Red Summer: The Summer of 1919 and the Awakening of Black America
4.5/5
()
About this ebook
A narrative history of America's deadliest episode of race riots and lynchings
After World War I, black Americans fervently hoped for a new epoch of peace, prosperity, and equality. Black soldiers believed their participation in the fight to make the world safe for democracy finally earned them rights they had been promised since the close of the Civil War.
Instead, an unprecedented wave of anti-black riots and lynchings swept the country for eight months. From April to November of 1919, the racial unrest rolled across the South into the North and the Midwest, even to the nation's capital. Millions of lives were disrupted, and hundreds of lives were lost. Blacks responded by fighting back with an intensity and determination never seen before.
Red Summer is the first narrative history written about this epic encounter. Focusing on the worst riots and lynchings—including those in Chicago, Washington, D.C., Charleston, Omaha and Knoxville—Cameron McWhirter chronicles the mayhem, while also exploring the first stirrings of a civil rights movement that would transform American society forty years later.
Cameron McWhirter
Cameron McWhirter is a national reporter for The Wall Street Journal, based in Atlanta. He has covered mass shootings, violent protests and natural disasters across the South. He is also the author of Red Summer: The Summer of 1919 and the Awakening of Black America. Previously, he reported for other publications in the U.S., as well as Bosnia, Iraq, and Ethiopia.
Related to Red Summer
Related ebooks
The Burning: The Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Worse Than Slavery Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow: The Companion to the PBS Television Series Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lynching: The Epic Courtroom Battle That Brought Down the Klan Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Waiting 'Til the Midnight Hour: A Narrative History of Black Power in America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Day Freedom Died: The Colfax Massacre, the Supreme Court, and the Betrayal of Reconstruction Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Midnight Rising: John Brown and the Raid That Sparked the Civil War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ebony and Ivy: Race, Slavery, and the Troubled History of America's Universities Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Invention of the White Race, Volume 2: The Origin of Racial Oppression in Anglo-America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Remembering Jim Crow: African Americans Tell About Life in the Segregated South Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5White Flight: Atlanta and the Making of Modern Conservatism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Short History of Reconstruction [Updated Edition] Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Assassination of Fred Hampton: How the FBI and the Chicago Police Murdered a Black Panther Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Chicago Race Riots: July, 1919 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Invention of the White Race, Volume 1: Racial Oppression and Social Control Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Slave's Cause: A History of Abolition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Race for Profit: How Banks and the Real Estate Industry Undermined Black Homeownership Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Empire of Necessity: Slavery, Freedom, and Deception in the New World Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The American Slave Coast: A History of the Slave-Breeding Industry Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ida: A Sword Among Lions: Ida B. Wells and the Campaign Against Lynching Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Black Ghost of Empire: The Long Death of Slavery and the Failure of Emancipation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lest We Forget: The Passage from Africa into the Twenty-First Century Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Slave Trade: The Story of the Atlantic Slave Trade: 1440-1870 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Black against Empire: The History and Politics of the Black Panther Party Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Defender: How the Legendary Black Newspaper Changed America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement: A Radical Democratic Vision Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Reconstruction Updated Edition: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863-18 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Second: Race and Guns in a Fatally Unequal America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
African American History For You
Systemic Racism 101: A Visual History of the Impact of Racism in America Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5100 Amazing Facts About the Negro with Complete Proof Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5African American Herbalism: A Practical Guide to Healing Plants and Folk Traditions Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The End of White World Supremacy: Four Speeches Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Never Caught: The Washingtons' Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Plot to Kill King: The Truth Behind the Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Black Ghost of Empire: The Long Death of Slavery and the Failure of Emancipation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5White Like Her: My Family's Story of Race and Racial Passing Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A Short History of Reconstruction [Updated Edition] Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Black Fortunes: The Story of the First Six African Americans Who Escaped Slavery and Became Millionaires Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Overground Railroad: The Green Book and the Roots of Black Travel in America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Somebody's Daughter: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Let This Radicalize You: Organizing and the Revolution of Reciprocal Care Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhite Evangelical Racism: The Politics of Morality in America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Defining Moments in Black History: Reading Between the Lies Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Summary of The 1619 Project: by Nikole Hannah-Jones - A Comprehensive Summary Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAfrican American Fraternities and Sororities: The Legacy and the Vision Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Summary and Analysis of Between the World and Me: Based on the Book by Ta-Nehisi Coates Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5More Than Chattel: Black Women and Slavery in the Americas Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Color of Compromise: The Truth about the American Church’s Complicity in Racism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Crusade for Justice: The Autobiography of Ida B. Wells Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How We Get Free: Black Feminism and the Combahee River Collective Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5James Baldwin: A Biography Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Debunking the 1619 Project: Exposing the Plan to Divide America Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Humanity Archive: Recovering the Soul of Black History from a Whitewashed American Myth Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Red Summer
20 ratings1 review
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Not an easy read, but so glad I found it.
(don't remember what pointed me to this book, that I had to get thru interlibrary)
There's some difficult gore, made most difficult due to the horror of how humans can treat one another. I know this is factual, but found it extremely difficult to comprehend the inhumanity of whites and white crowds brutally torturing and killing fellow humans simply because of their black skin color.
Maybe today's brutalities aren't so unusual after all; while we hear more about it, yet not as brutal as these events.
And this was in 1919 - LESS THAN 100 years ago.
My Grandparents were youngsters, my nearest & dearest friend was born less than 10 years later.
Takes your breath away to think about it.
Also a bit difficult to follow all the individuals traced as the founders of organizations and the many individuals involved in attempting to make the necessary changes. Well written, but there are a lot of facts to follow.
Read through to the very end - Interesting twist brings a conclusion of sorts to the opening story of one of the first events that started the bloodshed of 1919.