“To
be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always
a child. For what is the worth of human life, unless it is woven into
the life of our ancestors by the records of history?” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero
For my Children.
While many people focus on names and dates to fill a family
tree, the most interesting aspect of genealogy is learning about the
life and times of our ancestors. We can learn about American history
through our family’s history!
Some historical events are more popular than others – like the
signing of the Declaration of Independence, Women’s Suffrage or the
Apollo moon landing. But just as important are the historical events
that aren’t quite so popular – like
the Vietnam War, the January 6th.
Insurrection or the 1919
Chicago Race Riots. Exploring unpopular historical
events are just as instructive as the popular ones especially when
you learn about them through the context of an ancestor’s life.
My Great-Grandparents, Marek and Anna Niemiec, were early twentieth-century Polish immigrants
living in Chicago, Illinois. They immigrated
from Galicia, which is now in Southwestern Poland, and they were
ethically Polish.
Marek and Anna settled in one of the five Polish
neighborhoods in Chicago, the Lower West Side, in St. Casimir parish, or in Polish, Kazimierzowo.
One of the historical events they lived through was the 1919
Chicago Race Riots. I didn’t know about this history so I was
curious. What happened? Why? What
did Polish immigrants, like Marek experience during the riots …
what did they think about what was happening?
THE $10,000 question: Did
Marek participate in the
riots? Finally, what was the aftermath
of the riots, for Chicago … for Marek … for all
Americans?
WHAT HAPPENED? The 1919 Chicago Race Riots occurred between July 27 and August 3,
1919. Chicago was in the throes of a brutal heat wave. Thousands
flocked to the beaches lining Lake Michigan for some relief. Among
them was a group of Black boys that included 17-year-old Eugene
Williams. Eugene, who was on a raft, inadvertently drifted over the
invisible line that separated the Black and White sections of the
29th Street Beach. White boys and men began throwing rocks at the
Black kids hitting Eugene Williams knocking him unconscious, causing
him to slip off his raft and drown.
Police shrugged off requests from Blacks that the rock-throwing
men be arrested. After Eugene’s body was pulled from the water,
fighting ensued.
Soon, people – White and Black - on Chicago’s South Side,
were engaged in seven days of shootings, arson, and beatings that
resulted in the deaths of 38 people and 537 injured. The police
force, owing both to under staffing and the open sympathy of many
officers with the White rioters, was ineffective. Almost 1,000 Black
homes burned down or were bombed by rioters.
 |
Rioters pulling an African American man from street car,then they beat him.
| |
 |
Rioters stoning an African American man to death.
|
 |
African American homes were bombed, a 6 year old child was killed in this bombing.
|
It was the long-delayed intervention of the Illinois National
Guard, and a rain storm, which finally brought the violence to a
halt. None of the White participants in the riot ever faced
consequences for their involvement.
Eugene Williams’ stoning
and drowning was the tipping
point. Before the
riots, tension had been building in Chicago basically due to three
socioeconomic factors.
First, there were the labor disputes.
Chicago steel workers and
stockyard workers had been on strike recently. Then, two weeks before the riot,
there was a
small labor walkout
at International Harvester – where
Marek was employed. Workers
wanted to organize into unions but management refused to even talk
with the workers. Following
the walkout by the small group
of International Harvester
workers, management sent a clear message about union organization - they shutdown
their factories for two
weeks putting 10,000
employees
out of work without pay for
two weeks.
The company blamed the workers and refused to negotiate with the
labor representatives as a
union
and would only speak with them through management
selected “works council.”
Union busting began even
before there were any unions! They called the union leaders “un-American” even when the company management was the only one with the power to shutdown.
Secondly, there
was social tension,
too. Soldiers
were returning home after serving in Europe during World War I. Black
soldiers, in particular, had experienced being treated as equal
citizens while they fought abroad. Returning to an America that
barely recognized their service and wanted them back in their
assigned, segregated places was not something they were willing to
accept.
 |
... how African Americans were treated in their own country -the USA!
|
In addition, African
Americans were becoming economically successful They started banks,
real estate companies, and retail businesses. Their success was a
challenge to Chicagoans who held racist views and could only view
African Americans in the South, fulfilling a stereotypical
subservient role.
A popular film also added to
the social tension in our country. In
1915,
the film “Birth of a Nation” was released. President Wilson, who also
re-segregated the civil service, screened the film in the White House
and said, “It is
like writing history with lightning. And my only regret is that it is
all so terribly true.” - which
it most definitely is NOT!
The
film
is racist propaganda promoting
the
Klu Klux Klan. The
Klan did, and still does,
promote
militant
advocacy of white supremacy, antisemitism,
anti-Catholicism,
and anti-immigration.
 |
Rioters running after African Americans with bricks in hand.
|
The
film and President Wilson’s response to it, contributed to the
nationwide acceptance
and revival
of the Klu Klux Klan contributing
to
the
social
tension in Chicago.
Finally,
adding
to the
social tension and labor
disputes
was the
fierce competition over jobs.
Between
1910 and 1920, the African
American population
in Chicago doubled from 50,000 to 100,000 due to the Great Migration.
African Americans migrated
north to Chicago
and
readily
accepted jobs in the city's slaughterhouses and factories
because the pay was better than what they'd received in the South.
Sometimes
African Americans were hired as strikebreakers and that
outraged some
European immigrants who'd traditionally held those jobs and who
wanted to unionize the companies they'd worked for. The
owners of the steel mills, stockyards, slaughterhouses and factories
held all the power. While the jobs were dirty and dangerous, they
were the difference between basic subsistence and homelessness. There were no social welfare programs in 1919, a job could mean the difference between
life and death.
These
were the socioeconomic times Chicago citizens, including Marek were
experiencing in July 1919.
Marek, age 38, and Anna, age 34, were living with their 5
children in a multi-family flat at 2926 W 25th Place in
southwest Chicago. Marek
and Anna’s neighborhood was on
the periphery of the riots.
The vast majority of
the shootings, arson and beatings took place in the “Black
Belt” neighborhood and near
the stockyards, some distance from their neighborhood. However,
there was some rioting just outside of Mareks' workplace, International Harvester. It is possible that he
witnessed some of the violence. An
African American was attacked and injured not far from International Harvester, where
Marek was employed.
Like all industrial workers, whether American citizens,
immigrants, or African Americans, Marek struggled to maintain a
steady, stable income. Since 1910 Marek worked at the International
Harvester factory located at Blue Island and Western Avenues. He was
an unskilled laborer working as a molder in the foundry.
 |
Marek's (Mark) World War I Draft Registration Card
|
Even though he had a job, the Census records that Marek had
been "out of work" for 8 weeks in 1910 and he – indeed all industrial
workers - probably experienced company shutdowns, without notice and without pay, throughout the
years. In 1919 there was no job security, no way to negotiate
grievances nor unemployment benefits during company initiated
shutdowns. Marek certainly shared the same economic
pressures as did other Chicago workers. Between July 15 and 28, 1919, International Harvester shutdown, leaving Marek, once again, without pay. The riots began on July 27.
What did Polish immigrants, like
Marek, think about what was happening?
According to the 1920 United States Census,Marek could speak English but he could speak, read and write the Polish
language. Unfortunately Marek did not leave a personal
journal but, because he was literate in Polish, he
probably read the Chicago Polish language newspaper, Dziennik
Chicagoski,
which gives us insight
into the way Chicago’s Polish immigrants were thinking.
In the days before
television and social media, many people, like Marek would
read and discuss the daily newspaper with co-workers, family and
friends. On
the July 31, 1919 front page of the Dziennik
Chicagoski, Marek would have seen this political cartoon depicting
the City of Chicago crying over her history book.
Translation:
Title = “Two dark pages in the city’s history.
Text in book: “Race
Riots – Strikes”
“Strikes” refers to
industrial strikes
in general but also to the strike
by 15,000 street car and elevated train workers which paralyzed the
city – in the middle of the race riots!
Obviously, the image reflects the city’s
terrible situation and
the sorrow caused by
these two historical events.
Polish immigrants were also well informed about world events.
They were most interested in what was happening in Europe as a result
of the Great War and the break up of the Austria-Hungry and Ottoman
Empires. Dziennik
Chicagoski provided
coverage of the Russian Civil War, the Polish-Ukranian Border War,
and the Greco-Turkish War. But the newspaper also informed Chicago’s
Polish immigrants about the Mexican Revolution.
 |
Galicia during the Polish-Ukranian Border War, 1919
|
Chicago “crying”
was published after two days of rioting. The
political cartoon below was
published on the front
page a few days later
on August 2, 1919. This one illustrates
how sorrow turned to sarcasm and also reflects the world view of
Polish immigrants in Chicago.
Title = “How Civilized!”
Bottom left: Black
man holding a switchblade, “Pogrom”;
White man holding a gun, “Racial”
Top, left to right:
Ukrainian - (laughing)
*Ukraine was in the midst of a Civil and Border War with Poland, and tens of thousands of Jews were
murdered in pogroms.
Cannibal -“How civilized!”
Bolshevik - “And this is Democratic
America!”
*Bolsheviks
were Russian Communists.
Turk - (laughing) “So free!”
*Turkey was fighting Greece for independence.
Mexican
- “How clever!”
*Mexico
was fighting a civil
war during which lands were taken, homes burned and innocent civilians were killed.
 |
American Pogroms, 1919
|
Reading these
political cartoons and other news articles in the Dziennik
Chicagoski, Marek
may have thought he was still in Poland! However,
the United States was experiencing its
own version
of civil war and pogroms.
Perhaps he realized
that the United States is not exceptional but, unfortunately, rather
like every other country around the world.
 |
Polish victims of a pogrom.
|
As a Polish immigrant from Galicia, Marek was already familiar
with another form of racism, antisemitism. Two years before Marek
immigrated to the United States, antisemitic literature circulated
widely in Galicia. A former priest, Stanisław Stojałowski, who was
attempting to create a peasant movement in Galicia, used antisemitic
slogans as political propaganda. Antisemitism soon became a staple of
European political campaigns. This led to the outbreak of violent
incidents – pogroms - against Jews in western Galicia, during which
people were injured and massive damage was inflicted on Jewish
property.
 |
Chicago rioters celebrating the destruction and looting of an African American's home.
|
Many Polish immigrants fled their homeland due to these pogroms
and worsening socioeconomic conditions. Most Polish immigrants in
Chicago viewed the Chicago race riots within the context of their
experiences in Galicia. They viewed the race riots as pogroms.
They were not something to celebrate!
 |
Ragen's Colts (Irish Gang)
|
Polish immigrants had a negative opinion of pogroms and did not want
to participate in the race riots. And, because they were immigrant
Catholics, obviously the Klan was not about to recruit them into the
racial violence. However, there was another group that played a
central role in violent attacks on African Americans in Chicago - Ragen's Colts.
Three years after the riots, a grand jury was convened. That grand
jury found that an Irish gang, Ragen's Colts, played a central role
in attempting to extend the bloodshed. Because Ragen's Colts were
Catholic, this gang did not join in with members of the Klu Klux Klan
instead they organized their own violent attacks. Ragen’s
Colts described themselves as an “athletic” club but they
actually were the
Irish Mafia which engaged in
violent, criminal activities.
According
to the grand jury, members
of Ragen's
Colts disguised themselves
in blackface and set
fire to homes in the
Lithuanian and
Polish immigrant
neighborhoods. Fortunately,
Marek’s home was not burned but
Polish immigrant homes near
the Stockyards were.
Why would the
Irish set fire to fellow,
mostly Catholic, immigrants’
homes? Their hope was to draw the Polish
immigrants into their
bloody attacks against
African Americans.
Ragen’s Colts committed arson in an attempt to overcome the lack
of interest in rioting among Polish immigrants and force them
to participate in the brutalization of African Americans. The Irish
knew they had many interests in common with Polish
immigrants. Both groups were mostly Catholic, lived in substandard
housing and earned low wages in dangerous jobs.
Yet, in one of the most bizarre examples of racial intolerance,
the Irish gangs chose to use arson and then blame African Americans in an
attempt to create unity among the European
immigrants as Whites.
But, even after Ragen's Colts' blackface arson attacks, Polish immigrants did NOT join in rioting with the Irish. Why not?
 |
Premier scholarship on the Polish in Chicago.
|
Unlike the Irish, Polish immigrants, like Marek, didn’t
identify nor act as Whites.
Many Poles believed that the riot was a conflict between two groups
of people with Poles abstaining because they belonged to
neither group. They were Polski
-Polish.
The Poles worked
in factories and stockyards with immigrants from all over the world
as well as African Americans, but they lived in communities that were
reincarnations of their villages in Poland. In fact, for his
entire life in Chicago, Marek never left a 10 block area.
Everything his family needed - work, church, school
and shopping - was in his Polish community - Kazimierzowo.
 |
| Polish Community in Chicago |
This view is not surprising due to the poor conditions in Poland from which they fled. Again, they were already familiar with pogroms and maintained their Polish wariness of any type of pogrom.
It wasn’t until the 1930s that they transitioned from Polski to Polish Americans.
Even Marek’s granddaughter, my mother, maintained her Polish identity throughout her life and had a great interest in political events in Poland. THE $10,000 question: Did
Marek participate in the
riots? While
it is historically
and geographically
possible that
Marek
could have
participated in
the
violent and random attacks of African Americans during
the 1919 Chicago Race Riots,
however,
based upon my
research, I think it is
extremely
unlikely that he did.
He
had no NEED
to assert himself through violence. Marek
may (or
may not)
have
been one of those immigrants
who
was outraged about
African American migrants from the south.
But, he needed to
support his wife and 5 children. Marek needed his job, more than anything. Engaging
in violence would not
meet his need for employment. In fact, violence was not going to be
of any help. Beating
people and destroying property is not only wrong, it would do nothing
to better his family’s situation. Marek (and everyone else!) would
gain nothing
by engaging in violence. I
think it
is highly unlikely he would
have
felt
the need to participate
in the riots.
Secondly,
Marek did not share the
NARRATIVE
of the rioters. He experienced
antisemitism and pogroms in Poland
which were fueled by fear and hatred. The
narrative Polish immigrants were familiar with was the
pogrom violence in Poland's
Galicia province. Tens of thousands of Jews were killed between 1918 and
1920. The
race riots looked just like those pogroms, only the targets in the United States were African Americans.
Polish immigrants viewed African Americans as unfortunate victims of hate. Marek's,
and other Polish immigrants' narrative was to avoid pogroms/race riots either as a target or as a participant.
Finally,
Marek did not share a NETWORK
with the rioters. Ragen’s Colts were a “network,” a gang that shared a need – to assert power - and a narrative –
“whites are better than blacks” - which led them to commit
violence. It is documented
that Polish immigrants choose
NOT to
participate in the rioting
even after Polish
homes were destroyed by
Ragen’s Colts.
Polish immigrants in 1919
identified as Polski
not as “white.”
Marek was
Polski.
Marek’s
network was his family, work, and the Polski community.
In conclusion, there
really is no logical reason why Marek
would
have participated in the 1919 Chicago Race Riots. He
had no need, narrative nor network that would have motivated him to
participate.
WHY DO RACE RIOTS HAPPEN?
After the race riots, people
tried to make sense of what happened and why.
A
commission, established by the Governor
of Illinois,
released a report three years after
the riots: The
Negro In Chicago: A Study on Race Relations and a Race Riot.
The commission members, six black men, six white men, looked at the
root causes behind the riot and concluded, as would the Kerner Commission Report 50 years later, that racial inequality was a
major reason for the violence. Unfortunately, whether because of racism or fear, government
and business leaders choose segregation to address the racial
inequality identified by the commission. That is the choice that we
have dealt with and continue to deal with today.
The legacy of the 1919 Chicago Race Riot left physical scars on the
city and its citizens. The city became officially segregated. Six
years after the riots, housing was “red lined” and restrictive
covenants created residential segregation.
Then 40 years later Interstate highways were built through Black
neighborhoods, destroying them. This happened in cities all across
our nation, including Jacksonville.
What was the aftermath like for Marek and his family? Sadly, Marek would be dead within 2 years of the race riots. Immediately after the riots, Marek continued to work as a molder at International Harvester. In 1920, Marek and Anna welcomed their 6th child, a daughter. The next year, at age 40, Marek died from pulmonary Tuberculosis. His wife, Anna, was left a widow with 6 children. She then married a fellow Polski from Galicia, Josef Persak, and they had a daughter. In 1930, there were 10 people, including my newlywed grandparents, living in Anna’s flat in the same neighborhood - Kazimierzowo. In 1941, Marek’s wife, Anna, died at age 56 from untreated high blood pressure.
 |
My Grandparents: Ruth and Joseph Niemiec - Marek and Anna's son.
|
Marek’s son, Joseph, attended school through the 8th Grade and then began working in the Stockyards. Eventually, Joseph became a foreman in a glue factory. Since Joseph was considered “white,” he was able to move to Austin, a middle-class neighborhood on the west side of Chicago and purchase a detached, single-family home.
 |
Marek's Granddaughter, Naomi - my mother.
|
There his daughter, Naomi - my mother, was raised in a 99.9% White neighborhood. She eventually married and moved across the state to Moline, Illinois.
 |
Aftermath of 1968 Chicago Riots
|
Almost 50 years after the 1919 Race Riots, Marek’s granddaughter would return to his neighborhood. It was after the 1968 Chicago Riots, when Naomi and her cousin drove across the state to attend their grandmother's funeral in Chicago. I remember my mother telling me about their experience driving through Marek’s devastated neighborhood. She described people looking directly into the car at her and her cousin as they drove down the streets, “There was hate in their eyes. My cousin was afraid but I understood why they looked at us like that. They did not see me, a working mother of six, on her way to her grandmother’s funeral. They only saw me as a “white.” I felt very sad.”
I am
sure the last thing Marek expected to experience in the United States
were pogroms but he did. We
think these things can't happen again
- especially in the United States!
We think of the past as
gone or
being somewhere else,
but at this moment in
this place, the race
riots are with us still. We're still struggling with how to get along
with each other. And,
just like Marek, we have
the freedom to choose what sort of person we will be in any given moment.
In every
situation we have a choice. Even
amid dark, dangerous events, how
we choose to react to the situation is totally up to us. It
is important
to learn why
and how, not
just our ancestors, but all people
acted during times of crisis.
This knowledge,
in turn, can help us to
respond to whatever events we experience.
Learning our history, recording it, and preserving it benefits
not only our related family, but the entire human family. It
is the story of who we are, where we come from, and can potentially
reveal where we are headed.
