Monday, May 13, 2019

Race Riot at Charleston, May 13, 1919

From the Monroe Journal, May 13, 1919

Race Riot at Charleston. . . Two Negroes Killed and 17 Wounded. . . Seven Sailors Injured

Two negroes were killed and at least 17 others were wounded severely enough to be treated at the municipal hospital in the rioting in Charleston Saturday night and early Sunday morning between sailors and white civilians on one side and negroes on the other, it was established by city and county authorities. Seven bluejackets also are reported to have been wounded.

Reports concerning the origin of the trouble are conflicting. The police however say that, according to the best information they have been able to obtain the rioting was precipitated when the negro Isaac Doctor was fatally wounded after he had shot a sailor. The bluejackets have refused to say what they know about this occurrence, the police say. The negro prisoners and patients also have professed ignorance of it.

Just how word of the disorders spread so rapidly among the sailors on leave in the city has not been explained, but about 2,000 of them appeared in a very few minutes after their comrade was shot, and started on a hunt shouting “get the negroes.” In the clean-up that followed several innocent negroes fell the victim of the anger of the bluejackets. One was dragged from a Broad street car in spite of the motorman’s efforts to save him; another was dragged from a King street car and shot down in front of a crowded and fashionable cafĂ©, while a third, a chauffeur, was yanked from his automobile. This so terrorized the negro chauffeurs that they refused to take out taxicabs until daylight.


No comments:

Post a Comment