28
which black workers passed on their way to work. The attacks were by white gangs –
most notoriously the Ragen’s Colts, but also the Aylwards – Irish Catholics. The
occurrence of a strike on the trams increased the intensity of the violence. A debate
ensued over whether the riots were labor related or not. Labor market conflict was
downplayed in the Commission’s report, but it is notable that the report took no
testimony from white workers.
53
Another aspect of the riots was the symbolic contest over membership of the
nation and the power of the state. The vast majority of the police were sent to the ‘Black
Belt’ – some 2800 of 3000 rather than it other parts of the city. The Chicago police
allegedly stood back on several occasions when whites attacked blacks.
54
Uniformed
whites attacked blacks in the Loop district. Notably too, uniformed blacks defended the
black belt preventing the riot from becoming a pogrom (as was the historic pattern.)
Five hundred of the Ragen’s Colts, the gang most frequently blamed for violent attacks
on blacks, particularly in the stockyards district, had joined the armed forces during the
war.
55
Significantly only ten per cent of Black soldiers returning from the war had found
employment; they were effectively excluded from the labor force.
During the riot white unions refused to stop work and their efforts to protect
blacks from attack went unreported.
56
But the companies used black institutions like the
Urban League and the YMCA (Armour) to get food to their besieged black employees
and their families. Black workers returned to the stockyards under armed guard on
53
The Chicago Commission on Race Relations, The Negro in Chicago: A Study of Race Relations and a
Race Riot (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1922); Arthur I. Waskow, ‘Chicago: The Riot Studied,’
in The Politics of Riot Commissions, 1917-1970: A Collection of Official Reports and Critical Essays
edited by Anthony Platt (New York: MacMillan, 1971).
54
Waskow (fn. 53).
55
John Landesco, Organized Crime in Chicago (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1929); accessed on
the web at
http://gangsresearch.net/ChicagoGangs/earlygangs/Ragen.html
on 7/23/2004.
56
Grossman (fn. 35); Barrett (fn. 48).
Convention