1919 Longview Race Riot

Lemuel Walters was lynched on June 17, 1919. The second killing came on July 12, after white mobs burned Black homes and businesses: Marion Bush, 60, a Kelly Plow Company worker of thirty years and Dr. Calvin P. Davis's father-in-law, was shot dead in a cornfield south of town. One summary of Durham's research says a farmer shot him at the sheriff's request; the Dallas Morning News said armed white citizens hunted him down. Sixteen white men arrested for attempted murder and nine for arson were released, 21 Black men were taken to Austin, and no one was tried.

What the plaque says

1919 Longview Race Riot The events during the summer of 1919, referred to as "Red Summer," consisted of over 25 "anti-black riots" across the U.S. In segregated Longview, Texas, African Americans formed their own institutions which included a chapter of the Booker T. Washington Black Businessmen League. Two of the leaders were Samuel L. Jones, a teacher and agent for black newspapers, and Dr. Calvin P. Davis, a physician. Violence in Longview began after the lynching of Lemuel Walters who was arrested after accused of making "indecent" advances toward a white woman. Walters was pulled from jail by an angry mob and killed on June 17, 1919. On July 5, an anonymous article in The Chicago Defender quoted the woman as saying she would have married Walters. The article also accused Sheriff D.S. Meredith of allowing the mob to take and kill Walters. Five days later, the woman's brothers found Jones and beat him, thinking he was behind the article. Jones and Davis were advised to leave town, but 25 men from the league offered to defend them. On July 11, 1919, at 1 a.m., a white mob formed and went to Jones' house. When the mob tried to enter the house, the defenders opened fire. None of the African Americans were wounded but several in the mob were. Angered that they were fired upon, the mob rallied more men and marched towards Jones' house again. Finding it empty, they burned down nearby black-owned businesses and homes. Gov. William P. Hobby declared martial law on July 13 and sent National Guard troops to diffuse the situation. Both Davis and Jones managed to escape. The events in Longview highlight African American resistance and organization to defend themselves against racism. Geographical segregation and systemic issues that led to the 1919 riots continue to be part of its legacy. (2021)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• East Texas Oil Museum — 11 mi
  A Kilgore College museum that rebuilds the 1930s oil boom in a full-scale Boomtown with a general store, drugstore and newspaper office, plus dioramas, films and antiques given by East Texans.
• New London Museum and Cenotaph — 21 mi
  A volunteer-run museum beside the pink granite cenotaph for the March 1937 school gas explosion, holding a model of the school, a blackboard from that day and an odorizer device.
• Starr Family Home State Historic Site — 22 mi
  Maplecroft, the 1871 Greek Revival house Frank Starr built in Marshall, with Ruth Starr Blake's glass and china, an 1880s kitchen restored in 2019 and a retirement home built for a formerly enslaved person.
• Harrison County Historical Museum — 22 mi
  Galleries in Marshall's 1901 courthouse that run from the Caddo to the present, with Wiley College, Lady Bird Johnson's inaugural gown and a military gallery across the square in Memorial City Hall.

More markers nearby

• The Courthouses of Gregg County — steps away
• O. H. Methvin, Sr., Founder of Longview — steps away
• General John Gregg — steps away
• Dalton Gang's Last Raid — steps away