In retaliation, a group of white men threw stones at Williams until he drowned. 100-year-old Timuel Black Jr. is a historian, educator and activist who has lived most of his long life in Chicago. Performance Honoring Eugene Williams At Bronzeville Beach Will ‘Reclaim A Site Of Violence’ On Race Riot’s Centennial. The Chicago race riot began at the 29th Street Beach after the drowning of Eugene Williams, a Black teenager who had crossed an invisible line … Eugene Williams slipped off his raft and drowned. The 1919 Chicago race riot began with the killing of 17-year-old Eugene Williams, which sparked racist violence that left 38 people dead. For one thing, the city's demographics were changing very quickly. About 100 people will float in Lake Michigan at Burroughs Beach Saturday where Williams was killed for crossing invisible racial boundaries 100 years ago. The true horrors of the 1919 riots began to emerge the day after the raucous scene following Williams’ death at the beach, just as many unsuspecting black … The Chicago Race Riot began at the 29th Street Beach, after the drowning death of Eugene Williams, an African-American teenager who had crossed … The trigger for the riot was the drowning of Eugene Williams at the 298th street beach on a sweltering July afternoon. It also consists of the coroner's inquest files for those killed in the riot. The racial violence in Chicago began on Sunday, July 27, 1919, one of the hottest days in that city’s history. The murder, and the subsequent refusal by the police to arrest the the person initially responsible ignited a race riot that would go down in history as one of the country’s bloodiest, and least-known, to date. The Chicago Race Riot of 1919. Note: Following the race riot, Governor Frank Lowden created the Chicago Commission on Race Relations to investigate the causes of the riot. Williams was a Black teenager whose death sparked the 1919 race riots. Only the inquisition for the first person killed, Eugene Williams, is included here. Williams was swimming in Lake Michigan and crossed the unofficial racial barrier that separated the black and white beachgoers. In collaboration with Chicago sound artist AJ McClenon, the piece is a tribute to Eugene Williams, a 17-year-old black boy who drowned at the same beach on July 27, 1919 after a white man hurled stones at him. In Chicago, Eugene Williams' death was what sparked the city's riots, but kindling for that fire had been building for at least a few years. Williams’s death catalyzed the 1919 Race Riot in Chicago. Outraged by the lack of police action, angry African Americans rioted and erupted into violence, which lasted until August 2. 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