Event Name: | Dublin, Georgia riot of 1919 |
Image Alt: | B&W newspaper |
Date: | July 1919 |
The Dublin, Georgia riot of 1919 were a series of violent racial riots between white and black residents of Dublin, Georgia.
During a race riot local African-American, Rob Ashely, was accused in the murder of a white man and wounding another man on July 6, 1919. While in jail the local white community threatened to storm the jail and lynch Ashely. They were thwarted by an armed black community group that was formed to protect the jail and prevent a lynching. Later a company of eighty home guards prevented further trouble, but for weeks the situation was tense.
See main article: Red Summer. This uprising was one of several incidents of civil unrest that began in the so-called American Red Summer, of 1919. The Summer consisted of terrorist attacks on black communities, and white oppression in over three dozen cities and counties. In most cases, white mobs attacked African American neighborhoods. In some cases, black community groups resisted the attacks, especially in Chicago and Washington, D.C. Most deaths occurred in rural areas during events like the Elaine Massacre in Arkansas, where an estimated 100 to 240 black people and 5 white people were killed. Also occurring in 1919 were the Chicago Race Riot and Washington D.C. race riot which killed 38 and 39 people respectively, and with both having many more non-fatal injuries and extensive property damage reaching up into the millions of dollars.
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