleng]

1. WOW!

I had no idea! Clearly you're much more DC-literate than I am.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

2. I kept two copies of the CP. This will be a big deal on TV over the next few days. NT

[elleng]

3. Yes it will.

Would be interesting if those who mattered would pay attention.

Have seen pic of 'Senator' mccarthy already today (early for me,) and wondering about what I should do; would leave the country but for my grandchildren living here.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

4. LTTEs about the article:

There could be more. You can hit the microfilm at the D.C. Public Library.

Fright Wig

LAUREN PAIR APR 10, 1998 12 AM

I just picked up the most recent issue this evening, and before I could even settle down to peruse the lead article ("Lost Riot," 4/3), I felt compelled

to write.

My grandfather was a member of the colored infantry during World War I. He dropped out of undergraduate school at Howard University to go "fight the Kaiser." Fortunately, before his platoon was shipped to the front in France, amnesty was declared, and he and my family were spared the horrors of the Great War. He is very proud of his participation in the colored infantry in President Wilson's Peace Parade down Pennsylvania Avenue.

In 1919, when he was 19 years old, he thankfully did not fall victim to the violence and terror of racial rioting. One of his classmates, however, was not so lucky. He tells the tale of a young man who worked at the Treasury Department as a security guard and attended college in the evening. When the riot broke out by the Treasury Department, the young man ran to lend his aid and assistance. He was immediately seized by rioters and in the melee discharged his sidearm, injuring a white sailor. The young man was incarcerated and was denied habeas corpus; he languished in prison for a year before he was released. According to my grandfather, his friend never fully recuperated from the attack. Although he went on to attend medical school and had a successful career, my grandfather said the young man's hair turned completely white from his frightful and harrowing experiences.

I hope I have the details right according to my grandfather's telling; at 97-and-a-half years old, his memory tends to be more intact than mine! I share this story with you because remembering our history should serve as a lesson and grounding of whence we come. Unfortunately, the lessons are sometimes lost and are unheeded. Hence, the repeating cycle from the summer of 1919 to the spring of 1968 in Washington, D.C.

Thanks for your insight into the importance of our past. I am looking forward to sharing this article with my granddad.

American University

via the Internet

Bloody Poetry

RICARDO LIZARDI APR 17, 1998 12 AM

I just want to let you know that Lost Riot by Michael Schaffer (4/3) was beautifully written, carefully researched, and fascinating. As a history major, I really appreciated learning about this bloody, and obviously forgotten, chapter of Washington's past. The detailed descriptions and dialogue gave me a vivid picture of D.C. life during that hot, humid, turbulent summer of 1919. Thank you for giving me something else to think about as we, once again, start to recall the riots that wrecked our city streets exactly 30 years ago in April 1968.

Also, I would like to commend Eddie Dean for his hilarious review of The Portable Henry Rollins ("Regarding Henry," 4/3). While reading it alone in my apartment last night, I howled with laughter like some demented lunatic. The neighbors must have thought I was a friggin' idiot! Now, I not only feel compelled to go out and buy the book as soon as possible, but I'm also going to keep Mr. Dean's review handy. I want to be able to refer back to it whenever I need a good laugh.

Adams Morgan

[mahatmakanejeeves]

5. It started 100 years ago today: the Washington race riot of 1919.

Washington race riot of 1919

Washington race riot of 1919



Three armed European-Americans questioning an unarmed African-American on the pavement

Date: July 19–24, 1919
Deaths: 40~
Non-fatal injuries: 150~



Armed men on a motorcycle during the military intervention

The Washington race riot of 1919 was civil unrest in Washington, D.C. from July 19, 1919, to July 24, 1919. Starting July 19, white men, many in the military and in uniforms of all three services, responded to the rumored arrest of a black man for rape of a white woman with four days of mob violence against black individuals and businesses. They rioted, randomly beat black people on the street, and pulled others off streetcars for attacks. When police refused to intervene, the black population fought back. The city closed saloons and theaters to discourage assemblies. Meanwhile, the four white-owned local papers, including the Washington Post, fanned the violence with incendiary headlines and calling in at least one instance for mobilization of a "clean-up" operation. After four days of police inaction, President Woodrow Wilson mobilized the National Guard to restore order. But a violent summer rainstorm had more of a dampening effect. When the violence ended, 15–40 people had died: at least 10 white people, including two police officers; and around 5–30 black people. Fifty people were seriously wounded and another 100 less severely wounded. It was one of the few times in 20th-century riots of whites against blacks that white fatalities outnumbered those of black people. The unrest was also one of the Red Summer riots in America.