2019 marks a century since the Chicago Race Riot of 1919.  In that summer of 1919, 38 people died and 537 were badly injured over the course of several days of rioting.  Two-thirds of the victims were African-Americans. Despite this type of violence as categorized blithely as a “southern problem,” this marked a huge wake-up call that the North wasn’t as open minded as they liked to believe.  Historically, Chicago was both opportunity and oppression to recently transplanted African-Americans and new immigrants in the early 20th century. African-Americans were fleeing post-Civil War prejudice, lynchings and poverty of the deep South.  Europeans, especially those from famine-ridden Ireland, were desperate to find work and hope in America. The Midwest appealed to so many with its easy access from the train lines and with the chance to work in any of the large industries, which in Chicago was the meat-packing plants.  Bosses looking to keep wages low, crime lords looking to keep the nationalities in check and union laborers hoping to make a difference all clash throughout the early 1900s with the poor day wager caught in the middle. African-Americans were treated particularly poorly and often the most unskilled immigrant could get a job ahead of a black worker.  Even after heroically serving in World War I, African-Americans were still mistreated and disrespected. Tensions and hostilities in Chicago were at a fever pitch in the Summer of 1919, coinciding with an oppressive heat wave and the tragedy that befell the city brought tremendous shame to politicians, police and industry owners for so badly mismanaging the escalating violence.  The riots brought about needed changes in hiring policies and did help overall conditions between whites and blacks, but as current events demonstrate, Americans are still struggling to offer equality, civility and dignity to one and all. Text includes black and white photos, cartoons from newspapers and an extensive bibliography. An excellent addition to any middle and high school library, particularly where civil rights are taught as part of a curriculum.  Grade 7 and up.

Reviewed by Suzanne Dix, Westbrook Middle School, Westbrook, ME