up after the mobs had dispersed.
There were others, still children in mind, Negro boys of fifteen, accused of murders. The enormity of their acts faded in the joy of describing their weapons. "Fat had a club; it looked like a police club," said one, "it had leather on it." "And the gun had a little picture of an owl on the side of it," said another describing a patched-up weapon that brought down a white laboring-man who left a widow and eight children.
SCENES FROM FIRE IN IMMIGRANT NEIGHBORHOOD "BACK OF THE YARDS"
SCENE FROM FIRE IN IMMIGRANT NEIGHBORHOOD "BACK OF THE YARDS"
Among the spectators of mob violence were men, women, and children of all ages; they included tradesmen, craftsmen, salesmen, laborers. Though the spectators did not commit the crimes, they must share the moral responsibility. Without the spectators mob violence would probably have stopped short of murder in many cases. An example of the behavior of the active nucleus when out of sight of the spectators bears this out. George Carr, Negro, was chased from a street car. He outstripped all but the vanguard of the mob by climbing fences and hiding in a back yard. This concealed him from the rest of the crowd, who by that time were chasing other Negroes. The young men who followed Carr left him without striking a blow, upon his mere request for clemency. In regard to the large non-active elements in the crowds, the coroner said during the inquest, "It is just the swelling of crowds of that kind that urges them on, because they naturally feel that they are backed up by the balance of the crowd, which may not be true, but they feel that way." Juror Ware said, "If sightseers were lending their aid and assistance—" Juror Dillon interrupted and finished, "they ought to be punished."
Often the "sightseers" and even those included in the nucleus did not know why they had taken part in crimes the viciousness of which was not apparent to them until afterward. A mere attempt to cover up participation would have called forth excuses in testimony, but their answers show irritation at the questioning, an inability to appreciate the situation, or complete bewilderment. These excerpts from the testimony before the coroner's jury are examples:
Henry Woodman, in the mob at Sixtieth and Ada streets: "I don't know. I didn't have any grudge against them [the Negroes]. But they [the mob] seemed to have it in for the colored people. That is all."
Edward Klose, in the mob in front of 1021 South State Street: "I followed the crowd, and I was in there because I was in there; they all bunched around and what could I do?"
One of the boys in the mob at Forty-third Street and Forrestville Avenue: "I just wanted to see how things were getting along. We wanted to see what the riot looked like."
Another of this same crowd: "I was following the rest. I wanted to see what they were going to do."
Another from the same mob: "When they started to grab them [the Negroes] in the lot, I rushed over directly to the conflict, by the colored men, thinking I would see more on that side."
Mobs got under way for the commission of atrocities by having the direct suggestion put to them by one of the leaders. With minds already prepared by rumors circulating wherever crowds gathered, it was easy to arouse action. A street car approaching and the cry, "Get the niggers!" was enough. Prompt action clinched the idea, and the emotion of the attack narrowed the field of consciousness. War cries aided in keeping emotion at fever heat. "Get the nigger!" "Kill the black—— of a——!" "Kill him!" These were always an incident of mob action.
Counter-suggestion was not tolerated when the mob was rampant. A suggestion of clemency was shouted down with the derisive epithet, "Nigger lover!" Silenced objectors made no further effort to thwart mob action. There are no records of such persons notifying the police or persisting in their remonstrances. Those whose objections took the form of action against the mob met with violence. A white man, an instructor in music at the University of Chicago, saw several white men attack a Negro who was waiting for a street car at Sixty-third Street and Cottage Grove Avenue. Without trying verbal remonstrance he struck out at them. His glasses were knocked off, and he was thrown into the middle of the street and left unconscious.
Not only did action once under way make interference hazardous, but it brought into the mob circle a greater number of participants and increased its energy. Five men jerked a trolley from the wires; ten men boarded the car; twenty-five men chased and beat the routed Negroes. The mob action grew faster than the increase in numbers. Ideas suggested by individual members were quickly carried out in the action of all. The mob as a whole and the individuals in it increased in fury, and a normal street crowd was often turned from peaceful assemblage to brutal murder.
A sharp diversion of attention sometimes caused the dispersal of mobs. An unexpected revolver shot was the most effective means of such diversion. Here are some instances:
When Thomas Joshua, a Negro boy, was shot by Police Lieutenant Day, a throng of Negroes came on the run from State Street. The officers, terrified, escaped in a taxi, leaving their own automobile behind. The mob attempted to make this car suffer vicariously for the escaped police officers. Other policemen on the scene had difficulty in holding them back. Two shots were heard on Federal Street. Immediately the crowd ceased its clamoring, left the automobile, and apparently lost all thought of Lieutenant Day and ran to Federal Street.
In the first mob of the riot, that at Twenty-ninth Street and Cottage Grove Avenue, Negroes and policemen were struggling in a mass in the middle of the street. A shot was fired by James Crawford, and the mob dispersed from that corner.
A mob chased a Negro off a street car on Thirty-ninth Street near Wallace. A policeman with presence of mind followed the group into the alley, fired a few shots in the air, and the crowd ran.
In no case where an unexpected shot was fired did it fail to scatter the mob, but shooting which was part of the mob's own action did not seem to have the same effect.
The course of one riotous mob can be traced in the activities of a certain group of five white boys who linked up with the riot excitement. They met at the corner of Sixty-third Street and Ingleside Avenue at 8:30 Monday evening. While they were trying to decide which movie to attend, a taxi driver informed them of a riot at Forty-seventh Street. They took the "L" to Forty-seventh Street and joined the mob. From then until 2:00 a.m. they were active in mobs which assaulted Negroes at several points. Two were beaten at Forty-seventh Street and the elevated railway. The mob then proceeded to Fifty-first Street, but the police drove it back and it moved on to Indiana Avenue and Forty-third Street, where a deputy sheriff held it off. Returning here later it attacked a street car, beat a Negro, and then moved south on Indiana Avenue, jerking trolleys from wires and assaulting passengers. At Forty-fifth Street a shot fired by a police sergeant scattered it toward Forty-third Street.
There the mob met Lieutenant Washington, a Negro ex-soldier, who, with five Negro companions, was obliged to walk across town because car service had been discontinued on account of the rioting. Lieutenant Washington, testifying before the coroner's jury, gave this account of the affair:
After we crossed Grand Boulevard I heard a yell, "One, two, three, four, five, six," and then they gave a loud cheer and said, "Everybody, let's get the niggers! Let's get the niggers," and we noticed some of them crossed the street and walked on up even with us. The rest of them were about ten or fifteen feet north … there were about between four and six men … crossed the street and got in front of us … just before we got to Forrestville Avenue, about twenty yards, they swarmed in on us.
After
