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1
HOUSE RESOLUTION

 
2     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
 
6     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
 
11     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
 
17     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 and
 

 

 

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1     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
 
8     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
 
18     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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1 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
 
8     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
 
16     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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1 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
 
17     RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE
18 NINETY-FIFTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we
19 recognize this sad chapter in history and realize that from the
20 aftermath comes insight and education, helping us to better
21 deal with racial issues; and be it further
 
22     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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1 of our respect.