Biden Designates National Monument for 1908 Springfield Race Riot

President Joe Biden named a national monument on Friday to commemorate the 1908 race riot in Springfield, Illinois, which killed several people, injured hundreds, and destroyed dozens of Black-owned businesses and residences.

In August 1908, mobs of white inhabitants tore through Illinois’ capital city under the guise of passing judgement on two imprisoned Black men. After officials covertly relocated the convicts to another facility miles away, the mob vented its rage on the city’s Black population.

The riot inspired the establishment of the influential civil rights organisation, the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP), in 1909.
Civil rights advocates and community leaders from Springfield, the hometown of former President Abraham Lincoln, spoke at a ceremony in the Oval Office on Friday.

Biden’s Oval Office Ceremony and Its Significance

“We’ve made a lot of progress, but we can’t stop,” Biden said at the event, adding that it was vital for people to remember what had transpired.

The move came amid efforts, Biden said, to “erase” the country’s history, which serves as a lesson to Americans about the dangers “if we don’t fight for this democracy.” Conservative advocacy groups have pushed to restrict books that address race issues.

“The new national monument will tell the story of a horrific attack by a white mob on a Black community that was representative of the racism, intimidation, and violence that Black Americans experienced across the country,” according to a statement from the White House.

The incident occurred just a few weeks after Sonya Massey, a 36-year-old Black woman, was fatally shot by a white sheriff’s deputy in her Springfield home after calling 911 for assistance in July.

Massey’s death has revived the issue about police violence against Black Americans, four years after the Minneapolis police killed George Floyd, sparking racial protests.

In June 2021, Biden visited Tulsa, Oklahoma, where hundreds of Black Americans were slaughtered by a white mob in 1921. He acknowledged the ongoing legacy of racist violence and white supremacy.

In the same month, he and Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidate for the Nov. 5 election, signed a measure establishing June 19 as a federal holiday to commemorate the emancipation of Black Americans.