The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1917-07-03
Negro Population Is Driven
Out by Mobs and Their
Homes Are Burned
MURDER OF OFFICER
STARTS TROUBLE
City Now Under Martial Law
With Eight Companies of
Soldiers on Duty and More
En- Route

Gl88t o. 1ouA5t oWS NV
j A. M.-The police nave just given
out . statement saying that at
least 100 negroes we're killed by
the mob. They say that an exact
estimate is impossible as no one
knows how many dead there arc
tn the alleys and ruins OF the
burned buildings City Attorney
Eckete estimates the dead at sew
cmty-five, but admits that Is only
a guess. ST. Louis papers in their
mail editions are carrying in their
headlines. "Onr hundred or more
dead As the town Is in dark
ness. IL VIII be- morning before
ANY kind of ali accurate estimate
can be made.
East 81. Lous, July AIN "a
city HShtcsi- by-inccndfars fires.
tho police and national guard of
Innoi. were c4idcnsoring at mid.
n,-isi TO count the dead in to,iay'S
rec riots
No estimate ~ the number of
& negroes stain. official or ether
wssc, run lower than one hum
IL I'd, The police claiming that the
dead win number 250.
Nrmcrcus outright iynchings
teok place tonight. One victim
was hanged to u telegraph pole
near the City Han, \ large per-
ecntage OF the fatalities occurred
IN the business district Of the city.
Colonel r J.. Clayton. nj the Fourth
Illinois infantry, said az midnight:
We now have the situation wei
In hand The streets have heel
cleared and believe with the add
flonal troops tha,aEn- aI-r.4-4.a "
witt be anie 70 prevent resumption
of, srsostng a .~1
The torch was freely used in tn
efforts to exterminate the black popu
lation. Fire apparatus was sent from
et. Louis. but from six to eight cit!
blocks were Laid in-.a4aS
Black District Dislodged.
The Black Valley. the Segregated
district, is a mass of embers beneath
which lie the bodies of many dead
Flames which swept a block OF Negro
dwellings in Fifth street spread &
white residences and stores on Broad
way and destroyed more property thar
THE mob intended to ruin.
Telephone and electric light wire
were cut soon after the wild night
work began and the city was left IL
darkness except in the dozen spot
where the fires ragged The authori
4tes were handicapped in handling
The soldiers and police. because com
munication with the City Hall wa
cut OF.
Whites Killed.
The shooting was not all on tn
1tde OF the whites Wherever "A whit
anan appeared alone he was Eret
upon. usually from ambush. Thoma
Moore, of Grahite City. was shot dow
ot Ninth street and broadway Hi
bead WAS blown off with a charge o
buckshot
Hundreds of arrests have been mad
put the police do not pretend tina
khey have any of the ringleaders
One difhculty in estimating the dea,
u due to the fact that many black
Oere shot and their bodies throw,
into the creeks and the Mississippi
Many were drowned by being driver
into the water.
Scores Of charred bodies are in tn,
ruins OF the burned homes,
Other bodies are being continual,
discovered in alleys and back streets
Martial Law Declared.
Martial law has been declared am
Colonel s. o. Trip, adjutant-xenera
cf Illinois. Is in charge. He an.
nounced that no prisoners arrested by
the militia will be turned over Il
the police. Seventy-five armed white.
who were caught by a company o,
nailttiamen in the act of stringing ur
= negro, were taken prisoner by the
soldiers.