Marchers call for reparations for the 1917 massacre of Black people in East St. Louis
It’s the day before the Fourth of July, and Matt Hawkins says he should be celebrating on this hot, clear Saturday.
Instead, the long-time East St. Louis activist is at City Hall, marching to remember those killed more than 100 years ago in the 1917 East St. Louis massacre and calling for reparations for those still living in the city.
“Nobody’s trying to get anything extra. I believe reparations are about healing,” Hawkins said. “I’m not angry. I’m just saying, my God, how can we do this?
“We want peace. We want partnership. We just don’t have the money.”
Commonly known as the East St. Louis race riots, the attacks on Black people in May and July 1917 were carried out by angry white mobs upset about companies using Black workers as strikebreakers. At the time, East St. Louis was mostly white, but a Black community had lived in the city for decades.
According to the official count, 39 Black people and eight white people were killed in the July 2 attacks. The NAACP estimated that the number of deaths of Black people was 100 to 200; the day following the attack, the Belleville News-Democrat reported “at least 100” Black people had died.
By destroying Black homes and businesses, the white mob also did hundreds of thousands of dollars in property damage.
“That’s generational wealth lost,” said J.D. Dixon, one of the organizers of the inaugural rally for reparations, as well as a founder of Empire 13 and former write-in candidate for mayor of Belleville.
Those Black family homes and businesses couldn’t be passed down to the next generation; survivors had to start over, many across the Mississippi River in St. Louis, where they fled the violence.
Dixon is working to gain more signatories on a petition calling for a “complete system of reparations” in East St. Louis, that he plans to send on to U.S. Sens. Tammy Duckworth and Dick Durbin and Gov. J.B. Pritzker.
“We don’t just want money,” he said. “We need infrastructure.”
Marching for the lives lost in the 1917 attacks
Around 30 protesters took to the streets on Saturday, flanked at the front and back by drivers to help control the flow of traffic. Passing drivers, including a Metro bus driver, mostly honked in support while the crowd made its way down Broadway Avenue, looping through downtown East St. Louis and returning to City Hall by means of Collinsville Avenue.
In between chants, singing and dancing, Lorenzo Savage, co-founder of I Am EStL, the magazine, stopped the crowd twice for meditative moments.
The first meditative moment, just a quarter-mile from City Hall, was at one of the 24 marked Sacred Sites in the city, commemorating the lives and property lost in 1917 — in this case, the Broadway Opera House that used to stand at 700 E. Broadway Ave.
According to the plaque, it was rumored that Black people were burned to death inside. No remains were identified in the ashes.
The second stop was at the Majestic Theater on Collinsville Avenue. The theater was built in 1928, more than a decade after the massacre, and closed in 1960. In 1985, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
“We have a right to be repaired as a people and brought into the bosom of America,” Savage said in a speech to the crowd.
Petitioning for reparations
Reparations aren’t just about money, activists at the rally on Saturday said. It’s about getting credit and compensation for the work Black people contributed to American agriculture, infrastructure and culture, Barry Saxton, another protester, said.
While Dixon’s petition includes direct deposit installments he likened to the stimulus checks sent out during the COVID-19 pandemic, most of the points he outlined tied money to homes and businesses:
Creation of 100% forgivable business loans for the Black community to address the loss of revenue from the 1917 race massacre
Creation of new building grants for new businesses and homes
Creation of new home loans with zero money down
Implementation of 20 years of direct deposit installments of $5,000 to all residents of East St. Louis and the surrounding Black communities that have been affected by the 1917 massacre
New legislation to protect the Black community from violence and discrimination
Restoration of felons’ rights.
Cindy McMullan, a volunteer lead with Moms Demand Action from Columbia, Illinois, said her organization was marching in East St. Louis because reparations could help stem the gun violence her group focuses on.
“The environment people live in — having access to healthcare, good schools, good roads, internet — that gives people hope,” she said.
In Evanston, a suburb of Chicago that’s two-thirds white, reparations in Illinois are already starting, albeit at the municipal level, as opposed to the state or federal level Dixon is petitioning for.
While the reparations plan in Evanston made some attendees, including Dixon, hopeful, Saxton said he was torn. On the one hand, there’s a sign of progress, or at least recognition; on the other hand, he said the last few years have shown how racist many Americans still are.
East St. Louis Mayor Robert Eastern III was pulling double-duty on Saturday, supporting the rally for reparations outside of City Hall, and an event for young girls inside the building.
“It’s about them. They’re the generation we have to pass stuff down to,” he said, noting that it’s been a long time since he’s seen this sort of energy from citizens. “There’s a change people are noticing in East St. Louis.”
This story was originally published July 3, 2021 at 7:48 PM.