The Washington Riots: An N.A.A.C.P. Investigation. An Extract

Johnson, James Weldon

Published by National Association for the Advancement of Colored Peoples, New York, 1919

About this Item

First separate edition. [4]pp. Top-folded leaflet. Printed in brown on pale cream stock. Near Fine with a few soft vertical creases. A separate two-column, closely set reprinting of a lengthy excerpt from Johnson's article, based on its appearance in The Crisis, September 1919. The verso of the second panel is an application form for the membership in the NAACP, with printed date of 1919, requesting that checks be payable to Joel Elias Spingarn, acting treasurer. Quite scarce. Poet, journalist, memoirist and activist James Weldon Johnson served in several capacities with the NAACP, beginning in 1917. The year following the publication of the article, he was selected to serve as Executive Secretary. The Washington race riot of 1919 spanned five days (July 19th to the 24th), beginning with rumors of a black man's arrest for the rape of a white woman. Whites (many of whom were soldiers) rioted and attacked black D.C. residents at random. When police refused to intervene and local papers actively fanned the flames, black residents armed themselves and fought back. Johnson's article is a defense of their response, arguing "The Negroes saved themselves and saved Washington by their determination not to run, but to fight." He ends the excerpt prophetically with "As regrettable as are the Washington and the Chicago riots, I feel that they mark the turning point in the psychology of the whole nation regarding the Negro problem.".

Seller Inventory # 140946174

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Washington Riots: An N.A.A.C.P. Investigation. An Extract
• Publisher: National Association for the Advancement of Colored Peoples, New York
• Publication Date: 1919
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Fine
• Seller catalogs:
  • Politics
  • History
  • African American