Tuesday, August 11, 2020 at 7 pm
Claire Hartfield, Chicago lawyer and author. A Few Red Drops: The Chicago Race Riot of 1919.
On a hot day in July 1919, five black youths went swimming in Lake Michigan, unintentionally floating close to the “white” beach. An angry white man began throwing stones at the boys, striking and killing one. Racial conflict on the beach erupted into days of urban violence that shook the city of Chicago to its foundations. This mesmerizing narrative draws on contemporary accounts as it traces the roots of the explosion that had been building for decades in race relations, politics, business, and clashes of culture. A Few Red Drops was winner of the 2019 Coretta Scott King Author Book Award; an LA Times Book Award Finalist; a 2019 Illinois Reading Council Top Book; and a Chicago Public Library Best of the Best Books 2018.
