The Reconstruction Er Jim Crow Laws - 2695 Words

Following the Reconstruction Era, Jim Crow laws were legislated between 1876 and 1965 which implemented segregation in all public facilities in mostly southern states in the United States. As a result, the first wave of the Great Migration occurred – of African-Americans from the South moving North. Chicago, Illinois was one of northern cities that experienced a high influx of southern African-Americans. Compared to other cities, Chicago was considered a more liberal city since it prohibited many segregation laws. In the year 1874, school segregation was outlawed in Chicago and in 1885 segregation in public facilities was outlawed. According to the U.S. census, in 1910, 44,103 African-Americans made up Chicago’s population. By 1920†¦show more content†¦Starting in the early twentieth century, beaches in Chicago became segregated. On a hot summer day on the 27th of July in 1919, a young black man by the name Eugene Williams went to Chicago’s Twenty-ninth Street Beach with a group of friends, â€Å"The 29th Street beach was for whites, the 25th Street beach for blacks.† While swimming, Williams floated past the imaginary line that segregated the whites from the African-Americans. White bystanders were outraged that Williams had swum past the line that was vaguely defined and begun to attack Williams with stones. Eugene Williams was knocked unconscious and quickly drowned under the water. Although a number of black males attempted to rescue him, the whites obstructed their way and it was too late. Young eighteen-year old Eugene Williams was pronounced dead â€Å"†¦and his drowning precipitated one of the bloodiest race riots of the postwar period.† A white police officer by the name of Daniel Callahan, who came to the scene refused to arrest George Stauber, who was the white male whom many blacks contested was the one who had thrown the rock that had killed Williams. Instead an African-American was arrested for a mi nor complaint that a white man had made against him. This resulted in anger from the black community. Within two hours of Eugene Williams’ death, on July 27, 1919 the first day of the