The dedication was held on the anniversary of the attack, July 2, 1917, when a white mob attacked and killed Black men, women and children. The mob pulled the Black residents from streetcars and beat them, shot them, threw stones at them, murdered and maimed them, hanged them from lampposts, and dumped their bodies in a nearby creek. The mob looted Black residents’ homes and then set them on fire.
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The NAACP estimated that between 100 and 200 Black people died, and hundreds more were injured in the attack. Reginald Petty, local civic leader and founder of the East St. Louis Historical Society, speaks Sunday, July 2, 2023, during the dedication of the historical marker commemorating the 1917 East St. Louis Race Massacre. On July 2, 1917, Black men, women and children were attacked by mobs of angry white people. Thirty-nine Black people and 8 white people were killed, according to the official count, though the NAACP and others estimated between 100 and 200 Black people lost their lives. Jimmy Jay Simmons For the Belleville News-Democrat The new marker, unveiled and dedicated Sunday, is at Wyvetter Younge Higher Education Campus of Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, located at 601 James R. Thompson Blvd. In East St. Louis. “Nobody should graduate from East Side without knowing about the East St. Louis race riot,” Reginald Petty said during the ceremony.
Petty is a longtime civic and civil rights leader, historian and consultant from East St. Louis. “ …They should also know about Miles Davis and about all of these historical people , and there are hundreds of them, from East St. Louis that they should be proud of.” Petty is founder of the East St. Louis Historical Society. Jaye P. Willis, executive director of the East St. Louis Historical Society, speaks Sunday during the dedication of a marker commemorating the 1917 East St. Louis Race Massacre. The marker is at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville’s East St. Louis campus. The worst violence was on July 2, 1917, when Black men, women and children were attacked by mobs of angry white people. Thirty-nine Black people and 8 white people were killed, according to the official count, though the NAACP and others estimated between 100 and 200 Black people lost their lives. Jimmy Jay Simmons For the Belleville News-Democrat Other guest speakers Sunday were Eugene Redmond, renowned poet and SIUE professor; the Rev. Joseph Brown, religious leader, priest and professor; Jaye P. Willis, executive director of the East St. Louis Historical Society; James Minor, chancellor of Southern Illinois University Edwardsville; and Daniel F. Mahony, president of the Southern Illinois University system.
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