July?3,?1917 marked the escalation of one of the worst racial massacres in U.S. history. On that day, white mobs renewed violent attacks—beatings, arson, kidnappings—against Black residents and homes in East St. Louis, Illinois. Following labor migration from the rural South, competing for industrial jobs, white terror erupted. While July?2 saw initial violence, July?3 brought further destruction, driving mass displacement. Over the following days, at least 39 African-Americans were killed and hundreds wounded. This atrocity inspired W.E.B. Du Bois to call it “The Massacre of East St.?Louis,” and it prompted NAACP-led investigations and federal scrutiny .
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