Eugene Williams drowned at a Chicago beach in 1919 after white man struck him with a rock for going on the ‘white’ side of Lake Michigan

During the second decade of the 20th century segregation in Chicago wasn’t legal as it was in Southern cities. However, there were unwritten rules that restricted Black people from certain neighborhoods, jobs and public areas including beaches.

On July 27, 1919, Eugene Williams drowned at a Chicago beach after a white man hit him with a rock for going to the “white” side of Lake Michigan. Once police refused to arrest the man who threw the rock, the Black people who witnesses what happened protested. White mobs then responded with violence that lasted five days.

During those few days, white mobs attacked Black people on sight, setting fire to over 30 properties in Chicago’s south side, along with an attempted to attack Provident Hospital—which served mostly Black patients. Then six thousand National Guard troops were called in to end the unrest. The 1919 Chicago race riot caused many Black people to leave Chicago after the horrific experience.

After the incident, Illinois state officials announced a plan to investigate and punish all people responsible for the violence and destruction of property during the race riot. However, many more Black people were arrested versus white. The grand jury proceedings ended in the indictment of mostly Black defendants. Afteer testifying before a commission investigating the roots of the Chicago violence, the city’s police chief at the time admitted this was due to bias in his department of white officers.

“There is no doubt that a great many police officers were grossly unfair in making arrests,” he said in 1922. “They shut their eyes to offenses committed by white men while they were very vigorous in getting all the colored men they could get.”

Source: Equal Justice Initiative

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