Official proceedings of the annual meeting: 1923

RAGE RELATIONS AND PUBLIC OPINION-TAYLOR

495

about Negro crime. In nine cases out of ten the articles read: "William Jones, Negro,"
did this or that. Such stock phrases as "burly black brute," repeated and repeated so
that they come almost automatically to the minds of reporters, serve to fix an impression upon the white mind. Negroes frequently point out that a similar belief as to the
criminality of Italians or Norwegians could easily be built up by placing such national
designations after the name of every Italian or Norwegian offender mentioned in news
items, and that if the name of every offender with red hair was always accompanied by
"red-headed," the public would soon develop an inordinate fear of all people with red
hair.
The frequent association of Negroes with sex crimes leads to the same vicious circle
in the development of opinion. Two cases come to mind in the investigations by the
Chicago Commission. An altercation on a crowded street corer in Chicago occurred
in which three Negroes struck down and killed a white man who had frequently been
involved in quarrels with Negroes. The three Negroes fled through the streets and
alleys pursued by a crowd of whites. Almost immediately throughout the crowd and
in the neighborhood the rumor was current that a Negro had attacked a white woman.
A stone thrown by a Negro boy in a suburb north of Chicago broke a windshield of an
automobile driven by its owner, a white man named Blazier. A crowd of whites
attacked a Negro habitation in the town. The news item which appeared in a Chicago
newspaper the next day, telephoned by its correspondent in the suburb, stated that
Mrs. Blazier had been injured, that a white crowd was passing by when Mrs. Blazier
was struck by the stone and injured. Inquiry by the Commission developed the fact
that Blazier had no wife, that there was no woman occupant of the car, but another
man, and that no one was injured.
The way in which such spread of rumor results in action was strikingly shown in
connection with the most atrocious murder during the Chicago riot. A rumor somehow
gained currency that an Italian girl had been killed by a Negro. An innocent Negro
on a bicycle chanced into an Italian neighborhood in a part of the city far removed from
the principal scene of rioting. He was set upon and murdered. The coroner found
fourteen bullet wounds, many stab wounds, and fractures of the skull bones and of the
limbs. The report concerning the Italian girl proved to be a myth, for no girl was
killed by anyone during the riot. The Negro who met death was innocent of any
injury. There had been no previous rioting in the part of the city where he met his
death and no further clashes followed it. The incident exhibited a further characteristic association of ideas in rumor, for immediately the report spread that the crowd
had burned the Negro, which proved to be entirely false.
Although many rumors and news items in the press referred to women as riot victims, the facts as established by the Chicago Commission were that no one of the thirtyeight persons who lost their lives was a woman and that of the 537 persons injured only
ten were women, seven of whom were white, two were Negroes, and the race of one
unknown. All but one of these ten injuries appeared to be accidental.
The newspapers' task of handling news during a period of such excitement and
crowding of events as a riot is, of course, most difficult. On the other hand it must be
recognized that in a time of such excitement the effect of sensational news on the popular mind is generally accentuated and the responsibility for careful handling of news is
correspondingly greater. Where feeling is as pronounced as in a race riot, it is of the