In East St Louis, the war industry propels more and more people into the city,
including these Black laborers who are trying to escape violence and Jim Crow in the south.
By 1917, the Black population had doubled.
We see more white anxiety.
This anxiety is about sharing America's resources and opportunities.
What we see is that the white people who believe in white supremacy
think that only white people are entitled
to the resources.
In the spring of 1917, White American Federation of Labour members go on strike.
Most Black people are barred from union membership.
The company responds by hiring 470 Black workers.
This had been a long-time strategy to break strikes.
White workers are infuriated, they start to act in really menacing ways towards the Black people.
The white press is not acknowledging that white people are instigating this violence.
On July 1st, 1917, a Ford car full of white men
shot into a group of Black people in a Black neighborhood.
Shortly thereafter, another Ford comes through.
The Black people via on the car, but it's an unmarked police car.
There are two police officers inside and those police officers die.
The rest of the larger white community retaliate.
They start attacking any Black people they see.
They're dragged out of cars, off street cars and beaten.
Mobs started destroying Black people's homes, businesses, churches, their schools.
One of the more harrowing things we see is that mobs start to firebomb
houses with families inside.
And when the families come running out,
there are armed white people outside who shoot and kill them.
And it forces people to face the fire or the gunfire.
Thousands of Black residents under attack try to head towards the bridge,
which spans the Mississippi River,
but the police close the bridge.
Some people are so desperate to escape, they jump into the river and drown.
There are several hundred people who are left homeless.
Anywhere from 39 to 125 people died in the massacre.
W E B Du Bois goes there to investigate and so does Ida B Wells,
who writes this really extensive report.
She has a lot of first-hand stories from survivors of the massacre.
What you see are two completely different stories coming out of the white press
and the Black press, about the same event.
Houston in the early 20th century is absolutely segregated by the government
and specifically by elected officials.
This regiment of Black soldiers is sent to protect this camp
as it's being built for white soldiers.
And although they're used to a segregated armed forces,
they're still expecting a different level of treatment because of their service to the country.
The race riots in East St Louis that had occurred just a short time before the Houston riot
is more than likely somewhere on the minds of the soldiers.
There are white police officers who are attempting to arrest
and in this process violate a Black woman.
A soldier felt the need to intervene, fearing for the woman's safety
and he gets arrested.
A higher-ranking soldier comes to check the status of this arrested soldier.
He is then attacked by police.
News of this travels to Camp Logan.
This regiment of Black soldiers decided that they need to go into the city and to take a stand.
As they're marching, they're encountering white civilians who are armed,
they're encountering white law enforcement who are armed
and they're all perceiving this as threat.
So they are shooting.
Enough has been circulating in this community that this is now a wartime kind of feeling.
By the end, nearly 20 police officers had been killed.
You also have a few white civilians and a slightly smaller number of black civilians who were killed.
It is only the Black soldiers that were penalised for what occurred in Houston.
There is a mass hanging on an early morning after a very short judicial process.
Woodrow Wilson after reviewing all of this grants a few individuals clemency
because he wants to continue to inspire the African American soldier
to be loyal to the US democratic cause and our cause abroad.
East St Louis never recovered from the 1917 massacre.
People survived, people rebuilt, but the city started a downhill trajectory.
In 1917, Illinois passed this law.
This was in 1905, something called the anti-mob violence law.
And it was introduced by this African American state senator from Chicago.
Then had three back-to-back race riots,
in 1908 in Springfield and then 1917 in East St Louis and then 1919 in Chicago.
And there were reparations for all of those, but it was a pittance.
East St Louis brought back Mayor Stevens who was the only
mayor during this time period who had clean hands,
but once he drained everything out and issued the reparations,
the political machines came back and kicked him out of office.
There was never any attempt at social healing.