Chicago’s Second Red Summer
A 21st Century Sundown Town
In 1918, an unarmed Black teenager, visiting Chicago for the first time, took a Sunday stroll on the South Side. He walked down Wentworth Avenue, unbeknownst to him, that it was the unofficial dividing line for Black Chicago and white Chicago. He was a high school student who, in his own words, “Went out walking alone to see what the city looked like.” This imaginary line separated white, Irish Bridgeport from the rest of the Black south side.
At some point, it’s believed that he walked past the Hamburg Athletic Club, a private neighborhood club run by Chicago’s future Mayor and Patriarch, Richard J. Daley.
The Hamburg Athletic Club had a reputation, as did Bridgeport. It’s been attributed, but never proven that the club said, “[We] Didn’t allow Niggers in that neighborhood.” A group of Irish ruffians met that young Black teenager. They beat him savagely, leaving him with black eyes, a swollen jaw, and an introduction to Chicago that he would never forget.
That Black teenager was Langston Hughes, who would later become America’s most celebrated poet and a Founding Father of the Harlem Renaissance.
He would never forget his time in the City of Big Shoulders - a Sundown town where Black residents had best stay in their place and be home before it gets…
