5. The Red Summer altered the American political and social landscape in the early 20th century
In 1910 over 90% of American Blacks lived in the South, most of them in the states of the former Confederacy. Of those, 80% lived in rural areas. In the 20th century, the Great Migration occurred in two phases, the first from roughly 1915 to 1940, and the second from 1940 to 1970. During the first phase approximately 1.5 million people, most of them poor Blacks from the rural South, relocated to the North, settling in industrial urban areas. The second phase, which accelerated during the Second World War and its aftermath, saw about 5 million relocate from the rural South to cities in the North and West. There they competed for jobs with immigrants from Europe, particularly Irish and Germans.
Both phases saw increases in violence in urban communities. In 1919 fewer jobs were available due to the economic downturn following the end of World War I. A period of extended rioting and urban violence occurred in numerous Northern cities, including Chicago, Washington DC, Omaha, as well as in some Southern cities including Knoxville. That summer and fall became known as the Red Summer, so-named by civil rights leader James Weldon Johnson. Nearly all of the riots began with attacks by whites on Black protests. An investigator for the US Senate Committee on the Judiciary documented 38 separate instances of Whites attacking Blacks in numerous Northern cities in 1919 alone. The difference that year was for the first time, Blacks fought back in numerous instances of organized defense.