Fifty-seven delegates came, of which most were
from Africa and America. While they had no authority and could
do little of significance, the Congress did dramatize to the
world the plight of the subject peoples of Africa.
Urban Riots
In spite of the fact that Negroes were fighting overseas to
defend their country, racial tensions continued at home. In the
years immediately preceding the war, racially motivated lynchings
and riots, which had been largely confined to the South, began to
spread into the North and Midwest.
In Statesboro, Georgia, two blacks, who had been accused and
convicted of murder, were seized from the courtroom by an angry
mob. After beating and burning them, the mob went on to loot and
burn Negro-owned homes in the community. In 1906, a white mob
raged out of control for several days in Atlanta, Georgia. In
the same year, the 25th Infantry in Brownsville, Texas, became
involved in a riot with the white citizens of that town, and
Roosevelt dismissed the whole battalion without honor. In 1904 ,
a riot occurred in Springfield, Ohio, much farther north than
anyone would have expected.
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