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Race Riots of England, 1919
The Violence That Year Stretched Beyond Black America
Red Summer — England
In 2013, on my only trip to the city of Liverpool, England, I stumbled across the story of the race riots of 1919, in England and in Liverpool in particular. I hadn’t come to Liverpool in search of that story; I had actually come to Liverpool to visit the International Slave Museum that is located in the city and to better understand slavery.
Yet, by accident, I also learned of these race riots that I had never heard of before. It was an interesting connection too. Race riots broke out in the United States in the summer, 1919 after the end of World War I. This story was familiar to me. Now, I read in a local bookstore about the race riots of 1919 in the U.K.
According to Jacqueline Jenkinson, in her 1987 Doctoral thesis on the riots of 1919, race riots occurred in nine cities in the U.K. In all, hundreds were arrested in these riots according to Jenkinson. Five men (three whites and two blacks were killed) and many others were injured…
