The news scimitar. (Memphis, Tenn.) 1907-1926, 1920-06-21
RED AG|TATOR IS
1 SOUGHT FOR PART
/ IN CHICAGO RIOT
Burning of Flag in Black Belt
Starts Race War-TWo
White Men Killed, Several
Negroes Hurt.


CHICAGO, June 21.-Police were
searching for R. D. Jonas, alleged radi-
cal agitator and number Of negroes
" connection with rioting in Chicagos s
plack belt last night, during which two
HNInte men were killed and two negroes
,1, Eere ssriously Injured: The fighting
of the Star Order of Ethiopia" an or
ZaniZation said to advocate return of
the negro to Abyssinia, and Immediate
q ~ after one of the leaders of the parade
had set fire to an American flag
4 Police today emphasized that the
fioting was not the result of racial
feeling, but more probably the result Of
negroes and whites had co co-operated in
IN effort to resent the insult to the flag.
However, several Incidents including
he maltreatmeRt of three negro minis
1ers many blocks from the scene of the
Plotting, occurring later in the night,
Favored of race rioting. ..
NJ Negroes alleged to have been leaders
II the plot to burn the flag are Joseph
vernon, who is said to call himself 'the
great Abyssinian;" his son and Grover
q. Redding, who, it is said, claims to
pc native of Abyssinia. The three me-
groes led the parade yesterday, mount
nd on horses and wearing fantastic raj
nent.
Redding and seven other negroes were
arrested today. Redding was caught at
q railroad station just after he had
Jonas, who, police declared, was back
of the movement for the return of the
1egroes to Abyssinia, yesterday was the
principal speaker at a meeting which
Doom for Mayor William Hale Thomp-
Son, as a third party candidate for
4 president, who would rally the solid
S-iIrlsh and negro vote"
Sailors Take Part. .-
The killing of the white men, who in
Meluded Robert l.. Rose, a sailor sta
lioned at Great Lakes aroused hun
dreds of sailors on leave in Chicago and
4 caused issuance of an order for the
y arrest and immediate dispatch to Great
Lakes of all sailors found on the streets
An order barring all sailors from Chi
eago as a result of the trouble was be-
Ing considered by Rear Admiral Bas-
sett, commandant at the training sta
tion today but thus far no action along
this line has been taken.
The other white man killed was Jo-
seph Hoyt, SO years old, a clerk in
Cigar store near the scene OF the shoot
ing. He was shot with what Is believed
10 have been dumdum bullet. His
head was split open with an ak. The
negroes who were wounded Included
Joseph P. Owens, policeman
Fpr several hours after the riotlng
started crowds formed in and around
sthe outskirts of the black belt" but
zoo police rushed to the district sue
needed with little trouble in dispensing
Ahem. .
Besides the beating administered to
the three negro preachers by crowd
HDf white men, negro buying ticket
aa&at Siies Polk street station downtown,
was seized BY crowd OF 70 men ana
WA severely beaten Four negroes in a taxi
near the same station also were stopped
&by a crowd, but escaped.
&W According to witnesses of the burn
sing of the flag and subsequent shooting
3 The parade led by the Fernons and Red
ding dispersed in front OF cafe at
tThirty-fifth street and Indiana. The
parade was followed by meeting in
n hall over the cafe. 2
W One of the leaders, believed to have
been the elder Fernon, took flag from
a parcel which he was carrying and set
fire to it. Spectators asserted that the
flag was saturated with oil and that 1t
burned readily
H Policeman owens was notified of the
act, rushed to the scene and toward one
of the men, his club raised as though
amen on horseback, it was declared,
fired at him with short rifle, wound
3 ing him with the first shot.
M Rose, the sailor, who had been tour
ing the South Side with two. compan-
lions, sprang from an automobile when
X he saw the parade and was almost at
the polceman's side when the latter
s was shot, according to spectators he
turned and ran into a nearby cigar
store.
Several men with rifles, some Of
which, it is declared, were obtained
from an automobile, ran to the door
iof the cigar store and fired volley'
according to persons near the scene;
Rose and Hoyt, the cigar clerk. dropped
dead.
ven During the shooting a second flag was
thrown upon the flames, but was re-
covered before it was burned.
Jonas, who was still at liberty this
morning after an all-night hunt by po--
lice, was found by a reporter and told
his version of the rioting.
Poses as Abyssinian.
III He said he met Redding. who poses
as an Abyssinian, in New York several
weeks ago, and had later intr9duced
n at Washington. Redding. Jones said,
told him he has recently been in Abys-
snia and when asked how he got there
explained that he took an airship from
Mexico
M Jonas said he accompanied the ne
4 groes to Chicago two weeks ago, to ask
the Republican convention to incorpor-
IA ate plank in the party platform pro-
viding for the resumption of the Abys-
sinian treaty with the United States,
N which expired in 1917. Since coming
N here, he declared, he had denounced
N Redding and the other "Abyssianian
princes" to the federal authorities as
radicals, but without result.
The propaganda circulated among the
n Chicago negroes by the princes"
Tomas said was signed by George Ga
4 briei Abyssianian linguist," and Red
ding. 1t gave the offices of the organl-
Hation as 1912 18th street, Washington,
D. c., in care of Mrs, Dabney, and
115 West 10Sth street, New York city,
in care Of Charles Manson. Reddng,
Jonas said, worked through the Uni
yersal Negro Improvement association.
and the Black Star Line Steamship
company, a negro organization, which
owns one steamer.
Police raided garage near the scene
\ of the riot and captured one of the
fantastic robes worn by the princes"
five short -barreled rifles. picture OF
Jonas and the Abyssinian delegation,
taken when they landed in New York,
and some of Reddings propaganda.
One pamphlet bearing the crossed
flags of Abyssinia with the lion ram
pant was inscribed:
''The lion OF Judah!
Treaty
Between the
King of Ethiopia
And the
United States!
His Majesty Menelik II, King Of
Kings of Ethiopia, etc"
The Abyssinians explained at meet
ing called Yesterday to boom Mayor
William Hale Thompson as the presi-
dental candidate of third party conf
posed OF Irish, negroes and trade union
lists that the treaty, which was nego-
tiated under the administration OF
President Roosevelt, would, If restored.
vitiate Jim Crow" laws in the South.
as negroes, claiming protection as Abys-
sinans, could demand the right to trav-
el on the same terms as whites,
, COOL WEATHER WILL