The Negro in Chicago: A Study of Race Relations and a Race Riot. Chicago Commission on Race Relations
the number of injuries, reported that 6 per cent more whites were injured than Negroes, when the fact was that 28 per cent more Negroes were injured than whites.
The Tribune of July 29 in a news item said that before 3:00 a.m., July 29, twenty persons had been killed, of whom thirteen were white and seven colored. The truth was that of twenty killed, seven were white and thirteen colored.[7]
The Daily News of July 29 gave the starting-point of the riot as the Angelus clash, referring to it as "the center of the trouble." The same item mentioned the spread to the Stock Yards district. The fact was that the assault upon street cars in the Stock Yards district Monday afternoon and rumors of further brutalities there helped to start the Angelus riot Monday evening.[8]
The Tribune of July 30 stated that "the Black Belt continues to be the center of conflict." Up to July 30 the "Black Belt" had witnessed 120 injuries, while the district west of Wentworth Avenue had had 139. For the entire riot period the "Black Belt" furnished 34 per cent of the total number of injuries, and the district west of Wentworth Avenue 41 per cent.
Exaggeration in news reports, when popular excitement is at a high pitch, is peculiarly dangerous. For the very reason that the essential fact seems authenticated by the simultaneous appearance of the gist of the report in several papers, the individual reader is the more inclined to believe such exaggerations as may appear in his favorite journal.
Cases of exaggeration could be adduced from every Chicago newspaper, but a typical one is the report in the Chicago Daily News of July 29 concerning the killing of Harold Brignadello, white. This item said:
Four women and nine men are held at the South Clark Street Station after their arrest at 1021 South State Street, where they had a formidable arsenal.
Harry Signadell [sic], 35, white, died on the way to St. Luke's Hospital shortly before noon after his bullet-riddled body had been picked up by the police in front of 1021 South State Street, where a colored woman and 20 other Negroes had barricaded themselves and were shooting at all whites who passed the place.
Other persons arrested included Kate Elder, 26 years old, who gave her home as the State Street address. In all, four women and nine men were made prisoners at the raid on the place which was found to be an arsenal for the Negro rioters. Two revolvers, two rifles, an axe, several knives, and several hundred rounds of ammunition, including 38 and 48 [sic] calibre cartridges, were discovered piled up near the window from which the Negroes had been shooting.
Patrolman John Hayes, of the South Clark Street Station, heard the shots fired by the Negroes who were firing from the house and saw the spurts of fire from their rifles and revolvers whenever whites ventured to pass the place. An unknown white man, a victim of the Negroes' bullets, was found lying on the sidewalk. He was rushed to St. Luke's Hospital where he died.
The facts of this case, as reported by the coroner's jury are as follows:
… Harold Brignadello … came to his death on the 29th day of July, a.d. 1919, at St. Luke's Hospital from shock and hemorrhage due to a bullet wound in the chest cavity.
[Note.—"a bullet wound," not "bullet-riddled."]
We find the deceased while standing at the southwest corner of State and Taylor … was shot and wounded by a bullet fired from the revolver held in the hand of one Emma Jackson who was standing at an open window on the second floor of the premises at 1021 South State Street.
Testimony shows that just prior to the shooting, said premises had been stoned by a mob of white men.
We, the jury, recommend that the said Emma Jackson, said Kate Elder, said John Webb, said Ed. Robinson, and said Clarence Jones be held to the grand jury upon a charge of murder until discharged by due process of law.
[Note.—Two women and three men, not "four women and nine men," nor yet "a colored woman and 20 other Negroes." They were indicted by the grand jury but found not guilty.]
We believe from the evidence that the police have sufficient information as to the identity of some of said white men to warrant arrest, and we recommend such action be taken.
[Note.—No arrests of men in the white mob were made.]
The testimony further showed that there were 150 white men in the mob grouped in front of 1021, and four of the men were stoning the house at the time Emma Jackson fired into their midst.
Only one gun was found and no stores of ammunition, instead of "a formidable arsenal," or a "barricade" or "an arsenal for Negro rioters," or "two revolvers, two rifles, an axe, several knives, and several hundred rounds of ammunition, including 38 and 48 [sic] calibre cartridges … piled up near the window from which the Negroes had been shooting." The one gun was hidden in a niche in the skylight.
Following are examples of rumors current during the riot and disseminated by the press and by word of mouth, grouped on the basis of the emotions which they aroused—vengeful animosity, fear, anger, and horror:
Daily News, July 30. Subheadline: "Alderman Jos. McDonough Tells How He Was Shot at on South Side Visit. Says Enough Ammunition in Section to Last for Years of Guerrilla Warfare":
[Note.—The reference in the headline to the large amount of ammunition is repeated in the text, but not elaborated or explained.]
An alderman in an account of his adventures says the Mayor contemplates opening up 35th and 47th streets in order that colored people might get to their work. He thinks this would be most unwise for, he states, "They are armed and the white people are not. We must defend ourselves if the city authorities won't protect us." Continuing his story, he describes bombs going off, "I saw white men and women running through the streets dragging children by the hands and carrying babies in their arms. Frightened white men told me the police captains had just rushed through the district crying, 'For God's sake, arm. They are coming, we cannot hold them.'"
WRECKED HOUSE OF A NEGRO FAMILY IN RIOT ZONE
NEGROES AND WHITES LEAVING THE STOCK YARDS
The point here is not whether the alderman was correctly quoted, but the effect on the public of such statements attributed to him. There is no record in any of the riot testimony in the coroner's office or in the state's attorney's office of any bombs exploded during the riot, nor of police captains warning white people to arm, nor of any fear on the part of whites of a Negro invasion. In the Berger Odman case before the coroner's jury there is a statement that a police sergeant warned the Negroes of Ogden Park to arm and to shoot at the feet of rioters if they attempted to invade the few blocks marked off for Negroes by the police.
Herald-Examiner, July 28. Subheadline: "Negroes Have Arms":
A man whose name is withheld reported to the Herald-Examiner that Negroes had more than 2,000 Springfield rifles and an adequate supply of soft-nosed bullets. R. R. Jackson, alderman from the second ward, brands the story as untrue.
This statement is not substantiated.
Herald-Examiner, July 29:
Several thousand men stoned the old Eighth Regiment Armory in the heart of the riot zone, doors were burst in, and hundreds of guns with ammunition taken by the mob. Police rushed to the scene firing into the mob and finally drove it from the armory. According to reports more than 50 persons were shot or otherwise injured.
Refutation of this statement is found in the testimony of Police Captain Mullen before the coroner's jury in the Eugene Williams case:
I received a rumor that the soldiers [referring to Negro soldiers of the Eighth Regiment] had gone over to the armory for the sole purpose of breaking in and getting rifles. I dispatched two patrol wagons full of men; after arriving there, we found out they had been there and broke some windows, but they found out there were no weapons in there.
Another type of fear-provoking rumor current