During the summer of 1908, riots raged through Abraham Lincoln's hometown of Springfield, Illinois. The quiet removal of two black men who had been held in prison as suspects in two separate attacks on white people enraged the white community. They took out their anger on black residents and black-owned businesses and properties. The riots went on for two days and simmered for longer; seven people were killed and some $200,000 worth of damage was done.rnThe following February, partly in response to the Springfield riots, a group of Jewish, white and black activists met in New York to found the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (naacp) whose aim was, and remains, to ensure "the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate racial hatred and racial discrimination".
展开▼
