Elizabeth Dale, University of Florida, has published Fight for Rights: The Chicago 1919 Riots and the Struggle for Black Justice, open access, with the LibraryPress@UF. From the Press’s announcement:
Fight for Right traces the experiences of Black Chicagoans from the city’s founding in the 1830s, through the population boom of the Great Migration and the racial violence that shaped the summer of 1919. As a legal historian, Dale considers the aftermath of that violence through the 1930s and the forces that arose—in the streets, in city government, in the courts, and in the police department—to limit the rights of Black people.Dale draws on current scholarship and rich primary sources, including newspapers, photos, maps, and documents. As a multimedia, online publication, the book incorporates many of these sources alongside the text for a closer look and better understanding of day-to-day lives and acts of resistance by Black citizens of Chicago. “Voices from Chicago’s First 100 Years,” a supplement to the book, identifies many individuals mentioned throughout the text, including key figures such as activist Ida B. Wells-Barnett and her husband, lawyer Ferdinand Barnett.
One section of the book delves into the trial of Walter Colvin and Charles Johnson, two Black youths accused of murder during the 1919 riots. Dale’s research into this case reflects the inherent bias of Chicago’s legal system, as even conflicting witness accounts and factual inaccuracies could not avert a conviction. This and other examples throughout the book highlight individual and community efforts—sometimes successful, often not—to attain rights on par with those of white Chicagoans.
--Dan Ernst
