The Illinois State Journal covered the story of the Springfield Race Riot of 1908. Typesetters for the newspaper are pictured here in a contemporary photograph.

Sensationalist Reporting in the Springfield Race Riot of 1908

Owen Callahan
Carbondale Community High School, Carbondale

When the world enters the home in the form of black and white text of the newspaper, it is usually taken for granted that what one reads is an unbiased report of factual information from a recent event. Yet, upon closer examination, descriptions and word choice begin to reveal the paper's biases. This bias has always existed and it is especially prevalent when newspapers are covering emotional issues. An event that occurred in Springfield, Illinois, during August 14-15, 1908, is a good example of this type of emotional inclination.

Springfield at the turn of the century was deeply divided by racial problems. While there were numerous influential blacks in this town, there were also poor sections called the "Bad Lands" and the "Levee District." These black populated areas were looked down upon by many of the whites, and it was here that a great deal of the rioting eventually took place. The riot began when a mob of angry white men gathered outside the jail and demanded 'justice" be served to two of the black prisoners, Joe James, accused of murdering Clergy Ballard in mid-July, and George Richardson, accused of "Outraging" Mabel Hallam. As the crowd grew more agitated, the police smuggled the accused out

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of town in Harry Loper's automobile to avoid a lynching. Upon discovering the trick, the mob began destroying Loper's place of business. As the crowd grew in size it began to overflow into the black sections of town. Before four thousand state militia could be brought out, several lynchings, lootings, bearings, and accidental deaths due to stray bullets had occurred. After the rioting died down, 107 indictments, including "riot, arson, larceny, and murder," where handed out, resulting in one conviction and one suicide. James was sentenced to death for his crime, while all charges against Richardson were dropped when Hallam admitted that she had not been attacked by a black man at all. While this is a very brief summary of the horrible events that occurred, it will hopefully serve as background information for the newspaper examined.

The articles and headline news in the case can generally be divided into two categories, those that used language that justified the mob and those that openly opposed it. While some papers cross back and forth between the two categories as they covered different events, the majority remained staunchly in favor of a particular group. One of the most supportive of the mob's actions was the Illinois State Journal. Embellished reporting of racial conflict is evident in the Journal as early as July when it suggested that Ballard had "given his life in defense of his child" while he was in fact defending his home from a botched burglary by James. The headlines of the Journal about the attack on Hallam exclaimed "Dragged From Her Bed and Outraged by Negro" as well as "Frenzied Mob Sweeps City Wreaking Bloody Vengeance for Negro's Heinous Crime." It is reported that the editor of the Journal warned his workers to tone down any criticism of the rioters for fear of an attack. However, considering that they made the bold statement about James before any such mob formed, and that they continued to ask the people of Springfield "what is there to prevent others from becoming victims of such outrage," and referring to "devilish deeds and Negro fiends," it is no wonder that the Journal later made the outrageous claim that the riot was due to the "Negroes' own misconduct, general inferiority, or unfitness for free institutions. . . " The Springfield Record was accused of trying to entice more rioting when it printed the headline "Negroes Arming in the Outskirts" while apparently neglecting to support this claim anywhere in the paper. The Register's headlines, which read "Negro Assaults High-Tone Lady in a Most Prominent Neighborhood," almost invited feelings of insecurity. There were several other papers that gave unequal coverage of the events but these three seem the most slanted in their interpretation of the facts.

Of course, another side to this riot is present in many other papers from that time. The August 21, 1908, edition of The Public, for example, gave Loper a distinctly humanitarian air when it reported that he "refused to take point blank aim, holding that the saving of property did not warrant the taking of a life," as he stood with rifle in hand, watching the "reign of terror" lurching for his restaurant. The Register also glazed over violence by blacks, saying in one line "In a few cases [they] attempted retaliation

The riot left destruction in its wake. These homes on Ninth Street in Springfield were burned.

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when opportunities arose." Other papers stated that black retaliation stopped when the ammunition did. In a reflective article, the same paper grouped the "cowardly attack" under "violent outbreaks" that occurred under the "slightest pretext." E. L. Rogers of the Forum, a black newspaper in Springfield, referred to "crime or alleged crime" when dealing with the Ballard murder and attacked the gathering crowd as "mean-looking, ignorant, ragged men." Blacks who fought back were "gallant" but taken by surprise. The Freeport Journal of August 19, 1908, pointed a different finger when it declared "the riot could not have occurred where the foreign population of Polacks and Italians was not so large," and that the "ignorant foreigners from the coal mines were its principal rioters." While these counterparts to the sensational press may have been trying to speak for the speechless as it were, they too pointed fingers and painted images of an illiterate mob of blood-thirsty vigilantes.

The Springfield race riot had enough national impact that it indirectly resulted in the founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) the following year. Prompted by the disgust of many local citizens, the establishment of the NAACP was perhaps the one good thing that emerged from the violence. But what happens when a small community today is presented with a biased point of view in the supposedly impartial press? Who are we to say that our views are not being affected by slanted information?-[From Henry B. Chamberlain, "Some Reflections on the Springfield Riot," Chicago Record-Herald, Aug. 30, 1908; James L. Croutthamel, "The Springfield Race Riot of 1908," Journal of Negro History, July 1960; Illinois State Journal, July - Aug. 1908; James Krohe, Summer of Rage; "The Lessons of Springfield," The Public, Sept. 4, 1908; "Race War in Springfield," The Public, Aug. 21, 1908; E. L. Rogers, "A Review of the Springfield Riot: The Alleged Cause and the Effect," The Colored Peoples Magazine, Feb. 1909; "The Riot at Springfield," The Outlook, Aug. 22, 1908; Roberta Senechal, Sociogenesis of a Race Riot, Springfield Illinois in 1908.]

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