Negroes Didn't Set Fires, Say Their Aldermen
Jackson and Anderson of Second Ward Brand Charges as False.
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Source: Chicago Daily Tribune, 3 August 1919, pt. 1, pg. 2.
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R. R. Jackson and Louis B. Anderson, colored aldermen from the second ward, declared that the charges that the fires were set by Negroes are untrue.
"It is a crime to make such charges," said Ald. Anderson. "It only serves to stir up more riots and create race prejudice. It is preposterous to think that any colored men would go west of Halsted street without a guard of police or militia in these times. It is impossible that the fires were set by Negroes. The publication of such charges means more ill feeling, more arson, and more murder.
"Do you think a colored man would go into this district back of the yards to set fires when 7,000 colored men have refused to go to the stockyards to get paid even though their families were starving? Impossible!
"Charges Are Lies."
"I was stopped twice in broad daylight by troops on a trip to the yards on Friday," said Ald. Jackson. "It would have been impossible for Negroes to get through the police and militia to set these fires. The charges are lies."
Assistant Corporation Counsel Edward Wright, colored, denied the possibility of the fires having been set by Negroes.
"I talked to the chief," he said, "and was told the only evidence that Negroes started the fire is that one man says he saw Negroes fleeing in an automobile at 8 o'clock in the morning. I don't see how he could have seen them at that hour."
Means Stockyards Ban.
Thomas A. Doyle, former alderman from the Fifth ward, which, with the Twenty-ninth ward, suffered in the fires, declared that these fires will mean no colored persons will be admitted to the stockyards. Ald. William R. O'Toole, representative of the Twentieth ward, who was born in the district where the fires raged, agreed with him.
"This settles it," said Ald. O'Toole. "They will not dare let Negroes back in the yards again. Whites of every nationality employed in the yards will combine against the colored man and he will need a company of soldiers near him to get anywhere near the stockyards."
[End of news article]
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Page compiled: 5 November 2001
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