The 1919 Washington race riot brought to the fore the desperation of the black masses and the Negro aristocracy's increasing cynicism about the prospects for racial progress. Sparked by salacious press reports of black male sexual assaults (Kerlin 76-79), the riot was begun at Seventh Street and Pennsylvania Avenue by several hundred white ex-servicemen who, joined by more than a thousand white civilians, "proceeded to take over the city from the Capitol to the White House" (L. Williams 26).

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The Washington DC Race Riot of 1919 [html]