CHICAGO (WLS) — In a poignant gathering on Saturday, a multitude of cyclists came together to pay tribute to the victims who perished during the harrowing 1919 Chicago Race Riot.
This significant event also celebrated the completion of a citywide art initiative that honors these lost souls, marking their memories across various sites throughout Chicago.
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Participants embarked on a guided bicycle tour, highlighting landmarks tied to the racial violence, including the lakefront spot where 17-year-old Eugene Williams tragically lost his life in 1919.
“It’s been 107 years since that fateful day when Eugene Williams, a Black teenager, came here with friends to swim in Lake Michigan on a scorching Sunday,” recounted Professor Peter Cole from Western Illinois University. “As their raft drifted south, a white man began hurling rocks at them, leading to Eugene’s untimely death,” he solemnly noted.
Historians at the commemoration emphasized that during that period, there existed an unspoken boundary delineating the swimming areas designated for Black people from those for white people.
Williams’ death sparked an outbreak of racial violence in Chicago that left 38 people dead and hundreds injured.
“These markers form Chicago’s first citywide memorial dedicated to the victims of racial violence,” said Dr. Franklin Cosey-Gay, co-director of the Chicago Race Riot of 1919 Commemoration Project.
The project includes 38 memorial markers spread across approximately 30 square miles of the city. Organizers said the memorial markers serve as a lasting tribute to the victims and as a reminder of a painful chapter that shaped the city of Chicago.
“We ensure that every person who lost their life during the Chicago Race Riot of 1919 is remembered where that life was taken – not erased in time, not reduced to just some simple footnote, but permanently woven into the landscape of our city,” said Kenya Merritt, commissioner of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events.
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