The influx of blacks into urban centers in the North and Midwest increased racial tensions. Between 1917 and 1923, racial disturbances erupted in numerous cities throughout the U.S., motivated by economic competition for industrial jobs, mostly between whites and southern blacks who were often used as strikebreakers. One of the first and most violent instances was a riot in East St. Louis, sparked in 1917. In the Red Summer of 1919, racially motivated mob violence erupted in 23 cities—including Chicago, Omaha, and Washington D.C.—caused by competition for jobs and housing by returning WWI veterans of both races, and the arrival of waves of new immigrants.[11] Further unrest occurred in Tulsa in 1921. David Colburn distinguishes two types of violence against blacks up to 1923: Northern violence was generally spontaneous mob action against entire communities. Southern violence, on the other hand, took the form of individual incidents of lynchings and other extrajudicial actions. The Rosewood massacre, according to Colburn, resembled violence more commonly perpetrated in the North.[2]
A color digital map showing the location of Rosewood in relation to other towns involved in the massacre
Map of Rosewood, Florida and the surrounding towns
In the mid-1920s, the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) reached its peak membership in the South and Midwest after a revival beginning around 1915. Its growth was due in part to tensions from rapid industrialization and social change in many growing cities, and waves of new immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe. The KKK was strong in the Florida cities of Jacksonville and Tampa; Miami's chapter was influential enough to hold initiations at the Miami Country Club. The Klan also flourished in smaller towns of the South where racial violence had a long tradition dating back to the Reconstruction era.[12][13] An editor of The Gainesville Daily Sun admitted he was a member of the Klan in 1922, and praised the organization in print.
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