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From: Dick Bolt <>
Subject: [MAWORCES] Spfld Riot of 1908 ?--From E-bay
Date: Tue, 30 Oct 2001 13:31:30 -0500

Is there anything else we should know ? First I had heard of it I think
! Its from an E-bay item. Dick

During the miserably hot summer
of 1908, the racial tension heightened. On the night of Independence
Day, 1908, Clergy Ballard, a respectable mining engineer, had his home
broken into. He was awakened from his sleep by some unfamiliar noises in
his home. When investigating, he saw a stranger at the bedside of
his young innocent daughter. The intruder, upon discovery ran out of the
house. Ballard gave chase and caught the assailant who,
unfortunately for Ballard, had a straight razor and slashed Ballard's
throat. Clergy Ballard died the next morning from wounds received that
horrible night. The people of Springfield were led by the press to
believe that the crime was a thwarted sexual assault attempt. The public
was
outraged by the ugliness of the crime. Before Clergy Ballard died he
managed to identify the assailant as a Joe James, a local black man with

a long police record of minor criminal offenses. He was later caught by
a band of angry whites and beaten unconscious. The police rescued
James from the crowd and carted him off to jail for murder and attempted
rape. One month later, on August 14, unsuspecting readers of the
Illinois State Journal opened their eyes to a shocking headline
screaming, "DRAGGED FROM HER BED AND OUTRAGED BY
NEGRO." The readers were again faced with the story of a "heinous crime"
that had been committed the night before. Mabel Hallam, the
twenty-one year old wife of a respectable city street car conductor, was
allegedly snatched from her peaceful sleep and sexually assaulted by
a black fiend. The outraged Hallam identified her attacker as George
Richardson, a caretaker who worked odd jobs in the her neighborhood.
By Friday, August 14, two blacks sat in jail, Joe James and George
Richardson both accused and assumed to have raped white women. The
local newspaper continued practicing "yellow journalism" stirring up the
people of Springfield against the black community. The townspeople
outraged by the two horrible and vicious crimes on respectable white
women gathered at the southwest corner of Seventh and Jefferson.
There the Sangamon County Jail housed the two hated individuals, James
and Richardson. As the temperature soared into the high nineties,
the mood of the crowd became more hostile. Obviously becoming intent on
some kind of vigilante justice, the crowd demanded the release of
the two alleged offenders. Sheriff Charles Werner, seeing that the crowd
was getting out of hand and fearing the safety of his prisoners,
devised a plan to transport the two to safety. A false fire alarm was
sounded to divert the crowd's attention while the prisoners were
escorted
out the back of the jail to a car owned by a local restaurateur, Harry
Loper. By 5 o'clock the two prisoners were on the train to safety in
Bloomington, a town sixty miles north of Springfield. Then the sheriff
announced that the crowd might as well disperse because the men that
they wanted were no longer in the jail. This apparently enraged the
crowd and that's where the violent trouble began. Under the leadership
of
a few inspiring individuals like Kate Howard, a local rooming house
owner who was notorious for her hatred of blacks, the crowd moved
from the county jail down to Harry Loper's restaurant when it learned
that his car was used in the escape plot. The crowd stalled at the sight

of Harry Loper standing in the doorway with his rifle, but after he left
by the back door the mob preceded to trash and destroy his stylish
restaurant. They consumed the liquor, broke plate glassed windows,
demolished the interior, and torched his five thousand dollar
automobile.
The local authorities attempted to control the crowd, but were
overwhelmed and outnumbered. Mayor Roy Reece of Springfield was forced
into hiding by threats from the angry crowd. Fortunately for
Springfield, Governor Charles Deneen was in town and promptly activated
the
State militia. The crowd, however, was still on the move. Urged on by
shouts of "Women desire protection and this seems the only way to
get it" the mob's intent had changed from the original purpose of
seeking their own form of justice to clearing the entire town of blacks.
Now
the crowd headed toward the black commercial section of the city called
the Levee where they broke into Fishman's pawn shop, a Jewish
owned business, and stole weapons that would in the near future destroy
many businesses, homes, and dreams. The mob now possessing
guns, ammunition, and ropes, moved through the Levee, destroying all
black businesses that were in sight. The violent crowd destroyed two
or three blocks of the Levee. After having laid waste to a number of
Negro established businesses in Springfield the mob then moved north
heading toward the black residential section known as the Badlands. On
the way, however, a section of the angry crowd encountered the
first resistance when they confronted a black barber named Scott Burton.
When he saw the mob approach, Burton decided to protect his
property and stood in the doorway with a shotgun. The mob wanted to
destroy the barber shop because it was owned by a black man and
because he had a white wife, but they did not want to get killed
themselves. Out of fear Burton fired a blast of buckshot into the crowd.
The
crowd returned the fire and Burton was killed. His barber shop was
burned and his body was paraded from his porch to a place several
blocks away where it was hanged from a tree outside a saloon. Burton's
corpse became the symbol of the mob's hatred of blacks and was
riddled by bullets until the militia came and put a stop to that action.
But then the mob then moved on to the black residential area of
Springfield. Rioters set fire to the houses of blacks avoiding only the
homes with white handkerchiefs tied outside which signified they were
homes owned or inhabited by whites. When firemen arrived, the crowd
hindered their progress and even cut their hoses. It was estimated
that a crowd of nearly 12,000 people had gathered to watch the Badlands
burn. Black families were forced to run to surrounding towns or
find refuge within the hostile city. Some blacks found safety with white
people they knew, others went to the State Armory, and still others
tried just to get out of town. Those that went to surrounding towns were
met by signs that read, "All N#####s are warned out of town by
Monday, 12 Sharp!". By midnight some national guard units arrived and
dispersed the mob and the violence ended for Friday night. On
Saturday there was a troubled sort of peace, but at the same time mass
migrations of people out of and into of the city was taking place.
Fleeing out of Springfield were an estimated two or three thousand Negro
residents. A fair number never did return. Those who fled went on
foot, on horse back, by truck, and or by train. Some blacks found
sanctuary at Camp Lincoln and the State Arsenal. The State Arsenal was
the State headquarters of the National Guard and this was where a good
number of soldiers were stationed. In addition to that mass exodus
of people out of town there were two distinct groups coming into
Springfield. Curiosity seekers and tourists arrived because many of the
state's newspapers carried the news of the race riots in headline
fashion. The other group consisted of some five thousand troops of the
Illinois National Guard who were brought here from various communities
throughout the state and were eventually able to restore order in the
Capitol. They were stationed around Springfield and headquartered at the
State Arsenal. It was amazing that they were able to get organized
and began to control the crowd as fast as they did late Friday and early
Saturday. However, the peace ended on Saturday evening. A mob
gathered once again at the Old Court House Building and then began to
move in the direction of the State Arsenal Building. A small group
attempted to enter the State Arsenal where displaced blacks were being
housed. The group was stopped by a militia guard, but the mob
merely changed direction and proceeded to march across the capitol
grounds and headed for the home of William Donnegan. He was an
elderly long time resident of Springfield. Donnegan was eighty-four
years old and a cobbler by trade; a respected resident of the community
who owned his own home outside the Badlands and also owned some adjacent
properties which were occupied by members of his family.
He was known to be a friend and the cobbler of Abraham Lincoln. Donnegan
made a small fortune bringing southern blacks to Springfield to
find jobs. He had never been accused of a crime. He had however, broken
the unwritten mores of being married to a white woman for the
last thirty-two years. The mob approached Donnegan's home. When he came
out to find what they were up to, they grabbed him, cut his
throat, dragged his body across the street, and lynched him in the
Edwards School yard. He was still alive when the national guard cut him
down, but he died early the next morning. This lynching was the last mob
action of the riot. By Sunday morning, much of Springfield laid in
ruins. On Sunday more national guard troops arrived and in general the
day was peaceful. The official death total was reported to be seven,
two blacks and five accidental whites. It was rumored that there many
more deaths as a result of the riot. Property damage was in excess of
$200,000. Forty homes were destroyed and others were damaged while
twenty-four businesses were forced to close their doors either
temporarily or permanently. Immediately after the riot, city officials
expressed deep regret for the mob's actions and called for swift
justice.
The call for justice was left unanswered as the 107 indictments returned
by the special grand jury granted only one conviction and that was
for someone who stole a saber from one of guards. The murderers of Scott
Burton and William Donnegan were left unpunished as were the
arsonists who set fire to the homes in the Badlands. Kate Howard, one of
the ringleaders of the mob, decided to commit suicide rather to
face charges. Mabel Hallam later told the authorities she made up the
story about being raped in order to cover up an affair she was having.
George Richardson was therefore released from jail, but Joe James was
tried and convicted of the murder of Clergy Ballard. The Springfield
Race Riot of 1908 was sparked by Mabel Hallam's false accusation and
fueled by economic and racial tensions already brewing in the black
and white communities. This riot also marked the last conflict between
the races when the black people did not rise up as a group to defend
themselves. As a possible result of the riots in the Great Emancipator's
home town, an integrated group of concerned citizens gathered in the
Big Apple, New York City. This group was seeking a solution to the
growing problems between the blacks and the whites in America. How
could a city that prided itself on the home of the man who set the
slaves free also try to run blacks out of their town? If this could
happen in
Springfield, Illinois it could happen anywhere in the United States.
Something had to be done. This idea gave rise to the National
Association
for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Today as the most
influential civil rights organization, it continues to strive for the
civil
liberties of African Americans.

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• [MAWORCES] Spfld Riot of 1908 ?--From E-bay by Dick Bolt <>