Lightfoot calls 1919 race riots ‘shameful chapter’ of Chicago history, vows ‘to overcome its brutal legacy’

The 1919 race riots are a “bitter and shameful chapter” of history that represents not only Chicago’s past but its present, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Monday, vowing to chart a more equitable future.

A ceremony at Dunbar Vocational High School on Monday marked the city’s official celebration of the “red summer.”

On July 27, 1919, Eugene Williams, a black teenager, drowned when he was struck by a rock thrown by a white man angry that black swimmers had drifted into a whites-only area of Lake Michigan.

Williams’ death triggered a race riot that lasted nearly five days. When it was over, 38 people were dead, 23 of them black. Five hundred people were injured. One thousand were left homeless.

Lightfoot spoke about the “forces of justice and injustice” that Chicago is “still reckoning with a century later.”

Chicago has the “capacity to overcome its brutal legacy,” but “we continue to struggle under its weight,” she said.

Then she ticked off the ways.

“In our concentrated violence. In the intergenerational poverty that has trapped dozens of generations of families. In the generations of black folks dying younger than white people because of early and consistent exposure to trauma or because of early onset of diabetes and hypertension. Or because of addiction or depression, or all of the above,” she said.

“And in the systemic disinvestment that we see in neighborhoods like Washington Park and North Lawndale,” where “the only difference is the . . . race of people who live there.”

The Chicago Public Schools is developing a resource guide and working with individual schools to teach students about the 1919 riots to “keep history alive” and learn from it.

The city is working with Danielle Tillman of bKL Architecture to create a “placemaking structure” to commemorate the riots.

Lightfoot’s promise to “end once and for all the system of racism that has defined us for far too long” brought the crowd to its feet.

“I called it a yearning, but it’s really a justified demand for the same access to safe and vibrant communities on the South and the West sides that are understood as a birthright on the North Side,” Lightfoot said to a rousing standing ovation.

“I hear you. The voices, the sights, the sounds of my people, our neighbors are deeply embedded in me. This need is the reason I stand here today. The reason we will no longer ignore abject poverty and segregation or any of the other barriers that have held way too many people back. . . . This is our challenge, but it’s our greatest opportunity.”

The mayor’s promise to deliver a “specific and dynamic” plan to rebuild impoverished South and West side neighborhoods was music to the ears of the Rev. Janette Wilson of Rainbow PUSH.

“Look at the allocation of resources in our public schools, North Side Prep vs. Harper High School. . . . We must fight for more resources for every child to have a high-quality public education 100 years later. We must convene, Mayor Lightfoot, these construction unions. They have to open up their doors and make our young men and women apprentices.”

Wilson said she firmly believes Lightfoot’s pledge to confront the forces of inequality.

“We must support her and we must undergird her as she seeks to change all of those systems that have been historically denying access to people of color,” Wilson said.

After the ceremony, Lightfoot was asked about another example of racism: President Donald Trump’s ongoing Twitter war against U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings, a Democrat from Maryland.

“This is clearly the president’s strategy. He came down the escalator with this strategy four years ago. He believes it’s a winning formula and he’s gonna continuing focusing on demonizing and dividing. . . . I hope and think it will not be a winning strategy,” she said.

Lightfoot cautioned “serious” Democratic presidential contenders not to get “distracted” by every presidential tweet and put-down.

“Racism is a part of who he is. . . . Having this constant conversation about, ‘Oh, my gosh. Is this remark racist?’ Yes, of course. That’s part of the strategy,” the mayor said.

“But let’s focus on what people actually care about, and what they need. What they need is leadership. . . . No Democrat will be successful in defeating Trump unless they understand and reflect the experience of people in the heartland.”