Bill Text: IL HR0244 | 2017-2018 | 100th General Assembly | Introduced
Bill Title: Declares May 28, 2017 as a day of remembrance for the 1917 East St. Louis Race Riot.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Passed) 2017-05-11 - Resolution Adopted [HR0244 Detail]
Download: Illinois-2017-HR0244-Introduced.html
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1 | HOUSE RESOLUTION
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2 | WHEREAS, The 1917 East St. Louis Race Riot, also known as | ||||||
3 | the East St. Louis Massacres, was one of the worst race riots | ||||||
4 | in American history; and
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5 | WHEREAS, Shortly after America's entry into World War I, | ||||||
6 | when black troops were going to fight to make the world safe | ||||||
7 | for democracy, American black men, women, and children were | ||||||
8 | murdered in the most wanton and barbaric manner in the streets | ||||||
9 | of East St. Louis on July 2 and 3, 1917; and
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10 | WHEREAS, In 1917, East St. Louis was crowded with factories | ||||||
11 | and jobs were abundant; but as World War I halted the flow of | ||||||
12 | immigration from Eastern Europe and white workers, | ||||||
13 | increasingly frustrated by poor wages and working conditions | ||||||
14 | were beginning to unionize, factory recruiters started looking | ||||||
15 | toward the American South for black workers; by the spring of | ||||||
16 | 1917, about 2,000 African Americans were arriving in East St. | ||||||
17 | Louis every week in what became known as the Great Migration; | ||||||
18 | as competition for jobs increased, a labor issue became a | ||||||
19 | racial issue fraught with animus and rising tensions; and
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20 | WHEREAS, On May 28, 1917, several blacks were attacked | ||||||
21 | after a union rally sparking a night of rioting; the National | ||||||
22 | Guard broke it up the next day and stayed in the city until |
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1 | mid-June; the tensions boiled over on July 2, 1917 following a | ||||||
2 | confrontation in a black neighborhood that began after white | ||||||
3 | men in a car drove by shooting into buildings, houses, and | ||||||
4 | churches, and ended with two white police officers dead; and
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5 | WHEREAS, Mobs of white men, some assisted by women and even | ||||||
6 | children, set fires in black neighborhoods, trapping people in | ||||||
7 | their homes and shooting those who tried to escape; black | ||||||
8 | passengers were pulled from trolley cars and beaten in the | ||||||
9 | street; black men were dragged through the streets and hanged | ||||||
10 | by light poles along the streets where they remained for days; | ||||||
11 | accounts speak of black men, women, and children beaten with | ||||||
12 | bludgeons, stoned, shot, drowned, hanged, or burned to death, | ||||||
13 | without any effective interference on the part of the police, | ||||||
14 | sheriff, or military authorities; and
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15 | WHEREAS, Media accounts state the National Guard was only | ||||||
16 | able to begin to gain control of the crowd on July 3, 1917 when | ||||||
17 | "the rioters had exhausted themselves and sated, in a measure, | ||||||
18 | their lust for blood"; the first full day of calm was July 4, | ||||||
19 | 1917; and
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20 | WHEREAS, At the end of the mayhem, nine whites and nearly | ||||||
21 | 200 blacks were dead, more than 300 buildings were destroyed, | ||||||
22 | with fires causing $8,000,000 in 2017 dollars in damage; 6,000 | ||||||
23 | people fled from their homes; and
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1 | WHEREAS, The East St. Louis 1917 Centennial Commission and | ||||||
2 | Cultural Initiative will be observing the centennial with | ||||||
3 | several activities and events to promote remembrance, healing, | ||||||
4 | and awareness of the 1917 Race Riot and its social, political, | ||||||
5 | and cultural impact on our nation; and to celebrate the great | ||||||
6 | fortitude found in the people of East St. Louis; therefore, be | ||||||
7 | it
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8 | RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE | ||||||
9 | HUNDREDTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we | ||||||
10 | acknowledge a moral imperative to never forget the atrocities | ||||||
11 | that took place on July 2 and 3, 1917 in East St. Louis; and be | ||||||
12 | it further
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13 | RESOLVED, That we observe May 28, 2017 as a day of | ||||||
14 | remembrance in the State of Illinois on the centennial of the | ||||||
15 | events that precipitated the 1917 East St. Louis Race Riot; and | ||||||
16 | be it further
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17 | RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be | ||||||
18 | presented Marla Byrd, Commissioner of the East St. Louis 1917 | ||||||
19 | Centennial Commission and Cultural Initiative.
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