Race Riots & Resistance: The Red Summer of 1919

This summer of white racial violence against African American communities set the country aflame but is still discussed only in whispers, if it is discussed at all. Eventually patterns of behavior emerged as the summer of 1919 went on and on, and those patterns contradict much of what we assume about motivations and actions. Voogd is head of library collection management at Harvard College and has an archivist's sense of what is significant. Her research is meticulous, detailing the context of the summer of 1919 and explaining the riots as a response to racial caste ruptures, the result of labor conflicts, involved with military as agents or targets, or the consequence of local politics. She shares the many views of the race riots and details how seeking to correct the conditions leading to them as a major milepost in the civil rights movement. Annotation c2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)