Almost exactly 100 years ago, race riots broke out all across the United States. The Red Summer, as it came to be known, occurred in more than two dozen cities across the nation, including Chicago, where black soldiers returning home from World War I refused to be treated as second class citizens.

Armed National Guards and African American men standing on a sidewalk during the race riots in Chicago, Illinois, 1919.

Jun Fujita/Courtesy of the Chicago History Museum

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Jun Fujita/Courtesy of the Chicago History Museum

Armed National Guards and African American men standing on a sidewalk during the race riots in Chicago, Illinois, 1919.

Jun Fujita/Courtesy of the Chicago History Museum