Marking 100 years since the 1919 Chicago race riots, we’re part of a year-long initiative to confront the legacy of the most violent week in Chicago history. “Chicago 1919: Confronting the Race Riots” explores 100 years of racial division through panel discussions, bike tours, film screenings, poetry slams, and more. The Opening Event kicks of a year-long series of conversations on the history and legacy of the 1919 race riots.
Following a dramatic, multi-media presentation about the riots – with Jabari Chiphe playing the role of Eugene Williams – audience members will have the opportunity to join in breakout conversations about the following topics:
Housing and Color Lines, facilitated by Lee Bey, Architectural Critic, Photographer, and Writer.
Policing and Violence, facilitated by Robin Robinson, Special Advisor for Community Affairs at the Chicago Police Department and former Chicago news anchor and Michael Chuchro, Policing Historian.
Media and Race, facilitated by Chris Benson, Lawyer, Screenwriter, and Associate Professor at the Medill School of Journalism.
World War I and Chicago’s Black Soldiers, facilitated by Christopher Reed, Emeritus Professor of History at Roosevelt University.
An Artifact and Archival Show-and-Tell of the DuSable exhibit, Two Colored Women in the US Expeditionary Forces: The Story of Kathryn Johnson, led by Armand Gonzales, author, doctor, and teacher.
Young Adult book reading of ‘A Few Red Drops,’ with author Claire Hartfield.
Video Booth: Record your own Great Migration or Family Migration Story.
The afternoon will conclude with a poetry reading by acclaimed Chicago poet Eve Ewing from her new book of poems about the 1919 riots.