Some cities were struggling to accommodate the influx of black and white defense workers, dealing with shortages in housing and strained services.
Beaumont had become a destination for tens of thousands of workers in the defense industry; from 1940 to 1943 the city had grown from 59,000 to 80,000 persons, with African Americans maintaining a proportion of roughly one third of the total.
[2] Workers were attracted to the buildup of high-paying jobs in the defense industry, concentrated at the shipyard, as Beaumont was located on the Neches River northeast of Houston on the Gulf Coast.
Executive Order 8802 was issued by the president to prohibit discrimination among defense contractors, and African Americans sought a share of opportunities in the high-paying jobs in Texas.
New residents in Beaumont competed for jobs and housing in the crowded town, where whites had imposed segregated facilities, as was common across the South.
[clarification needed] President Franklin D. Roosevelt announced a policy to end discrimination in employment in the defense industries through his Executive Order 8802 of 1941; he wanted to encourage all American citizens to support the war effort.
[1][2] Racial animosity and friction during the Jim Crow era were not unusual, but wartime conditions made matters worse.
In one altercation on July 27, Charles J. Reco, a black military policeman, was shot four times and clubbed by Beaumont police as they removed him from a bus following a minor complaint of his knees sticking into the 'white section.
[clarification needed] In the months before the riot, numerous atrocities were exacted upon African Americans in Houston, Texas, and the surrounding counties.
Breaking into small groups, white mobs attacked and terrorized black neighborhoods near the jail in the central and north parts of the city, and destroyed 100 homes.