Finished Tu 2/19/19
I read an article in the Illinois Times a couple of weeks ago that named Springfield as one of the most segregated cities in Illinois and also the nation. This startling fact led me to 'The Springfield Race Riot of 1908'.
Although I was vaguely aware of the disturbance that occurred in Springfield in 1908, I had always thought that this incident was similar to the riots of the late 1960's where blacks felt that they had had enough and burned down their homes and businesses in rage and disgust. However, what happened in Springfield in 1908 was completely different.
The incident in Springfield was a concerted effort by the white majority to drive out all blacks from the city. Initially the riot was seen in a positive light and the newspapers posited that whites were 'reforming' the city and the dire moral situation left them no other choice but to forcibly take matters in hand.
The battle cry of the mob was, "Lincoln freed the niggers, and now we're gonna drive them out"!
After the Springfield Riot a few other cities experienced the same type of mob action, and the cry on their streets was...."'Give 'Em Springfield".
At peak times during the rioting of August 14th and 15th, 1908 there were two to five thousand whites on the streets of the city. In 1908 the population of Springfield was only around 50,000 so this means that a significant percentage of the white majority was either actively engaged in the mayhem or stood by and did nothing.
Much was made by the white majority of the 'moral depravity' in the downtown 'levee' section of the city. This was an area adjacent to the old courthouse where vice was allowed to flourish. Many blacks owned saloons and restaurants in this section of the city, and the licentious atmosphere was condoned by the city fathers because it was 'good for the business of tourism' and an area where state politicians could 'relax and have a good time'.
Because of the lawless nature of this area, it gave the white majority a locality to target their hatred of blacks. The Levee exemplified the duplicitous notion that blacks were 'shiftless, lazy, and perennially involved in criminal enterprises'. Although condoned by custom and local law, most whites felt that these blacks and their businesses should be forcibly removed- at any cost.
Also, successful and prominent blacks were targeted in other areas of the city during the mob action and their homes destroyed. Two black businessmen were lynched and the predominant feeling in the white community was that the reason for their downfall was that they were acting and comporting themselves 'as if they were as good as any white man'.
The Negro would be tolerated only if he 'knew his place' and passively accepted a subservient role in society. This sentiment was the dominant feeling in the white community and remained unchanged for the next several generations.
Joe James- a black man from Alabama who arrived in the city in June of 1908. He had hitched a ride on a railroad boxcar and was looking for work in the north. He was arrested for vagrancy after winning money from local blacks by playing pool. His new found companions alerted the authorities because they were mad at him for winning.
James spent some weeks in jail and was a model prisoner.
On the night of July 4th, 1908 he was drunk and walked from the levee to an area near 1135 North Ninth St. This was the home of Clergy Ballard, a wealthy white engineer. This man had ties to the railroad and The Springfield Watch Factory. He was well liked and a prominent figure in the nearly all white north end community.
His sixteen year old daughter, Blanche Clergy was awakened in her bed about 1am on the early morning of the fourth and claimed that there was 'a man in the room'. It was too dark to see who he was or whether he was black or white.
Clergy Ballard was awakened and confronted the intruder and chased him out of the house. In the fight that followed, Clergy was stabbed and later died of his injuries.
Friends of the Ballard's immediately scoured the neighborhood in search of the intruder and found Joe James passed out in a nearby yard. They immediately jumped to the conclusion that James was the man that had murdered Clergy Ballard. He was taken to the county jail at 7th and Jefferson.
The next incident that sparked the riot concerned a sexual crime between a black man and a white woman. Now there were two violent crimes that were racially motivated that occurred in the nearly all white north-end area of Springfield.
George Richardson was a black man who was identified by Mabel Hallam as the man who had raped her. William Earl Hallam was her husband and he was also a rich and influential figure in the white community. They also resided on the north-end at a home on north fifth street.
George Richardson was completely innocent of any charges. Mabel later admitted that she had lied about the rape to hide a sexual affair with a white man from her husband. Richardson had been working as a day laborer near their home and this is how she knew the man.
George Richardson was released weeks after the riot and was never compensated for his hardship. However, he did secure a janitorial position with the phone company and retired from Illinois Bell many years later.
On the afternoon of Friday August 14th these two violent crimes involving a black man and a prominent white family caused the city to explode into violence.
A mob formed in front of the county jail at 7th and Jefferson demanding that James and Richardson be hanged immediately. The sheriff asked a local white business owner if he would drive the prisoners to the Bloomington jail where they would be safe. The sheriff instructed the fire department to respond to a nonexistent fire hoping that this would divert the mob's attention so that they could get the prisoners safely away from the mob. The plan worked, but the crowd re-channeled their anger toward Harry Loper and his business. It was never known how the rioters learned that Harry Roper was the man responsible for saving Richardson and James.
Harry Loper was a restaurant owner in the 200 block of north fifth and he owned one of the first automobiles in Springfield. Loper had witnessed another race riot in another town years before and he didn't want to see that kind of mayhem again. This is the reason that he aided the authorities.
Another local business owner, Kate Howard was one of the most notable ringleaders of the mob and she was referred to as 'The Joan of Arc' of the rioters. She provoked the mob to burn Loper's car and then to destroy his restaurant. Both the car and the restaurant were reduced to rubble.
Kate Howard ran a cheap boarding house in the area and when later apprehended by police, she claimed that she was just going through the ruins looking for souvenirs, but she was actually stealing items from the restaurant that she could use at her boarding house.
Several weeks later, when she was brought to trial she took arsenic and died on the way to jail. Kate Howard was perplexed by the charges and was convinced that nothing would happen to her because the white citizens of the city would rally around her because she was only acting as 'a proud white american'.
On Saturday the rioters chose to seek out and destroy the homes of wealthy and successful black families. An 80 year old black man living near Spring and Edwards was lynched in front of his house. This wealthy black man was a long standing and highly regarded member of the community and married to a much younger white woman. His stature in the community and his interracial marriage were the likely reasons that he and his family were singled out.
A couple of grocery peddlers were familiar with where these influential blacks resided and were able to give this information to the ringleaders of the mob. One of these peddlers was named 'Humphry's', and I'm fairly sure that this man was a relative of the grocery store owner that continued to do business on the east side of Springfield into the 1990's.
Then a black barber who was attacked while protecting his shop and was lynched in front of his business.
'The Levee' was the area where the black businesses were attacked and destroyed. White businesses in the same area were saved. However, Fishman's Pawn Shop at sixth and Washington was looted and partially destroyed because the mob felt that this Jewish owner dealt primarily with blacks and needed to be stopped.
'The Badlands' an area boarded by 7th and 9th and Jefferson and Washington and was a slum where many blacks resided. This area was decimated, although white owners' homes were saved from destruction. White sheets were draped on white owned homes to alert the rioters to spare these houses. Today, this is the location of the Horace Mann Complex and directly behind The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum. How very ironic!!!
Some months after the riot, all blacks employed by the police and fire departments were let go. Also, all blacks working for the city were terminated. This is the way the hiring practises remained for decades following the incident.
When I picked up the book at the library I also got a DVD that explained the riot of 1908. And, I also watched several YouTube videos that dealt with this most unusual racial incident.
I learned that fairly recently a ' Springfield Riot Walk' has been built in downtown Springfield to commemorate the race riot of 1908, and one of these days I want to 'walk the riot'.
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