Full Text of SR0827 95th General Assembly
SR0827 95TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY
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| SENATE RESOLUTION
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| WHEREAS, One hundred years ago, Springfield, Illinois was | 3 |
| familiar to people as the home of the 16th president, Abraham | 4 |
| Lincoln; but on August 14, 1908, the city would enter the | 5 |
| history books as the home of a terrible race riot; and
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| WHEREAS, According to a May 31, 2008 article in the State | 7 |
| Journal-Register and other sources familiar with the events of | 8 |
| the race riot, at the turn of the century racial tensions were | 9 |
| high in the city because of the use of black workers as scabs | 10 |
| labor during strikes; and
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| WHEREAS, On July 4, 1908, Clergy Ballard awoke to find a | 12 |
| man standing near his daughter's bed; the intruder fled and | 13 |
| Ballard gave chase; after catching up with the intruder, | 14 |
| Ballard's throat was slashed with a straight razor; before he | 15 |
| died, Ballard identified the assailant as Joe James, a black | 16 |
| man with a long record of minor crimes; and
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| WHEREAS, White citizens of the town were enraged by the | 18 |
| crime, thinking that the murder was the result of a thwarted | 19 |
| sexual assault of a white woman by a black man; a crowd of | 20 |
| whites caught James and beat him unconscious; the police | 21 |
| rescued James, arrested him, and locked him in the city jail; | 22 |
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| WHEREAS, On Friday, August 14 of that same year, the local | 2 |
| newspaper ran the story of a white woman, Mabel Hallam, who had | 3 |
| allegedly been raped by a local black man, George Richardson; | 4 |
| Hallam, the 21-year-old wife of a well-known streetcar | 5 |
| conductor, claimed that the black caretaker had dragged her out | 6 |
| of bed and assaulted her the night before; police arrested | 7 |
| Richardson and took him to the city jail; and
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| WHEREAS, That evening, a crowd of white citizens gathered | 9 |
| in downtown Springfield, outraged by the fact that two black | 10 |
| men had allegedly committed brutal crimes against white | 11 |
| townspeople; the crowd demanded the release of the prisoners, | 12 |
| but Sheriff Charles Werner was able to remove the two from jail | 13 |
| and transport them to safety in nearby Bloomington, with the | 14 |
| help of restaurant owner Harry Loper; when the crowd learned | 15 |
| that Loper had aided in the transport of the two black men, | 16 |
| they walked to his restaurant, trashed the building, and | 17 |
| torched his expensive automobile; and
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| WHEREAS, Later that evening, Governor Charles S. Deneen | 19 |
| activated the State militia; the crowd directed their anger | 20 |
| toward the rest of Springfield's minorities; they proceeded to | 21 |
| Fishman's Hardware, owned by a Jewish businessman, and stole | 22 |
| weapons to use in the further destruction of homes and | 23 |
| businesses; then the mob moved on the Levee, a predominantly |
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| African-American area, and destroyed numerous black-owned | 2 |
| businesses; as the crowd moved on towards the Badlands, another | 3 |
| black neighborhood, they encountered a black barber named Scott | 4 |
| Burton, who attempted to defend his business with a warning | 5 |
| shot from a shotgun; he was killed when the crowd returned | 6 |
| fire, his shop was burned, and his body was hung from a tree; | 7 |
| and
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| WHEREAS, The mob then burned black-owned homes in the | 9 |
| Badlands; an estimated 12,000 people had gathered to watch the | 10 |
| houses burn; when firefighters arrived, people in the crowd | 11 |
| impeded their progress and cut their hoses; African American | 12 |
| citizens were forced to flee the town, find refuge with | 13 |
| sympathetic whites, or hide in the State Arsenal; the National | 14 |
| Guard was finally able to disperse the crowd late that night; | 15 |
| and
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| WHEREAS, Saturday, August 15 saw 5,000 National Guard | 17 |
| troops sent to the city to keep the peace, along with curiosity | 18 |
| seekers and tourists who had read about the riots in the | 19 |
| newspaper; the peace was soon broken, however, when a new mob | 20 |
| formed and began marching toward the State Arsenal, where many | 21 |
| black residents were being housed; when confronted by the | 22 |
| National Guard, the crowd changed direction and instead walked | 23 |
| to the home of 84-year-old black resident William Donnegan; | 24 |
| although he had committed no crime, Donnegan was married to a |
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| white woman; when he came outside, the mob captured him, cut | 2 |
| his throat, and lynched him in a tree in the schoolyard across | 3 |
| the street from his home; and | 4 |
| WHEREAS, The riots ended, leaving 40 homes and 24 | 5 |
| businesses in ruins, and seven people confirmed dead; a grand | 6 |
| jury brought 107 indictments against individuals who had | 7 |
| allegedly participated in the riots, but only one man was | 8 |
| convicted; Mabel Hallam later admitted that her accusation of | 9 |
| rape against George Richardson was false, and Richardson was | 10 |
| released from jail; Joe James was convicted of the murder of | 11 |
| Clergy Ballard and was hanged in the Sangamon County Jail on | 12 |
| October 23, 1908; as a direct result of the Springfield Race | 13 |
| Riot, a meeting was held in New York City to discuss solutions | 14 |
| to racial problems, leading to the formation of the National | 15 |
| Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP); | 16 |
| therefore, be it
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| RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE NINETY-FIFTH GENERAL | 18 |
| ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we recognize this sad | 19 |
| chapter in history and realize that from the aftermath comes | 20 |
| insight and education, helping us to better deal with racial | 21 |
| issues; and be it further
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| RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be | 23 |
| presented to the Springfield Chapter of the NAACP as a symbol |
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| of our respect.
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