(AFP) – US President Joe Biden established a national monument on Friday to commemorate a 1908 attack on a Black community by a white mob in the midwestern state of Illinois.
“It’s so important for our children and grandchildren to understand what happened,” Biden said at a White House signing ceremony to designate the Springfield 1908 Race Riot National Monument. “More than 100 years ago this week a mob unleashed race riots in Springfield,” the president said. “It shocked the conscience of the nation.”
The violence which took place August 14-16, 1908 in Springfield, Illinois, the home of president Abraham Lincoln, motivated the creation of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the country’s top civil rights organization. The designation comes as Biden tries to burnish his legacy in his last months in office.
By establishing the monument, “President Biden is recognizing the significance of these events and the broader history of Black community resilience in the face of violent oppression,” the White House said. Two Black men were lynched and dozens of Black-owned homes and businesses were looted and burned during the Riot.
“The new national monument will tell the story of a horrific attack by a white mob on a Black community that was representative of the racism, intimidation, and violence that Black Americans experienced across the country,” said Biden’s office in a statement. The proclamation will protect 1.57 acres of federal land in Springfield which help recognize “difficult moments that have been ignored or obscured for far too long.”
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