06/15/2021
TW Racial Violence
On this day in history, June 15, 1943, white workers unhappy with an influx of Black workers in industrial jobs in the Beaumont shipyard brutally massacred Beaumont’s Black citizens and looted and burned down black-owned businesses. Over 100 Black households were ransacked, at least 2 Black people were murdered, and dozens were injured by the white mob, which was over 4,000 strong. The white riots followed a 3 year period where Beaumont experienced a population boom—from 1940-1943 Beaumont grew from 59,000 to 80,000 residents, and by 1943 about a third of Beaumont’s population was Black. War time meant shortages on common goods for many, and the population boom made shortages worse. White residents, envious of Black folks attaining middle class status and gaining high paying positions in the defense industry at the shipyard on the Neches River while they struggled, amplified hate crimes against Black residents. Incidents of racial violence that summer in surrounding counties and Houston also fueled and emboldened Beaumont’s white residents. On June 15, tensions came to a head when a white woman claimed a black man had r***d her, though she was unable to identify her assailant. 2,000 white workers, joined by 2,000 white residents of Beaumont, gathered in the streets in a mob and advanced on the jail where suspects were reportedly being held. Splitting into groups, whites then went out into the city and terrorized Black Beaumonters. Of the thousands who participated, just 29 were charged with crimes. No one was specifically held responsible for the deaths during the riot. The massacre in Beaumont was accompanied by similar massacres that summer in Detroit, Mobile, Los Angeles, and Harlem. Photo courtesy of The Beaumont Enterprise.
