Riots then and riots now

[maharba]

Two score and five years after the Emancipation Proclamation freed the slaves, there had not been a race riot anywhere in the North.
Yet, perhaps many whites in Springfield believed that the cause of racial equality should not be so nobly advanced. While the Blacks there in Springfield may have felt that, after all, perhaps their fathers had yet died in vain. For in 1908 broke out the very first race riot in the North, and Springfield Illinois engaged in a great civil disturbance, testing whether Lincoln's hometown remained dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. It was a terrible and bloody event, and sadly set the tone for future race riots and outrages perpetrated on black folks. Perhaps the only good thing to come out of it was that because of the racial intolerance and mayhem in Springfield Illinois, black activists did take increased devotion to that cause for which their fallen Illinois brothers gave the last full measure of devotion. And one year later they formed the NAACP.