The Springfield IL race riot of 1908

[murielm99]

Since it is Black History Month, I think it is worth mentioning the Springfield race riot of 1908. For some reason, my children never learned about it in school, either in their Illinois history classes, or their Black History lessons.

It is important to our national history, because it led to the founding of the NAACP.

From the website I found on the subject:

Springfield's two prominent claims, one positive and one negative, to national recognition, are the homes of Abraham Lincoln and the infamous 1908 race riot. While Lincoln has been immortalized in buildings, holidays and statues, there has been very little done to preserve the memory of the 1908 race riot.

http://library.thinkquest.org/2986/

I did read that there is a self-guided tour to this shameful bit of Illinois history. The next time I am in Springfield, I will see if I can find it.

[rosesaylavee]

1. I'd be interested in learning more...

Thanks for posting. I lived in Springfield and in the area surrounding there for 5 years in the 90s. I found it to be a very segregated town and was very uncomfortable there. As a white woman, I was told on a number of occasions not to drive on the 'black' or east side of town. Not sure what the heck was going to happen to me over there but that's what I was told. The Mall on the 'white' side of town was White Oaks Mall - or 'White Folks' Mall. When we were selling our house, we were actually asked by our white neighbors not to sell to blacks.

I was glad not to have to raise my son in that poisonous atmosphere.

[murielm99]

2. I have driven through the 'black' side of Springfield.

I had to go to a couple of events at the Governor's Mansion last spring. It is located in that part of town.

I was not aware that Springfield was that segregated, though. I assumed that AA people who are well-off lived in any neighborhood they chose.

[olkaz]

9. I'm curious as to what route you took.

The Governor's mansion is not in the 'black' side of Springfield. It's downtown. I lived in an apartment building that overlooked it. It's almost entirely business people, young professionals (doctors), retirees, and college students.

Anyway, if you took I-55, you would have taken the Clearlake exit, which pretty much goes straight downtown. You would have passed an area with low income blacks AND whites (telltale sign of the drive-through liquor store), but not an entirely black area.

Springfield is not segregated any more than Chicago or Rockford are (and I would say considerably less so). African Americans here **do** live wherever they want here. It's a ridiculous notion that they don't.

[murielm99]

11. You needn't go off on me.

I was staying at the Crowne Plaza. The shuttle took us to the governor's mansion. I may not know my way around Springfield, but I have eyes. We drove through a very poor, black neighborhood.

And I am not the poster who said something about neighbors who did not want a property sold to African Americans. I have never lived in Springfield.

[olkaz]

13. I didn't go off on you.

If you were at the Crown Plaza, they probably took you on South Grand, which indeed has some very low-income African American folks. There's an outreach center, a lot of dirty looking check cashing and loan joints, and generally depressed looking environs. I can understand how going through this particular area would have given you this impression.

But, again, this area could be easily confused with extremely similar-looking areas in cities all across the state.

[olkaz]

8. ...I have not had that experience **at all**.

I've lived in Springfield since 2004. First I lived about two blocks from the capital building, and more recently bought a house near the junction of Dirksen and Stevenson.

This town is no more segregated than any other town. Yes, there is an area that has predominantly low-income african americans, just like there is in Bloomington along Market Street, Decatur (in several parts of town), and Peoria. But my next door neighbors are African-American, in a nicer part of town, and that certainly isn't an oddity.

As for people telling you not to drive in certain parts of town, I'm sorry, but there are idiots everywhere. My first real experience with racism was in Chicago. I heard people say some untoward things on my honeymoon in Seattle. Yes, there is a certain amount of "all couched-in, telling it like it is" people who think they aren't offensive. Again, those people are everywhere.

The Mall on the 'white' side of town was White Oaks Mall - or 'White Folks' Mall.

There is no other mall. In bigger cities, sure, there exists a "black" mall, and a "white" mall. St. Louis comes to mind. But it doesn't exist here. And in four years of living here, I have **never** heard of it being called "White Folks" mall. Not once.

I was glad not to have to raise my son in that poisonous atmosphere.

Your experience is not typical, and I certainly don't appreciate having my home being painted as some sort of lunatic racist homebase downstate. But, just to make sure, I'll start asking some of my black friends what their experience has been.

[rosesaylavee]

10. I lived there from 1991-1995

Perhaps it has changed somewhat. Just reporting what my experience had been. I lived in the area directly behind the mall and rented a house closer in toward the downtown.

I heard that from white people in two different neighborhoods. Sorry to say but that was my experience there. The neighborhood behind the mall was predominantly retired white folks - perhaps that made the difference between our experiences.

[olkaz]

14. 'poisonous atmosphere'

I'm sorry, but that sort of over-the-top language is going to irritate people.

Anyway, I looked at your profile, and I noticed you moved to the western suburbs. Is it better there? I ask specifically because that was the area that I first encountered real racism.

I played division three football with several guys whose families lived in Glen Ellyn, Wheaton, etc, and during breaks and on weekends, sometimes I'd go with them. One time, my teammate had a friend pick us up from his house. While in the car, he said some unimaginably racist things openly. I'd never heard anything like it (of course, I was a little sheltered). This type of thing happened with another teammate's friends from La Grange (honestly, I don't even know if that is still Western suburbs).

Now would I take the time specifically to call out the suburbs as a 'poisonous atmosphere'? No. Demonizing a whole area and group of people is a just a different type of prejudice.

[Radical Activist]

3. Yes, there are a series of markers.

There's a walking tour. The riots are getting a lot of attention in Springfield this year due to it being 100 years ago.

[mac2]

4. Martin Luther King upon visiting Chicago

said he had never experienced such as hate as in Chicago.

I am not a native of the area but seem to find a lot of hate of all kinds. Like any group of people, I have found some "salt of the earth people" too. Everyone seems to live in their own little financial, social group and culture.

Thanks for the information about the race riots. Since this is a Republican media that's all we hear is about Lincoln on President's Day.

But Lincoln would not have been a traitor or killer of his own like Bush. He hated war and slavery. He hated the Evangelicals trying to run the government in times of crisis and dismissed them. The elite may have killed him for releasing the slaves and talking of getting out of the Federal Reserve.

[ikojo]

5. I think there is a presentation about the 1908

riot at the Lincoln Presidential Library.

[orleans]

6. bit of trivia here

this white woman called malloy's show one night. she said she called because when he talks about how we'll all be under martial law he makes it sound like it's not that bad. she wanted to tell him that she was in Detroit in the late '60s (i forget the year she said) and it was at the beginning of a race riot. she was visiting a friend and...and he interrupted her numerous times, started bitching at her for using the word "race" on & on & on he went. she apologized, said that was how it was referred to by the media, blablablablabla.

i like mike but he was really pissing me off over this because he wouldn't shut up and i thought he was gonna fucking hang up on her. he gave her such shit but finally, eventually let her make her point.

her point/story: her and a friend (another woman) heard on the radio that there was a curfew. they wondered what the hell was happening. they left their kids in the house/apartment and went walking down the block (near a main street) and saw fucking tanks driving down the street, and were stopped by cops/soldiers (i forget) who pointed guns at them and asked what the hell they were doing--they were told to get back home. she said she was stranded there for several days, couldn't leave to go home, couldn't go to the store for milk for the kids, etc. her point was that she remembers martial law and mike shouldn't make it sound like it's no big fucking deal. (although she was very nice)

i mention this, of course, because you said the "race riot" of 1908.

[rosesaylavee]

7. How could anyone in their right mind think

that martial law would be tolerable? I haven't heard malloy personally but just assumed as so many here do that he must be a liberal? Isn't that right? If you or someone else could post a link to that program and possibly even that date of the show, I sure would be interested in listening to the podcast.

[murielm99]

12. I called it the "race riot" because that is how it is

referred to in the histories and in the remembrances during this centennial year. That is what it the events are called in my link.

I made a few innocuous comments in a thread that is actually rather old, and everyone seemed to get testy. I simply thought that this little known event in Illinois history would be of interest to this forum.

[Critters2]

15. Muriel, Thanks for posting this. I've had family in Springfield my whole life,

and have visited there often. I'll be going down next week, and will make a point of trying to find info about this. I'm stunned I never heard of it before.

I'm reminded of another violent episode in that area, of which I only recently learned. A friend of mine is serving in Virden, IL, about 20 miles south of Springfield. From visiting her, I've learned of the Virden Mine Riot of 1898, where coal miners went on strike and fought against scabs--many of them black--brought in by the mining company. While it wasn't explicitly a race riot, racial tensions were exacerbated by the events. I still don't find much about it on the internet.