Carl Sandburg State Historic Site issued the following announcement on June 2.
In July 1919, Carl Sandburg was a Chicago Daily News reporter when the Chicago Race Riots occurred. His Chicago Race Riots articles, which included the root causes of the riots, recommendations from the NAACP to address concerns, and the perspectives of those who experienced the violence, were published in book form in 1919. Sandburg’s writings still serve as poignant lessons on social justice and caution us to remember the lessons of history:
“In the century since the riots, progress has come in fits and starts…. Human attention spans are short. Carl Sandburg, who witnessed and wrote about Chicago’s 1919 Riot, penned: ‘Sometimes I growl, shake myself and spatter a few red drops for history to remember. Then—I forget.’ As we, the people, move forward, the ghosts of the Chicago riot of 1919 and of all the other riots across the nation in that Red Summer [call] on us all to remember.”
-Claire Hatfield, A Few Red Drops, 2018.
Poem: "I Am The People, The Mob," Complete Poems, pg. 71.
Follow this link to learn more about the 1919 Chicago Race Riots and Sandburg's articles about them: https://www.nps.gov/…/learn/historyc…/chicago-race-riots.htm (pa)
Original source can be found here.
Source: Carl Sandburg State Historic Site
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