Richmond planet. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1883-1938, 1919-10-25
JUSTICE! IS THE PLEA
OF LUC|A|V B. WATKINS
An Opon Letter to Harrison George
Of the Chicago Race Riots.


OF the Chicago Race Riots.
37i2 1-2 Forest Avenue,
Chicago, Ill.,, Sept. %, 1919.
Mr.. Harrison George,
Care of The Great Western Pub
fishing Co., 1881 w. Madison
ST., Chicago, III.
Sir:
] have read your booklet, CHIC
AGO RACE RIOTS.
You inform us in your preface
that: Y
This pamphlet Is an earnest, con-
sciontious probe of the fearful set
OF social circumstances that could
make possible and let lose this fame
of beastlincSs and animalism."
You say:
THE author OF this pamphlet is
convinced that the cause OF the race
conflict in Chicago and elsewhere in
the United States Is rooted deep in
our economic system and, while
other contributing causes are ad.
mitted, their influence on the actions
OF men and women OF both races
is SO slight that they can with rca-
son and good Judgment practically
be disregarded in a book OF this size
and character"
Let me make this the first SEN
tence of what / have to say: THE
PRIMARY CAUSE OF THE TROU-
BbES BETWEEN THE WHITE AND
BLACK RACES IN AMERICA is
THE INFORM HATRED THAT is
IN THE HEARTS or THOSE WHO
RESENT THE HUMAN ASPIRA-
hSTlONS OF COLORED PEOPLE.
This Satanic germ was conceived
and Matched in the souls OF slave
holders and is only bearing its dead
~ fruit, after its kind. Race-hatrcd
prompted the crimes against Colorcd
people. in Chicago, that were perpe-
trated Immediately preceding tho
riots: The repeated bombing of the
homes of Colorcd citizens; the in
eXcusable beating of those Colored
men ana women in Washington
Park. last juno; the murder of that
Colored man at Fifty-fourth Street
ana wentworth Avenue; another at
Fifty-seventh Street and La Fayette
Avenue; then the stoning and consc-
qucnt drowning of that black bow,
at the beach. Itacc-hatred tolerated
the escape from apprehension of
pathy shown toward tho murderer
in the aforementioned case. While
Chicago's white policeman, with
their white soldier assistants. were
busy disarming the Colored people,
during tho riots, Chief Of Police
John j. Clarity, advised the white
people, to arm themselves. This
significant news appeared in ono of
Chicago's leading white newspapers.
Race-hatred was the monster who
arrested the ''rioters"; more than
200 Colored and less than 100 white.
The riots were started by white
offender, at the beach; white mobs
invaded the colorcd residential sec
tons, and tho victims of their num-
Der were killed by the colorcd de-
PENDANTS OF their own lives, property
and homes; the deaths, resulting
from the riots, are officially record
cd as 23 colored and Is white; of
the colorcd killed, it has been proven
that seven met their deaths at the
hands OF the police and their help
ers. Pursuing it's foul policy, race
hatred promptly charged the out
ragged colored people with having
caused the onslaught OF the hood
lum white mobs. And, it seems that
the worst is not yet come.
In its pernicious campaign against
us, race-hatrcd dupes and uses some
of our own people. These misgud-
cd creatures are titled race lead
ers." To their race thcy are as
\faithless as Brutus, as perfidious as
Arnold, as lovcless as Judas. The
unmanly mouthings of these scrpen-
tine lickspittles are given promi-
hence in some Of tho leading white
publications in America. The Ne.
gro who really has something manly
to say would not be able to buy
space in these same papers
Race-hatred designs that all the
good, relative to Colored people
shall be kept in the background, if
it cannot be entirely suppressed, but
that the suggestive bad and ridicu-
lous, alleged or otherwise, shall not
escape the attention of it's prepared
public. If you ask me what it is
that race-hatred fears beyond any.
thing else in America, l say it is the
Negro Press. These Negro publica.
tons, that are being quoted by the
!, congressman who debate a means
to suppress them, are read through.
out the civilized world. Their
stormy truths are written in the
crying blood of our mob-murdered
comrades. Theirs is the united
voice Of our fallen dead and the
white martyrs who fought and died
for the liberty Of black people in
America. These call to us in the
words Of the late Colonel McCrea, OF
Montrea1:
RAs.Tako up our quarrel with the foe: