20 years ago — July 19-26, 1999
Approximately “200,000 African-Americans sailed back from World War I – after fighting to make the ‘world safe for democracy’ – they found it was not safe at home for them.” In 1919 blacks rioted in major cities protesting the discrimination and violence to which they were subject. Presbyterian elder John Eagan was concerned and organized the very first Commission on Inter-Racial Cooperation in Atlanta and in the South. “Armed with common sense, he did not try to tell blacks what they needed or wanted. Rather, he encouraged commissioners, black and white, gathered from all over the South and meeting in Atlanta, to find out from African-Americans what they felt and thought about their problems.” Though the commission championed justice under the law and prevention of lynchings – and promoted education, housing and economic justice for blacks – it stopped short of calling for the repeal of “Jim Crow” laws. Eagan was called to develop the Commission of Church and Race Relations for the Federal Council of Churches, thereby bringing black and white together on a national level.
From “1919: Race Riots, Interracial Commissions and John J. Eagan,” by James H. Smylie
