The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, 1919-05-15
SERlOUSRACE RIOT
IN CHARLESTON
SAILORS WAGE WAR ON COL
ORED PEOPLE-TWO ARE
KILLED AND MANY
INJURED
As result of scores of attacks

INJURED
As a result of scores of attacks
on negroes, mostly by sailors, late
Saturday night in Charleston two
negroes, Isaiah Doctor and James
Talbert, are dead, nearly two score
others were injured, several serious
ly, and eight bluejackets are under
treatment at the Navy Yard hospi-
tai for injuries, one of them being
shot in the leg and the others suffer-
ing from various bruises, none being
in a serious condition. All liberty
was withdrawn from bluejackets un-
der orders>of Rear Admiral Beatty,
married men living in, Charleston
being exceptions.
Isaiah Doctor died not long after
being sent to Roper Hospital, and
James Talbert died at the hospital
Sunday. Doctor was shot in the up
per chest and Jacob Cohen, of Bal
timore, and George Holiday, OF
Charlotte, two sailors, are being held
by the naval authorities, charged by
the coroner with causing his death,
and will be present at the inquest,
if necessary, which Coroner Mans
field has set for today.
Mayor Hyde Issued statement
to the effect that ample steps wou'
be taken to guard against a rev"
tition of outbreaks like that Of Sat
urday night, and that full investi-
cation would be made of the riot.
He said he would see that the city
paid for the damages caused at the
barber shop of w. G. Fridie, because
the negroes must be protected. He
stated that should it become neces-
sary in the future, he would ask
that martial law be established.
The marines played an impartant
, part Saturday night in restoring
order and in sending the bluejackets
to the Navy Yard. Armed with rifles
and bayonets, the marines came
from the yard shortly after mid
night, began rounding up the sail
ors and took general charge Of the
situation, restoring order between 2
and 8 o'clock Sunday morning.
Roper Hospital records show near
ly two score cases handled, and the
police record nearly fifty arrests
made by city police officers, provost
guards, military police and marines.
The trouble started shortly after
. o'clock Saturday night, near
Charles and Market streets, when
clash broke out between sailors and
negroes. Apparently the trouble
sprang from a pool room fight, and
soon after numbers of sailors join
ed their mates, and shooting was be-
gun. Hundreds of sailors, some SOL
diers and later civilians, most OF
them spectators, swelled the proper
tions of a mob to size that was
beyond control of the police and
there opened a wide hunt and chase
of negroes by the enlisted men. 1t
was not until between 2 and 8
o'clock that general order was re-
stored.
Attacks on negroes were. wide
spread and the sailors were armed
with a motley array Of weapons,
many of them securing shooting
gallery rifles, others carrying clubs
and iron piping, and others using
their fists or any weapon most ham
dy.
The mob surged up and down
King street and later spread into
side streets, records of injured ne
groes showing attacks upon them
IN many parts of the city. In two or
three instances street cars were en-
tered and colored men struck down,
and Fridie's barber shop, on King
street, was wrecked by a party sup
posed to be going after negro.
When the riot assumed threaten
ing proportions, all the forces at
the command of the authorities were
summoned, policemen, provost
guards, military police, and the ma
rines in the effort to restore order.
Quiet finally came through the
rounding up of the sailors, who were
hurried off in motor trucks to the
Navy Yard.
Roper hospital became the center
of a rush of work, as the injured
men were hurried there for treat
ment as soon and as rapidly as they
could be found Thirty-five cases
were recorded, some of them re-
quiring only brief attention, others
L