WASHINGTON (WSN) – On Friday, President Joe Biden established a national monument to honor the victims of the 1908 race riot in Springfield, Illinois, which resulted in multiple deaths, hundreds of injuries, and the destruction of numerous Black-owned businesses and homes.
In August 1908, white mobs in Springfield, the capital of Illinois, attacked the Black community under the guise of seeking justice for two Black men who were imprisoned. After authorities secretly relocated the prisoners, the mob turned its fury on the city’s Black residents.
The riot contributed to the founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909.
During a ceremony in the Oval Office on Friday, attended by civil rights and community leaders from Springfield, President Biden emphasized the need to remember and learn from past injustices. “We’ve made a lot of progress but we can never stop,” he said.
Biden’s announcement comes in the context of broader efforts to “erase” parts of the nation’s history, which he argues serves as a cautionary tale about the importance of defending democracy. Recent debates have seen conservative groups pushing for bans on books addressing racial issues.
According to the White House, the new monument will highlight the horrific attack by a white mob on a Black community, reflecting the broader racism, intimidation, and violence faced by Black Americans nationwide.
The establishment of the monument follows the recent fatal shooting of Sonya Massey, a 36-year-old Black woman, by a white sheriff’s deputy in her Springfield home after she called 911. Massey’s death has reignited discussions on police brutality against Black Americans, reminiscent of the protests triggered by George Floyd’s murder in Minneapolis four years ago.
In June 2021, Biden became the first sitting president to visit the site in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where a white mob massacred hundreds of Black residents in 1921. During the same month, Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris signed a bill making June 19 a federal holiday to commemorate the emancipation of enslaved Black Americans.
