I grew up in a neighborhood called Manor Park in Washington DC. It is better known as Takoma Park but Takoma Park is the adjacent neighborhood. Manor Park starts at Tuckerman and ends at Missouri going North to South and East To West, it’s between Georgia Avenue and Blair Road. Yep I had to look up the boundaries too, because when I use to work downtown, I always took the J6 Takama back home and when people asked me where I lived in DC I told them Takoma. Now there was a J2 or “J” something that said Manor Park, but they both let me off at the stop I needed to walk home to. I did ride the J2 to the end a couple of times and it always stopped and turned around at Tuckerman which I thought was some crazy shat because the J6 just went a couple blocks further before it turned around too. Anywho, I’d get off on 5th St and head home. Sometimes I would stop by Doc’s. Doc’s was a neighborhood candy store and well to tell you the truth a lot of the young people in our neighborhood hung out there. You might be wondering why would a bunch of young people hang out in a candy store? Well back in those days there wasn’t many other places to hang out at. Doc’s had candy, pinball machines and girls.. everything a young black man needed back in those days. When I say young black man, I’m talking between 16 years of age and 20 years of age. The men who were older hung out at the park smoking that shat and drinking… while the still older men hung out at the barbershop talking about us and those potheads at the park. Anywho it was a quintessential black neighborhood. On that same street was a family restaurant, florist, dry cleaners, funeral home and a hat shop. There were a couple of other places that opened and closed through the years, but the aforementioned businesses were the anchors of the neighborhood. These business owners lived in the neighborhood and we knew them by name and grew up with their children. Now you know how I like to tell a story, so bear with me because there is a story to tell. As I said earlier we had all these neighborhood businesses, but its was one of these businesses that caught my eye recently in an article I read in “Our Black Union.” It was about Vanilla Beane. Mrs Beane owned the hat shop. She recently passed away at 103 years old. Now Mrs Beane owned a women’s hat store and while I didn’t have a need for a women’s hat… it’s like they say.. kids will be kids and growing up I had been in that store more than a few times.. just looking around because I ain’t have nothing else to do… I was only ten years old.. what do ya expect… besides that… her and Mrs Williams were friends and I’d go in there when I saw Mrs Williams and be nosey. Mrs Williams owned the cleaners and lived across the alley from me. Her son and I were good friends. I mean like me going in her house sitting around and eating dinner good friends. Anywho, I’d walk around the store pretending like I was looking at the womens hats until I would hear them stop talking and start staring at me and then I’d leave.. ” Bye Mrs Williams.. Bye Mrs Beane…” It’s been a few decades since I lived in Takoma, but I do go there to visit family and friends. I sure wish I knew Mrs Beane was still alive then. I would have dropped by to see her. She was born in 1919 and came to DC in 1942… twenty three years after one of the greatest race riots in Washington D.C history…
The Usual Suspects
Without telling my age, let it suffice to say that I was born less than 90 years after the Civil War. Mrs Beane on the other hand was born around 50 years after the Civil War, a little over two generations later… and in that time period my brothers and sisters it was a real rhythms with itch for African Americans. While most African American citizens in the United States had ropes and burning crosses as a natural part of their home landscaping, DC was just a little more fortunate. Being the city of Lincoln, a lot of blacks migrated here after the Civil War and while DC still had its fair share of racist, it wasn’t even close to being as bad as it was down South. I mean you didn’t have to worry to much about about being hung in broad daylight while racist were having a picnic under the tree you was hanging from. Well at least not at first. All of that changed on July 19, 1919. So before we get to the events of July 19th, let’s do the backdrop. A lot of successful well to do blacks lived in DC, especially in Le Droit Park area. LeDroit Park is where Howard University is. In the latter part of the 1800’s after the Civil War, LeDroit Park was a whites only area. That was until the founding of the university in 1867. Back in the day you could see the White House from where Howard was, there wasn’t all those building in the way. Well as Howard grew larger and more African Americans started to attend, there was a sense of foreboding in the white community. They feared with the influx of African Americans coming to DC, there would be a corresponding rise in crime. Yep, that’s there go to… still is.. when blacks come into the area they bring high crime and decreased property values with them… anywho… that was the horse they bet on and the local newspapers doubled down helping to inflame the situation by writing inaccurate and even fictitious stories about black crime. It got so bad that blacks were routinely attacked by white mobs roaming the streets accusing them of committing some type of crime. Now as you know, when it came to black men in 1919 there were only two types of crime they would be accused of… the common CWSO and the more serious OC. Racist PoPo: “Boy I’m arresting you for stealing a chicken in… California!” Blackman: Suh I live in Washington!! How am I going to steal a chicken in California!!” Racist PoPo: “Cause We Said So!!” So that was an example of a CWSO crime. Now if you were charged with an OC crime.. WELL HOT DIGGITY DOG!! Every racist was immediately deputized and mobilized. “OC” stood for “OFFICIAL CRIME” and back then that meant that you done gone and messed with the “Beloved Lily Of The Highest Celestial Garden, Keeper Of The Seven Golden Seals Of The Alabama Dixie and Supreme Witness Of The Mighty Oak And Silver Encrusted Noose!!”… the white woman… and that’s exactly what they said happened in Washington DC on that day.
July 19, 1919
A black man named Charles Ralls was picked up on a CWSO because they said he assaulted a white woman named Elsie Stephnick. He was later released for lack of evidence. Now Stephnick was married to a civilian who worked for the Navy. This is going to become more important as we go deeper into the story. Anywho, as I said earlier, for weeks the local newspapers had been engaging in exaggerated and false news reports about black crime. As a matter of fact at the time Ralls was being questioned, they were promoting a sensational story about a “black fiend” who was terrorizing white folks all over the city. Well after Ralls was released and Stephnick’s husband mentioned it to the good old boys at the office, Ralls became the focus of discussion at the bars and pool halls which were frequented by white servicemen. After a couple of shots and attaboys, it didn’t take long for an OC to be called and a mob of enforcers to gather. Now Ralls was from S.W, a predominantly poor black section of the city and the mob armed with bats and pipes headed toward that area. They spotted Ralls and his wife walking… surrounded them and proceeded to beat the the pickled pig feet out of both of them. Somehow they got away and ran to their home where their neighbors and friends wasn’t haven’t that shat. When they saw the mob chasing them, they let loosed the lead.. BANG!! BANG !! BANG!! The mob scattered and then fired back. The blacks locked their doors and proceeded to defend their home… BANG!! BANG!! BANG!! The mob left, attacking any blacks they came into contact with on their way outta there. The police did not interfere as they dragged people out of their cars and started beating them. They were hot diggity dog mad that black folks had stood their ground and even madder that the man they had come to get, had got them. They swore they would come back and the next time they left, the only thing they wanted to hear was “hallelujah!!” and nigra’s singing spirituals…
July 20, 1919
Now you might think that after all that bass they was putting out about how they gonna do this and that when they went back over there… well the truth of the matter is they didn’t go back over there the next night. They had barely got out of there yesterday and the only “hallelujah’s” they heard was coming from them, glad they didn’t get their azz shot off plucking around with those people up there. But later in the day, their conscious started eating at them… now back in the white zone, it looked like every black person they saw was smiling at them as if they knew the only dignity they had was shot off by some strong black men and women who dared they punk azz to come back up there chasing something else… Of course that shat wasn’t going to stand and while they didn’t go back up SW, they could get their dignity back by relieving the black folks down here of theirs… or so they thought… Spurred on by the lack of intervention by the police or military, they again began to attack any black person they saw. The first place they started was you guessed it, LeDroit Park, where Howard University was located. The Dean Of Students, Carter Woodson remembers it.. “I hid in the shadows like I was part of the sidewalk… I sure didn’t want them to find me and more importantly for my friends and family to find me in a tree without it. Another man wasn’t so lucky and they whipped that azz before shooting him to death. I took off like my name was Bennett and I ain’t in it… hoping I wouldn’t be the next example.” So these were not his exact words, he was a little bit more classy than I, but they are the gist of what he was saying. They were randomly beating and shooting people in LeDroit Park and at Howard. To make matters worse, the Washington Post.. yep that Washington Post… released a headline that read.. “Mobilization For Tonight.” It was a call for all service men to meet on Pennsylvania Ave that night at 9pm to plan the Great Whoopin!! History says that the calvary and some Marines were brought in… but it wasn’t clear if they were there to control the mob or join it.
July 21, 1919
Now with these racist starting to act a fool like they was back in Massa, Mississippi, and calling for a general azz whoopin of every negro in Washington DC… well you might think that the black population would capitulate and start singing that Dixie favorite.. “Way Back Down Upon The Swanee River…” however that ain’t what happened. Alarmed by the call to attack the black population by the Washington Post, folks.. got together and collected $14,000 to buy guns and ammunition. Yep.. if there was going to be any azz whoopin done, they was gonna have to bring some to get some. Now $14,000 in those days was worth north of $200,000 in today’s money. If you figure that DC was about 25% black at that time, then it’s not a hard stretch to believe that almost every black in LeDroit park had a gun and bullets!… and we not even talking about the guns and bullets they had in SW. So yeah everybody was armed to the teeth.. not only were they armed to the teeth, but many of them had served in WW1. They had military weapons and were trained in how to use them. Reports indicate that they begin patrolling around 7th and U Street NW, the black district at that time. They put sharpshooters on the roof of the Howard Theatre who were shooting at anything that smelled like Brylcreem and Leave It To Beaver. Others took to their cars and begin targeting racist who dared to come up in there with they shat. Police reports say a few folks shot a horse from under a cop and put a bullet through his hat knocking it off. They were patrolling 7th street and their guns were blazing non stop. Out of the five that were in the car, only one escaped alive. The rest were killed in a gunfight with the police.
July 22, 1919
The black folks back then weren’t taking no prisoners. Everybody was being ugly. Carrie Johnson, a 17 year old was shooting at racist from the window of her New York Avenue apartment. Police raided her home and she fatally shot one of them. Of course that wasn’t going to stand. When they were arrested and brought in, she had a bullet in her thigh and her father had a bullet in his shoulder. In January of 1921 a trial was held and her father was set free. Carrie was charged with manslaughter and convicted. Subsequently another judge overturned the verdict and Carrie was freed after claiming self defense. To avoid a second trial all charges were dropped and Carrie went free on June 21, 1921. After four days of rioting and not knowing how many guns them nigra’s really had, President Wilson called in 2000 troops to quell the fighting. Now I couldn’t actually find the numbers of casualties both side had, but here is what we do know. At the end of the second day of fighting, ten whites and five blacks were either killed or severely wounded. After all the fighting ended, several men were killed from gunshot wounds; nine were killed in severe street fights; and an estimated thirty or more eventually died from other wounds they received during the riot. Over one hundred and fifty men, women, and children were beaten, clubbed, and shot by both African American and white rioters. Six Metropolitan Policemen and several Marine guards were shot during these riots, with two of those shootings being fatal. As for Charles Ralls, the man who they swore was going to go on a one way trip to the upper room, well they never did go back to SW and I heard Charles and his family lived happily ever after… as long as they stayed in the house… After all.. it was still 1919.
Thanks for reading ©Hill1News
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