Last year marked the 100th anniversary of a pivotal summer in American history, African American history, and the civil rights movement. It was known as the Red Summer of 1919. Author James Weldon Johnson, who also wrote the lyrics to "Lift Every Voice And Sing," gave it that name because of the blood that stained the streets of so many American cities and towns.

At least 25 riots and incidents of mob violence took place from late spring through the early fall of 1919. White mobs struck black churches as centers of black life and organizing in black communities. More than a dozen churches were burned. As many as 97 lynchings were recorded, and more than 250 African Americans were killed by white mobs as violence erupted in places like New York City; Memphis and Knoxville, Tennessee; Baltimore, Maryland; Norfolk, Virginia; Chicago; and Putnam County, Georgia.