This site requires Javascript to be turned on. Please enable Javascript and reload the page.

Fight for Rights: The Chicago 1919 Riots and the Struggle for Black Justice Introduction This is a history of the fight for rights and citizenship undertaken by Black people in Chicago in that city’s first century. Covering the period from the 1830s to 1930s, this book looks at their successes and the forces that arose—in the streets, in city government, in the courts, and on the police force—to limit their extent. And it looks at how, and why, individuals and institutions attempted to justify those limits over time. Miscarriage of Justice Few legal records from the riot cases remain, but the one case we do have, a murder trial involving two Black teens, demonstrates how badly the legal system failed Black Chicagoans in the aftermath of the riots. In that case, those failures were not an accident. Government officials, judges, and jurors willfully ignored (and sometimes created) problems of law and facts in order to win convictions of the two teens.

Inquest

In early August 1919, the grand jury issued an indictment that declared that "one Walter Colvin, one Charles Johnson, one John Green, and one Frank Coachman"

in and upon the chest, thorax, abdomen, and body of one Morris (sic) Lazzeroni in the peace of the People of the State of Illinois then and there being, unlawfully, feloniously, willfully and of their malice aforethought, did make an assault; and that the said Walter Colvin, the said Charles Johnson, the said John Green, and the said Frank Coachman, with a certain knife, which said knife the said Walter Colvin, the said Charles Johnson, the said John Green, and the said Frank Coachman in their hands then and there had and held then and there unlawfully and feloniously, willfully, and of their malice aforethought the said Morris Lazzeroni in and upon the chest, thorax, abdomen, and body of the said Morris Lazzeroni then and there unlawfully, feloniously, willfully, and of their malice aforethought did strike, stab, cut, thrust, penetrate, and wound giving to the said Morris Lazzeroni divers mortal wounds, cuts, bruises, hemorrhages, lacerations, contusions, and concussions, each of the depth of six inches and the breadth of one inch; of which said mortal wounds, cuts, bruises, hemorrhages, lacerations, contusions, and concussions the said Morris Lazzeroni from the said twenty-eighth day of July in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and nineteenth until afterwards to-wit: the same twenty-eighth day of July in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and nineteen in the said County of Cook, and the State of Illinois as aforesaid, did languishing did live on which said twenty-eighth day of July in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and nineteen the said Morris Lazzeroni in the said County of Cook and State of Illinois aforesaid of the same mortal wounds, cuts, bruises, hemorrhages, lacerations, contusions, and concussions, died; and so the jurors aforesaid upon their oaths aforesaid, do say that the said Walter Colvin, the said Charles Johnson, the said John Green, and the said Frank Coachman the said Morris Lazzeroni in manner and from aforesaid and by the means aforesaid unlawfully, feloniously, wilfully, and of their malice aforethought, did kill and murder, contrary to the Statute and against the peace and dignity of the same People of the State of Illinois.

Nowhere in that gobbledygook are the two of the most crucial facts of the case. The four defendants were young enough to be in high school. The oldest, Charles Johnson, was eighteen; the youngest, John Green, just fourteen. And all were Black.

This page has paths:

Few legal records from the riot cases remain, but the one case we do have, a murder trial involving two Black teens, demonstrates how badly the legal system failed Black Chicagoans in the aftermath of the riots. In that case, those failures were not an accident. Government officials, judges, and jurors willfully ignored (and sometimes created) problems of law and facts in order to win convictions of the two teens.
Contents of this path:

This page references:

Indictment