jan 1, 1917 - Race riot in East St. Louis, Illinois

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Racism had already turned such conflicts into violent confrontations during the war. One of the deadliest riots in American history occurred in 1917 in East St. Louis, Illinois, where rampaging whites burned more than three hundred black homes and murdered between 50 and 150 black men, women, and children (the exact death toll remains unknown). The East St. Louis riots were “a crime against the laws of humanity,” said Marcus Garvey, the influential black leader of the Universal Negro Improvement Association.

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