17. Race Riots Consumed The Country In 1919
African American soldiers had come home from war, expecting to receive better treatment from their national government than what they received. African American sharecroppers were unionizing, and there was a mass migration of African American workers to the industrial, yet still racially tense, North and Midwest.
In 1919, the racial tensions that had been building erupted in what came to be known as the Red Summer. Between May and October of 1919, race riots, in which white supremacists rained down fury on African Americans, dominated cities all across the country, and hundreds of people were killed.
