[6] In early 1919, the sociopolitical atmosphere of Chicago around its rapidly growing black community was one of ethnic tension caused by long-standing racism, competition among new groups, an economic slump, and the social changes engendered by World War I.

[9] Overcrowding and increased African-American resistance against racism, especially by war veterans, contributed to the racial tension,[5] as did white-ethnic gangs unrestrained by police.

[9] The turmoil came to a boil during a summer heat wave with the murder of the 17-year-old Eugene Williams, an African-American teenager[10] who inadvertently had drifted into a white swimming area at an informally segregated beach near 29th Street.

[13] After the riots, Lowden convened the Chicago Commission on Race Relations, a nonpartisan, interracial committee, to investigate the causes and to propose solutions to racial tensions.

[14] U.S. President Woodrow Wilson and the U.S. Congress attempted to promote legislation and organizations to decrease racial discord in America.

[19] African Americans had a long history in Chicago, with the city sending Illinois's first African-American representative, John W. E. Thomas, to the state legislature in 1876, but even so, the community had been relatively small through the 19th century.

[5][8] The growing African-American population settling in the South Side bordered a neighborhood of Irish Americans existing since the mid-19th century, and the two groups competed for low-end jobs and housing,[20] alongside earlier waves of immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe.

[5] "Earlier in 1919, there were race riots in Memphis, Tenn.; Charleston, S.C.; and Philadelphia, so his editor sent [Carl] Sandburg to take the pulse of Chicago's impoverished areas.

[22] The postwar period also found tensions rising in numerous rapidly growing cities where people from different cultures jostled against each other and competed for space.

At the same time, African-American veterans exhibited greater militancy and pride serving to protect their country, in units such as the Illinois 8th Infantry.

[5] Meanwhile, younger black men rejected the deference and passivity traditional in the South, and they promoted armed self-defense for control of their neighborhoods.

[23] In Chicago, the Irish-dominated social and athletic clubs were closely tied to the political structure of the city, some acting as enforcers for politicians.

There, the Hamburg Athletic Club, whose members included a 17-year-old Richard J. Daley, future mayor of Chicago, contributed to gang violence in the area.

There were also attempts by the ethnic Irish gangs to incite Southern and Eastern European immigrant communities to violence against blacks, although they had no history of such hostility.

In one instance, members of the Irish Ragen's Colts donned blackface and set fire to Lithuanian and Polish homes in the Back of the Yards in an attempt to incite this community to join them against African Americans.

White groups delivered food and supplies to the line established by the military, who passed them on to African Americans for distribution within the Black Belt.

While industry was closed, the packing plants arranged to deliver pay to certain places in the city so that African-American men could pick up their wages.

[35] Its report stated that, on July 27, 1919, Eugene Williams, an African-American youth, drifted towards an informally segregated beach on the South Side while holding onto a railroad tie.

A witness recalled seeing a single white male standing on a breakwater 75 feet (22.9 m) from the raft of the African Americans and throwing rocks at them.

The assailant ran toward 29th Street, where a different fight already had started when African Americans tried to use a section of the beach there, in defiance of its tacit segregation.

[36] Historians noted, "South Side youth gangs, including the Hamburg Athletic Club, were later found to have been among the primary instigators of the racial violence.

For weeks, in the spring and summer of 1919, they had been anticipating, even eagerly awaiting, a race riot" and, "On several occasions, they themselves had endeavored to precipitate one, and now that racial violence threatened to become generalized and unrestrained throughout Chicago, they were set to exploit the chaos.

[9] Hoyne began bringing the cases involving only African Americans to the sitting grand jury to be charged, causing the jurors to walk out.

"[9] The New York Times coverage of the riot clearly conveyed that whites were responsible for coordinated large-scale arson against black areas and for numerous mob attacks.

At the Union Stock Yard, one of Chicago's largest employers, all 15,000 African-American workers initially were expected to return to work on Monday, August 4, 1919.

[7] Illinois Governor Frank Lowden appointed In 1922, six whites and six African Americans were commissioned to discover the true roots of the riots.

The commission's final report, submitted on January 1st, 1921 and primarily written by Charles S. Johnson, claimed that returning soldiers from World War I not receiving their original jobs and homes instigated the riots.

The Chicago Race Riot of 1919 shocked the nation and raised awareness of the problems that African Americans faced every day in the early 20th century United States.

(29th Street Beach no longer exists, as land reclamation has extended the lakeshore further into the lake)[47] The Chicago Race Riots Commemoration Project (CRR19), launched in 2019, is working to install 38 markers around the South Side to pay tribute to the 38 lives that were lost.

[49] CRR19 also hosts an annual bike tour in late July that explores the history of the Chicago race riots of 1919 and the city's legacy of residential segregation.