A white man threw a stone that hit and killed a teenage black boy, and a day at the beach –July 27, 1919– exploded into an urban nightmare. The ensuing race riot that took over Chicago’s South Side streets killed and wounded many and left their neighborhoods in ruins. The tensions that fueled the riot had been building in the city for decades. Looking for a better life in Chicago, waves of white immigrants from Europe and black migrants from the South converged to form an underclass divided by racial prejudice. As workers in the busy stockyards, they were pitted against one another by the tycoons who controlled the labor market. Politicians and the police force made no attempt to defuse the tension. Most other white Chicagoans wanted nothing to do with their black neighbors. The violence in Chicago’s streets simmered down but has erupted time and again, and continues to appear in national headlines to this day, a century later. Claire Hartfield’s eye-opening, authoritative account of the 1919 race riot, the conditions that created it, and its legacy sheds light on an important and painful moment in the ongoing struggle for racial justice. — Publisher’s description