On Wilson’s return from Paris, in July 1919 only a few blocks away from the White House, entire African American neighbourhoods were aflame. Fifteen people were bludgeoned, shot and burned to death. In Chicago the death toll reached 38.16 One thousand African American families were left homeless. In all, 25 American cities were convulsed in the summer of 1919 by the most widespread outburst of racial violence since the Civil War. The White gangs targeted symbols of wartime social change – African American servicemen and recent migrants to Northern cities.
