Washington D.C. Riots

People

Woodrow Wilson

Outcome

unknown

From July 19-23, 1919, Washington, D.C. erupted in racial violence when white mobs—largely composed of uniformed servicemen recently returned from World War I—attacked Black residents across the nation's capital. The riot was one of approximately twenty such incidents during the "Red Summer" of 1919, but was distinguished by the strong and organized armed self-defense mounted by the Black community. An estimated 40 people were killed and over 150 injured before federal troops and a heavy rainstorm ended the violence. The riot was sparked by rumors and sensationalized newspaper coverage of alleged assaults on white women by Black men. On July 18, Elsie Stephnick, a white woman employed at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and wife of a Navy employee, alleged she was assaulted. The *Washington Times* claimed this was the sixth such attack since June 25. On Saturday night, July 19, white veterans gathered in downtown saloons and bars, spreading rumors about the arrest and release of a Black man named Charles Ralls in connection with the allegation. Armed with clubs, lead pipes, and pieces of lumber, hundreds of white servicemen—sailors, soldiers, and Marines—formed a mob and marched into the predominantly Black southwest quadrant of the city. They pulled Black residents from streetcars and sidewalks and beat them in the streets. The *Washington Post* published an incendiary front-page story that included what amounted to a mobilization notice for servicemen, promising that the night's events would "cause the events of the last two evenings to pale into insignificance." As the 700-member Metropolitan Police Department largely failed to intervene, Black Washingtonians armed themselves. Arms dealers sold approximately 500 firearms in one day before police halted legal sales, forcing residents to the black market. The city's approximately 5,000 Black WWI veterans played a crucial role in the resistance—stationing themselves as snipers on rooftops in Black neighborhoods and establishing blockades around Howard University to protect residents. The *Afro American* newspaper praised both the community's initial restraint and its organized self-defense, noting that Black residents went out "in pure defense... to show the attackers that the colored population was not altogether defenceless." Both Black and white men fired at each other from moving vehicles. The first person killed was Randall Neale, a 22-year-old Black veteran just returned from France, fatally shot in the chest by Marines from a passing trolley car near 4th and N Streets NW. Neale would be buried in Arlington National Cemetery. President Woodrow Wilson initially refused to intervene, reportedly concerned about international perception. After four days of violence, Wilson ordered approximately 2,000 federal troops from nearby bases into the city. However, a heavy summer rainstorm on July 23 proved more effective than the troops in dispersing the crowds. In the aftermath, one accounting listed 15 confirmed dead—10 white (including two police officers) and 5 Black—with 50 seriously wounded and another 100 less severely injured. Other estimates placed the death toll as high as 40. Among the dead were Detective Harry Wilson, a 29-year-old Metropolitan Police officer shot and killed by 17-year-old Carrie Minor Johnson while she hid under her bed as police broke down her door during the riot. Johnson claimed self-defense, was convicted of manslaughter in 1921, but had the verdict overturned by a judge who accepted that she feared for her life. She became a folk hero in the Black press and was free within two years.