Mob action in planned attacks was more daring, but not more dangerous. Robbery was occasionally an accompaniment of spontaneous attack, but arson never. Whether or not some of the organized raids could readily have been stopped by the police, and the mobs dispersed, remains unproved. No attempt was made either in the "Loop" district, in the Forty-seventh and Wells streets districts or in the Sixty-ninth and Elizabeth streets district to check the depredations.
Rumor.—Rumor was often the first step in crowd formation and often opened the way for the sharp transformation of a crowd into a mob. The circulation of rumors was partly due to natural repetition, often with increasing embellishment, by one person to another of what he had heard or read. The desire to tell a "big story" and create a sensation was no doubt an important factor. With so much bitter feeling there was also considerable conscious effort to provoke vengeful animosity by telling the worst that the teller had heard or could imagine about the doings of the opposite race. The latter type of rumor circulation especially fed the riot from the beginning to the final clash. It continues to be a constant menace to the friendly relations of the races.
Newspapers were often supplied a source of rumor material through mistake in fundamental facts, due either to misinformation or exaggeration.
In considering the newspaper handling of riot news, it should be borne in mind that the task was most difficult during a period of such excitement and such crowding of events. Further it must be considered that white reporters might very justifiably avoid the risk of seeking news where crowds of Negroes had been roused to a high pitch of resentment against whites. There were doubtless instances in which news was secured from sources ordinarily trustworthy, but inaccurate during the riot. On the other hand, it must be recognized that in a time of such excitement the effect of sensational news on the popular mind is generally accentuated, and the responsibility for careful handling of news is correspondingly greater. Where bias is as pronounced as in a race riot it is of the utmost importance that essential facts be stated correctly.
| Date | Number of Injured as Reported by the "Tribune" and "Herald-Examiner" during the First Four Days of Riot | Facts as Later Obtained from Police, State's Attorney, Hospital Reports, and Olivet Baptist Church, Covering Each Day | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| White | Negro | Total | White | Negro | Unknown | Total | |
| July 27 | 29 | 19 | 48 | 10 | 31 | 5 | 46 |
| July 28 | 64 | 60 | 124 | 71 | 152 | 6 | 229 |
| July 29 | 62 | 72 | 134 | 55 | 80 | 4 | 139 |
| July 30 | 40 | 21 | 61 | 20 | 20 | 2 | 42 |
| Total | 195 | 172 | 367 | 156 | 283 | 17 | 456 |
| Percentage of total | 53 | 47 | 100 | 34 | 62 | 4 | 100 |
Reports of numbers of dead and injured tended to produce a feeling that the score must be evened up on the basis of "an eye for an eye," a Negro for a white, or vice versa. A most unfortunate impression may be made upon an excited public, Negro and white, by such erroneous reporting as the following, in which newspapers, although they understated rather than exaggerated the number of injuries, reported that 6 per cent more whites were injured than Negroes, when the fact was that 28 per cent more Negroes were injured than whites.
The Tribune of July 29 in a news item said that before 3:00 a.m., July 29, twenty persons had been killed, of whom thirteen were white and seven colored. The truth was that of twenty killed, seven were white and thirteen colored.[7]
The Daily News of July 29 gave the starting-point of the riot as the Angelus clash, referring to it as "the center of the trouble." The same item mentioned the spread to the Stock Yards district. The fact was that the assault upon street cars in the Stock Yards district Monday afternoon and rumors of further brutalities there helped to start the Angelus riot Monday evening.[8]
The Tribune of July 30 stated that "the Black Belt continues to be the center of conflict." Up to July 30 the "Black Belt" had witnessed 120 injuries, while the district west of Wentworth Avenue had had 139. For the entire riot period the "Black Belt" furnished 34 per cent of the total number of injuries, and the district west of Wentworth Avenue 41 per cent.
Exaggeration in news reports, when popular excitement is at a high pitch, is peculiarly dangerous. For the very reason that the essential fact seems authenticated by the simultaneous appearance of the gist of the report in several papers, the individual reader is the more inclined to believe such exaggerations as may appear in his favorite journal.