Knoxville’s Red Summer: The Riot of 1919 is a documentary film which premiered on US television (PBS) in 2019.
It is an episode of a series called Black in Appalachia.
This violent confrontation between blacks and whites was one of more than 25 similar episodes which happened in towns and cities across the United States during that year. They are often referred to as the Red Summer of 1919 because of the blood that was spilled during racial conflicts.
The term “The Red Summer of 1919” was coined by civil rights activist James Weldon Jackson (1871-1938) who was the executive secretary of the NAACP for ten years (1920-1930).
Here is some basic information about this film:
** Director: C. Lee Smith
** Production: East Tennessee PBS
** Available on the PBS website
** Language: English
** Subtitles: not available!
** Run time: 27 minutes
Three persons are interviewed in the film. Here are the names of the participants:
** Robert J. Booker – author and researcher
** W. Fitzhugh Brundage – Professor of History - University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
** Matthew “Matt” Lakin – journalist – Knoxville News Sentinel
The violent confrontations which happened in 25 towns and cities across the United States in 1919 were not organized; they were not coordinated.
Each episode had a specific trigger which started the violent confrontation. But once they had started, they were similar in many ways. There was a pattern.
(1) Some white people are outraged, because a black person has allegedly committed an offense against white people. It does not matter much if the charge is true or not.
(2) A white mob is formed. The white mob begins to attack a black neighborhood and blames black people for what is happening.
(3) In many cases, some of the blacks are veterans from World War One who know how to fight. They do not back down. They do not surrender. They fight back. The violence escalates and blacks are blamed for this.
(4) Law enforcement (state troops) are often called in to restore peace and order. Law enforcement sides with the white mob and often causes more death and destruction.
(5) When peace is finally restored, African Americas are often blamed for what happened. White people are usually not charged with any crimes. If they are, they are usually found not guilty.
What was the trigger in Knoxville?
How did the confrontation start?
During the night of 30 August 1919, a white woman was killed by an intruder who shot her with a gun. Her name was Bertie Lindsay. She was 27 years old. A witness Ora Smyth (who was Bertie’s cousin) says she saw the perpetrator.
The police had a suspect: Maurice Mays, a biracial man, a mulatto, who was regarded as a black man. The witness Ora Smyth identified Maurice Mays as the perpetrator. He was arrested and charged with murder.
As the word was spreading through the town, a white mob was formed. The white people wanted to take justice into their own hands and kill the suspect. A lynching was being prepared.
The sheriff at the jail where Maurice Mays was held knew that something drastic might happen. He decided to move the prisoner first to another jail and then to another town.
When the mob arrived at the prison, they could not find Maurice Mays, because he was not there anymore. Furious that they could not do what they wanted, the mob ransacked the place and drank the alcohol that had been confiscated and which was stored in the basement. Having done that, they left the place.
From the prison, they walked towards the black neighborhood where they attacked any black person they came across and destroyed as much property as possible.
The Tennessee National Guard was called in to restore peace and order. At one point, members of the TNG used two machine guns to fire at the black neighborhood.
The number of deaths is not certain. The official number of deaths is two. An unofficial estimate says the number is likely to be around 30.
What about Maurice Mays? What happened to him? He escaped the lynching party which came to the prison to kill him, but the charge against him was not forgotten.
In 1919, he was tried in a court of law in 1919. He claimed he was innocent. The evidence against him was dubious. The eyewitness identification was not reliable. But this did not help him.
A white woman stated that she had been attacked by a black man in a similar way after Maurice Mays had been arrested. Her testimony seemed to support Mays’ claim of innocence. But the judge did not allow her to testify.
The jury deliberated for less than one hour and declared him guilty. He was sentenced to die. But because of a technical error the verdict was not allowed to stand.
In 1921, he was tried again. This time, the verdict was the same as the first time. He was sentenced to die and this time the verdict was allowed to stand.
On 15 march 1922, the death sentence was carried out. He was killed in an electric chair. He was 35 years old.
One hundred years later, the case is still being discussed. The 1919 murder of Bertie Lindsay which triggered the Race Riot in Knoxville. The arrest and subsequent trial of Maurice Mays followed by the execution in 1922.
Was he guilty or innocent?
Was he a victim of a wrongful conviction?
These basic questions are discussed in this film about Knoxville’s Red Summer of 1919.
Looking back at the case, the answer seems to be obvious, but the official verdict of 1921 still stands.
The story deserves to be told, and in this film, it is done very well. If you are interested in the history of the United States – in particular the question of human rights – this film is definitely something for you.
It is highly recommended.
REFERENCES
# 1. Books
From Race Riot to Sit-In, 1919 and the 1960s: A Study in the Connections between Conflict and Violence by Arthur I. Waskow (1967)
Encyclopedia of American Race Riots edited by Walter C. Rucker and James N. Upton (2 volumes, 930 pages) (2007)
On the Laps of Gods: The Red Summer of 1919 and the Struggle for Justice that Remade a Nation by Robert Whitaker (2009)
Anatomy of Four Race Riots: Racial Conflict in Knoxville, Elaine (Arkansas), Tulsa, and Chicago, 1919-1921 by Lee E. Williams and Lee E. Williams II (2010)
Red Summer: The Summer of 1919 and the Awakening of Black America by Cameron McWhirter (2011)
Civilizing Torture: An American Tradition by William Fitzhugh Brundage (2018) (2020)
# 2. Items available on the internet
Matthew “Matt” Lakin,
“Maurice Franklin Mays:
Died claiming innocence but conviction stands,”
Knox News Sentinel,
26 February 2012
Angela Dennis,
“Maurice Mays and the Knoxville Race Riots:
A Tragedy Forgotten,”
Medium,
2 February 2019
Christina Maxouris,
“100 years ago, white mobs across the country attacked black people. And they fought back,”
CNN News,
27 July 2019
Larry Van Guilder,
“A brutal crime and a questionable conviction,”
Knox TN Today,
24 December 2019
Shelby Davidson (writer) and Nancy Locklin (editor)
Part one = Bertie Lindsay, Maurice Mays, and the events leading up to the Knoxville Race Riot of 1919
Part two = The Race Riot and the unjust execution of Maurice Mays
The Night Marauder Project,
15 October 2021
# 3. Film and video
Red Chicago
PBS, 27 minutes
16 March 2020
The Red Summer of 1919:
Crash Course Black American History # 25
Available on YouTube
Run time: 13 minutes
13 November 2021
*****
Maurice Mays
Executed in 1922
*****
Anatomy of Four Race Riots:
Racial Conflict in Knoxville,
Elaine (Arkansas), Tulsa,and Chicago, 1919-1921
By Lee E. Williams and Lee E. Williams II
(2010)
*****
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