CHICAGO (AP) — A Black teenager whose death along a segregated Chicago beach sparked a weeklong race riot in 1919 that left dozens dead is finally getting a grave marker.
The Chicago Tribune reports that a stone marker is tentatively set to be placed in late July atop the grave of 17-year-old Eugene Williams at Lincoln Cemetery in the suburb of Blue Island.
A group of citizens raised $5,000 to buy the marker.
Williams, who lived in Chicago's Bronzeville neighborhood, drowned in July 1919 after he was struck by a rock thrown by a white man as he entered an area of Lake Michigan that was unofficially a whites-only area.
(© Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
Related
