Armed Resistance

Shortly before midnight on July 22, 1919, James Scott, a black army veteran, boarded a streetcar at this corner and nearly lost his life. A few days earlier, a white mob, including many World War I veterans, had terrorized Southwest Washington, randomly attacking black people in retaliation for an alleged assault on a white woman. Spurred by rumors and newspaper headlines, attackers then targeted other Black neighborhoods. Unaware of this violence, Scott boarded the streetcar here and was stunned when white passengers shouted, “Lynch him!” As he tried to flee, the conductor shot at him three times. That summer, race relations were tense nationwide, with rioting in many cities. In Washington, black men who had fought bravely overseas returned to a city more segregated than the one they had left. President Woodrow Wilson’s administration had created separate facilities for black federal employees, unemployment was high, and African Americans who had been respected as soldiers came home determined to fight U.S. racism while most whites were determined to keep them “in their place.” As mobs raged, about 2,000 black Washingtonians rallied here to defend their neighborhood. Veteran sharpshooters took positions on the Howard Theatre’s roof, others patrolled Seventh Street, and clergymen urged President Wilson to protect the community. By the time U.S. troops ended the violence, seven people were dead and hundreds were injured. African Americans nonetheless took pride in the successful defense of their neighborhoods. William A. Taylor, founding pastor of the Florida Avenue Baptist Church at 633 Florida Avenue, was among those who denounced the violence.

Washington, District of Columbia · United States