St. Paul recorder. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1951-07-20
CICERO RIOTERS BURN VETS FURN| TURE
TIME Magazine
Report On Riot
In Cicero, I'LL.

In Cicero, I'LL.
The current edition of TIME
Magazine dated July %, re-
ports on the Cicero riots in the
following fashion:
Ugly Nights In Cicero
Grimy Cicero, Ill. Cpop. $1,000,
which huddles close to Chicago's
west boundary, has never had a
reputation for being exclusive.
During the roaring '20s, the Tor
rio-capone mob roared through
Cicero's streets in armored cars,
ruled its wide-open gambling
joints, honky-tonks and
houses. Cicero is also an industrial
town, with tree-lined neighbor-
hoods of workingmen's homes and
friendly corner taverns where
jukeboxes play lively polkas and
the talk at the bar is in many Ian
guages. Though its history is
pockmarked with crime and vio-
lence, Cicero makes one proud
boast; no Negroes live there.
That was one thing Harvey f.
Clark Jr. didn't know. Clark, a
Negro, graduate (A.BD of Fisk
University and a World War II
sergeant, was sick of living in
tiny apartment on Chicago's
South Side, with his two kids
sleeping in the windowless hall
way. He rented an apartment in
Cicero. But when he tried to move
his family in last month, two
Cicero cops refused to let the
Clarks unload their furniture be-
cause they had no permit" Beefy
Police Chief Konovsky struck him
several times and shouted: Get
out of Cicero and don't come back
or you'll get bullet through
you"
Growing Crowd
Clark, a Chicago bus driver, de-
cided to make an issue of it. He
filed a 100000 damage suit in
federal court against Cicero Off
Gals and the town of Cicero. The
court issued temporary injunc-
ton, warning Cicero police to see
to it that the Clarks were not mol
ested.
But when they returned to Cic-
ero last week and moved their
furniture into the apartment, they
found a handful of Cicero and
Cook County police-and a large
and hostile crowd. Frightened. the
Clarks left-but the crowd didn't.
Until midnight, the crowd milled
in the street, booing and jeering
when Cook County Sheriff John
Babb ordered them to dispense, &C.
casionally throwing stones.
Next night the crowd was back
again bigger and in an uglier
mood. The so cops made no effort
to stop teen-agers who, from well
hidden positions, tossed stones at
windows in the Clark apartment.
Violence at Midnight
Around midnight the mob got
holder. A dozen or so young bloods
rushed the cops at the doorway to
the apartment house, pushed past
them. smashed in the front door.
clambered upstairs to the Clark
apartment. Out of the window to
the accompaniment of cheers from
the crowd. went all of the Clarks'
furniture, including a piano. Then
the young vandals tore out door
and window jambs, gouged holes
in the walls, ripped out light fix
lures. smashed radio, a refrigera-
tor and stove, Dashed in the toilet
bowl. For good measure, they rip
ped up two apartments below the
Clarks 1.-THE tenants, like most of
the 10 families in the apartment
house, had long since fled Then
the mass of broken furniture on
the lawn was set afire, and the
cheers grew louder. Police did not
make a single arrest. At about
2:3O, the mob once again faded
away, but everybody knew that it
would be back.
At daybreak, Sheriff Babb put
through a call to Governor Adlai
Stevenson, who called out five
companies of National Guards
men. Most of the day was spent in
making preparations for the night.
Vans, trucks and private cars
shuttled back and forth, trying to
save the belongings of tenants.
One tenant, a retired Chicago cop,
said, as he helped with the NOV
ing, Il saw a lot of things as a
policeman, but never anything
like that. These people are saw
ages"
Go! Go! Go!
BY 7 o'clock the mob was back
and pressing against police lines,
which blocked off the area around
the apartment house for a full
block. Mostly they were young
fellows in T-shirts and dungarees,
but there were also housewives in
cotton dresses, a father holding
his child on his shoulder to give
him a better view The crowd was
good-natured. as If going to a
SEE TIME ARTICLE