PRIEST'S WORDS TO MOB BREAKS UP RACE RIOT
Chicago, Illinois (JFK+50) President Kennedy once said, "One man can make a difference and everyone should try." No episode is more applicable to this quotation than one that occurred here in Chicago a century ago.
The New York Evening World reported in a front page story of September 21, 1920 that the previous night one solitary priest broke up a race riot in the Stock Yards neighborhood of the Windy City.
A mob of "nearly 5000" gathered at St. Gabriel's Church in search of three black men wanted by police "for the murder of a white man in a street corner argument."
When Pastor Father Thomas Burke arrived at his church, he shouted...
"What is this sacrilege? Who are the rowdies that storm the house of God? This place is sanctuary. I order every person...to leave immediately, and quietly."
They did so...every last "rowdie." Afterwards, with coaxing from the Priest, the fugitives emerged from their hiding places and were "spirited...out a side entrance" by police.
Father Burke was not finished. He went outside to address the mob. He said...
"Go home. Be peaceable and happy. There's too much trouble in the world right now, don't start more."
One hundred years later, that advice seems most appropriate for us all.
SOURCE
"Priest Stopped Chicago Race Riot With One Word," The Evening World, New York City, September 21, 1920, Chronicling America, Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/
Union Stock Yard Gate
Photo by Zo187 (2008)
www.wikimedia.org/
