Bomb Explodes before Home of Negro Families
A bomb exploded in the front of 4529 Vincennes Avenue early this morning, wrecked the front porch of the structure and broke windows for a block around. The building is occupied by Negro families. White residents objected to the Negroes.
Similar language was used in all the articles.
Most of the articles carried a suggestion of a race war on the South Side. Many of the reports helped to contribute to popular anticipation of future trouble. For example, in the Post of January 6, 1920, page 1, column 3, a bombing was reported thus: "A bomb early today damaged the residence at 4404 Grand Boulevard which was said to have been a Negro 'sniping-post' during the race riot last summer."
The home at 4404 Grand Boulevard was owned and occupied by Mrs. Byron Clarke, and was not a sniping-post during the riot. It had been bombed four times, once while officers were guarding it. All papers used the expression, "No one was hurt." Property destruction was usually dismissed with statements like these: "All the glass was shattered"; "the front porch was demolished"; "about $—— damage was done"; or "the damages were slight." The Daily News was exceptional in using the word "outrage" three times.
Two reports gave accounts of arrests, and all others in which police activity was mentioned merely said, "The police are investigating." None of the articles gave the results of any such investigation, other than that the police generally attributed the "hurling of the bomb" to the occupants of a black touring-car. The articles contained no condemnation of the bombings as lawlessness or crime except in the case of a bombing at 3401 Indiana Avenue, where a child was killed May 1, 1919. The Chicago Tribune spoke of this death as an incident of that bombing.
One of the two arrests above referred to was that of a janitor who was not able to explain sufficiently his presence in or about a building which had just been bombed. He was taken into custody but was soon dismissed. The other arrest was that of the nephew of a prominent business man living in the neighborhood of the bombed property.
During the time from February, 1918, to February, 1919, prior to the Chicago riot, there were eleven bombings in the city. If each paper had reported each bombing there would have been sixty-six reports. Only seven reports actually appeared. During the six weeks immediately preceding the Chicago race riot, there were seven racial bombings. Of a possible forty-two reports, only four appeared, or two bombings in two papers. Thus violent and criminal expressions of hostility which might have been checked by arousing the public conscience silently continued. The resentment of Negroes increased, and the ignorance of the larger white public remained undisturbed. The articles were apparently written without much investigation. Upon the fifth bombing of Mr. Binga's home, the American, Herald-Examiner, and Chicago Daily News quoted Mr. Binga as saying, "This is the limit; I am going." Mr. Binga declares that he did not say this, that he did not even see a reporter, and that he had not moved.
During the nine months following the riot, publicity on bombings increased to several times the former amount. Beginning in March, 1920, the articles again showed slackened interest. The Tribune and Herald-Examiner, usually giving most frequent publicity to such matters, missed about every other one. The Post had no reports, the Journal two, the News four, and the American none. Seven bombings took place from March 1 to July 1.
The apparent indifference toward race bombings in the minds of editors, officials, and the public was indicated by the relative prominence given to a race bomb which threatened life and damaged property as compared with an "odor bomb" dropped in a moving-picture theater.