{"id":12463,"date":"2018-07-23T20:52:20","date_gmt":"2018-07-24T00:52:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/phillyhistory.wpengine.com\/?p=12463"},"modified":"2018-07-23T20:52:20","modified_gmt":"2018-07-24T00:52:20","slug":"centennial-chronology-the-south-philadelphia-race-riots-of-july-1918","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/2018\/07\/centennial-chronology-the-south-philadelphia-race-riots-of-july-1918\/","title":{"rendered":"Centennial Chronology: The South Philadelphia Race Riots of July 1918"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
2504 Pine Street, 1964. (PhillyHistory.org)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“Every American who takes part in the action of a mob or gives it any sort of countenance is no true son of this great democracy, but its betrayer\u201d declared President Woodrow Wilson in his denunciation of lynching<\/a>\u00a0one hundred years ago this week. Wilson called on all Americans to \u201cactively and watchfully . . . make an end of this disgraceful evil.\u201d<\/p>\n

Philadelphia wasn\u2019t listening.<\/p>\n

White residents of Fitler Square \u201cstoned the home of Mrs. T. Lytle\u201d an African-American living at 2504 Pine Street in June. The same mob \u201cburned two wagon loads of furniture owned by other colored tenants who were moving into houses at 2524-26 Pine.\u201d Lytle would have initiated criminal proceedings\u2014she knew<\/em> the woman who led the mob\u2014but chose silence after being told her house would be torched on Independence Day, if she filed charges.<\/p>\n

Editors of The Philadelphia Tribune<\/em>, the city\u2019s African-American newspaper, drew a line in the sand: \u201cWe favor peace but we say to the colored people of the Pine Street warzone, stand your ground . . . . if you are law abiding you need not fear . . . if you are attacked defend yourself like American citizens. \u00a0. . . when they tread upon your rights fight them to the bitter end.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Ellsworth Street, south side, 2900-38, east to west, December 6, 1965 (PhillyHistory.org)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Something like a bitter end would come a mile away the very same day Wilson delivered his anti-mob speech. (You might have previously encountered our posts about the South Philadelphia race riots of 1918 here<\/a>,\u00a0here<\/a>,\u00a0here<\/a>, here<\/a> and here<\/a>.) This week marks the 100th anniversary of the events. It seems appropriate to sketch a chronology:<\/p>\n

July, 24 1918:<\/strong> Adella Bond, a probation officer of the Municipal Court, moves into 2936 Ellsworth Street. \u201cThe second time I went down that street, I was stoned,\u201d she told a reporter. \u201cWhen movers arrived with her furniture . . . [Bond] appeared in her doorway armed with a revolver. Her white neighbors claimed that by this action, she had invited conflict.\u201d<\/p>\n

July 26-27, 1918:<\/strong> Friday night to Saturday morning. \u201cAbout 100 white men and boys gathered in front of my house,” Bond said. “I heard them talk about having guns, and I saw the guns and cartridges.\u00a0 . . . a man came along with a baby in his arms. He handed the baby to a woman, took a rock and threw it. The rock went through my parlor window. I didn\u2019t know what the mob would do next, and I fired my revolver from my upper window to call the police. A policeman came, but he wouldn\u2019t try to cope with that mob alone, so he turned it into a riot call.\u201d Joseph Kelly, 23, had been shot in leg.<\/p>\n

July 27, 1918.<\/strong> Saturday night. Hugh Lavery, 42, shot and instantly killed by Jesse Butler, 18, on 26th Street between Annin Street and Oakford Street.<\/p>\n

July 28, 1918.<\/strong> Sunday. A mob at 27th and Titan Streets gives chase to Henry Huff, 23, (who lives near 28th and Titan). Huff runs into a house and soon shoots and kills plainclothes police officer Thomas McVey, 24 (who lives at 28th and Oakford Streets). Detective Thomas Myers and civilian Frank Donohue are also shot and wounded.<\/p>\n

Rioting erupts. \u201cIn a series of street battles waged for twenty-four hours . . . by more than five thousand white and colored men in a downtown section covering about two square miles,” reported The Inquirer, “<\/em>scores were seriously injured in the most terrific and bitter race riot that has ever taken place in this city. Half a hundred men were placed under arrest.\u201d Rioting \u201cgrew in intensity throughout the day with individual fights and mobs engaged in gun fire on nearly every other corner of a section bounded by Washington Avenue, Dickinson Street, 23rd and 30th Streets.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Page one story in The Philadelphia Inquirer<\/em>, Monday July 29, 1918. (The Philadelphia Inquirer<\/em>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

July 29, 1918.<\/strong> Monday. Police officers Robert Ramsey and John Schneider severely beat Preston Lewis who is then hospitalized. Schneider attacks Lewis again as he lays semi-conscious on a stretcher in the accident ward. Later that day, the same two officers apprehend and beat Riley Bullock at the corner of Titan Street and Point Breeze avenue. Moments after arriving with in the 17th District Station House at 20th and Federal Streets, Ramsay shoots Bullock in the back at point blank range.<\/p>\n

Also: A mob “many of them neighbors and friends” of [the murdered Thomas McVey] swarms into Titan Street “armed with clubs knives bricks and revolvers\u201d and attacks the home of his alleged murderer, Henry Huff, at 2743 Titan Street.<\/p>\n

July 30, 1918.<\/strong> Tuesday. Leaders of the city\u2019s African American community call upon the mayor and director of public safety charging \u201cfailure of the police to protect the homes in persons of colored citizens\u201d deploring \u201cthat [the] police have not been able to protect our citizens from mob violence.\u201d<\/p>\n

July 31, 1918.<\/strong> Wednesday. Saloons are closed. McVey\u2019s funeral mass at St. Anthony\u2019s Roman Catholic church, 24th & Grays Ferry avenue. Two hundred additional police are assigned to the burial procession, \u201c30 to a block.\u201d Mounted policemen, Marines and guards from the Navy Yard, as well as members of the Home Defense Reserves, continue to aid the police.<\/p>\n

Of course, the story stretches well past the end of July 1918.\u00a0Riley Bullock\u2019s family and friends bury him on August 2nd. Saloons, closed for days, reopen August 3rd. Services for Frank Donohue are held at St. Gabriel\u2019s Church, 30th and Dickinson. On the 8th, \u201cwhite hoodlums\u201d somehow get past police assigned to \u201cguard\u201d Adella Bond\u2019s home on Ellsworth Street, steal her valuables and destroy her furniture.<\/p>\n

Every last one of the police in the 17th District Station House at 20th and Federal are transferred. The police department receives a judicial rebuke for \u201clooseness in the investigation of the death of Riley Bullock.\u201d<\/p>\n

Murder charges against Ramsey and Schneider make their way through the courts. Ramsey admits the shooting was an accident, claiming \u201chis gun went off when he slipped on the steps.\u201d\u00a0In December 1920, a jury finds Ramsey and Schneider \u201cnot guilty\u201d after only a half hour of deliberation.<\/p>\n

A century passes. And for the most part, both Philadelphians and makers of public memory do their level best to forget the entire story.<\/p>\n

[See sources in the previous PhillyHistory posts: here<\/a>,\u00a0here<\/a>,\u00a0here<\/a>, here<\/a> and here.<\/a>]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Every American who takes part in the action of a mob or gives it any sort of countenance is no true son of this great democracy, but its betrayer\u201d declared President Woodrow Wilson in his denunciation of lynching\u00a0one hundred years ago this week. Wilson called on all Americans to \u201cactively and watchfully . . . […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12463\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}