Chicago race riot erupts during Red Summer after Black teenager is killed

Racial violence erupts in Chicago on July 27, 1919, after a Black teenager, Eugene Williams, is killed near a segregated beach area. White mobs and Black residents clash for days, leaving dozens dead and hundreds injured. The violence occurs during Red Summer, when white supremacist attacks and racial conflict spread across multiple cities after World War I. Returning Black veterans, labor competition, housing segregation, and white resistance to Black mobility all contribute to the crisis. Racial segregation, policing, labor, and housing pressures produce mass violence outside the South as well as within it.