The Washington race riot of 1919 was civil unrest in Washington, D.C. from July 19, 1919, to July 24, 1919. Starting July 19, white men, many in the armed forces, responded to the rumored arrest of a black man for rape of a white woman with four days of mob violence against black individuals and businesses. They rioted, randomly beat black people on the street, and pulled others off streetcars for attacks. When police refused to intervene, the black population fought back. The city closed saloons and theaters to discourage assemblies. Meanwhile, the four white-owned local papers, including the Washington Post, fanned the violence with incendiary headlines and calling in at least one instance for mobilization of a "clean-up" operation. After four days of police inaction, President Woodrow Wilson ordered 2,000 federal troops to regain control in the nation's capital. But a violent summer rainstorm had more of a dampening effect. When the violence ended, 15 people had died: at least 10 white people, including two police officers; and around 5 black people. Fifty people were seriously wounded and another 100 less severely wounded. It was one of the few times in 20th-century riots of whites against blacks that white fatalities outnumbered those of black people. The unrest was also one of the Red Summer riots in America.
Background
Washington D.C. had evolved as one of the places in the United States where a significant number of successful African-Americans were living, with a particular concentration in the Le Droit Park area, near Howard University. This area had originally been segregated as a White-only zone, but students from Howard University had torn down the gates as part of a wider initiative to desegregate the suburb in 1888. The city as a whole was 75% composed of White Americans. To this racial mix newspaper publisher Ned McLean sought to undermine city authorities by publishing real or imagined crimes and "no crime was as salacious as a black attack on a white woman." The white population were outraged by reports of black crime and during the summer of 1919 large mobs roamed streets attacking Black residents.
Charles Ralls and Elsie Stephnick
The riot initially began with a man named Charles Ralls; he was “a black man from the city’s primarily African-American Southwest quadrant”. Elsie Stephnick was married to a “civilian employee of the navy”. Supposedly, Ralls had assaulted Stephanick, and Ralls ended up being brought in for questioning by the police. He was released shortly afterward for lack of evidence. The preceding weeks had seen a sensationalist newspaper campaign concerning the alleged sexual crimes of a "negro fiend", which contributed to the violence of the succeeding events.
The riot
1st night, July 19
The race riot started on Saturday July 19 following the incident involving Charles Ralls and Elsie Stephnick. A rumor at a bar with multiple “white sailors, soldiers, and marines” began discussing the release of Ralls. The rumor dispersed even farther to nearby “saloons and pool halls”. and a mob soon formed that evening. The idea of the rape myth, where a black man was framed with no evidence for the rape/assault of a white woman, had been a predominant reason as to why lynching of black Americans in the United States was so widespread post-emancipation, and elements of that myth are portrayed here. The mob of White Americans, mostly consisting of veterans, formed and started towards the southwest quadrant of the city, a “predominantly black, poverty-stricken neighborhood”. They carried bats, lead pipes, and wooden boards. Charles Ralls was found that Saturday evening as David Krugler wrote in his book: 1919, The Year of Racial Violence, The mob spotted Ralls walking with his wife and began beating them. The couple broke free and bolted home, shots ringing out behind them. The mob tried to break in, but Ralls’ neighbors and friends rallied to his defense — a return fusillade scattered the mob and wounded a sailor. Servicemen fired back as Black residents locked their doors and prepared to defend their homes. [p. 73]. The mob continued to terrorize any black American they encountered including attacks on several African Americans and also an African-American family home. Black Americans were “dragged from cars” by the veterans and beaten, and throughout all of this, there was little attention brought to the police The violence continued to grow into Sunday.