On Friday, President Biden officially established a new national monument at the site of the 1908 Springfield, Illinois, race riot, an event that contributed to the formation of the NAACP. During his address from the Oval Office, Biden described the riot as an event that “shocked the conscience of the nation.”
The president signed the proclamation with Illinois Senators Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth, and Representative Nikki Budzinski, who co-sponsored the legislation to create the monument. This bill, which had previously stalled in Congress, was also supported by Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, NAACP President Derrick Johnson, and White House Council on Environmental Quality Chair Brenda Mallory.
President Biden creates a new national monument to honor the 1908 Springfield race riot, a catalyst for the NAACP’s founding
The violence erupted on August 14, 1908, when a white mob learned that two Black men, accused of rape and murder, had been moved from the local jail. Representative Darin LaHood, another sponsor of the bill, was absent from the event.
Over the ensuing days, the mob targeted Black neighborhoods in Springfield, resulting in the deaths of eight Black men and an infant who died of exposure after their family was displaced. This incident was a stark example of racial violence in the North during a time when such acts were more commonly associated with the Jim Crow South.
In his speech, Biden criticized state laws that aim to exclude such historical events from school curricula, emphasizing the importance of understanding these critical moments in history. The Springfield monument marks the sixth such designation under the Biden administration, which has also expanded two California monuments.
