Why read 1919, The Year of Racial Violence?

Book cover of 1919, The Year of Racial Violence: How African Americans Fought Back

Book description

1919, The Year of Racial Violence recounts African Americans' brave stand against a cascade of mob attacks in the United States after World War I. The emerging New Negro identity, which prized unflinching resistance to second-class citizenship, further inspired veterans and their fellow black citizens. In city after city -…

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American history

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Why read it?

1 author picked 1919, The Year of Racial Violence as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Adam J. Hodges

Author

We must remember that 1919 also saw unprecedented widespread bloodshed in attacks on Black communities. This wave of violence is remembered as the Red Summer not because it coincided with the Red Scare, but because the worst of it occurred in and around that summer. Krugler gives us the national saga but helpfully zooms in to some of the major clashes to help us understand why and how they occurred – and most of all – how Blacks fought back through self-defense, the Black press, and the courts.

From Adam's list on the U.S. Red Scare of the Russian Revolution and WWI era.