SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WAND) - President Joe Biden has officially designated the site of the 1908 Springfield Race Riot as a national monument using his authority through the Antiquities Act.
The monument will be located at the uncovered site of the race riot. The announcement came after several actions by community members and organizations to push for national recognition of the site.
"It's important to educate the current generation as well as future generations, and this monument will stand alongside Lincoln and everything about Lincoln," said Ken Page, President of the Springfield chapter of the ACLU and member of the 1908 Race Riot Monument Committee. "So maybe Springfield will eventually live up to Lincoln's legacy of equality, justice, and all those other things."
The monument will have national impacts as well, as it is the first time the site of a lynching has been memorialized, according to Congresswoman Nikki Budzinski (IL-13). She says it's important that we recognize the bad parts of our history.
"We're going to honor our history, which is often a complicated history, a dark history, but that we're going to honor it and tell it truthfully, and we're going to look forward, and that we have a lot of work to do," said Budzinski. "We must tell the story, tell the truth, tell the history of our community. And again, it's about the progress that we still need to make."
Budzinski penned a letter to President Biden calling for the designation in December.
“More than a century ago, Springfield’s Black community was attacked in an act of hateful and senseless violence," Budzinski said. "While the 1908 Springfield Race Riot demonstrates our nation’s deep history of racial violence, it also sparked the creation of the NAACP – reflecting the strength and resilience of Black Americans in the tireless fight for civil rights. Since coming to congress, I’ve been pushing for the Race Riot site to be designated as a national monument and I’m so excited to see it finally receive this long overdue recognition. Today’s announcement is a critical step forward to honor those who were killed in the 1908 attack and acknowledge the impact this tragedy had on the Springfield community and our nation as a whole. I couldn’t be more grateful to our local leaders and community members for their partnership in advocacy and I look forward to seeing this history preserved for generations to come.”
During the 1908 Springfield Race Riot, a mob of white residents attacked Springfield’s Black community, burning down homes and businesses and attacking hundreds of residents.
Following the riot, the NAACP was formed.
During an excavation as part of the Springfield Rail Improvements project, foundations and artifacts from homes destroyed during the riot were uncovered. An agreement with community members was reached in 2018 to excavate the remains and designate the uncovered site a memorial.
Budzinski was the lead of the bipartisan 1908 Race Riot National Monument Act with Congressman Darin LaHood. Senators Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth lead companion legislation in the U.S. Senate. In December of 2023, Budzinski sent a letter to President Biden asking him to use his authority under the Antiquities Act to designate the site as a national monument.
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