On May 10, 1919, a violent race riot broke out in Charleston, South Carolina, when a confrontation between white U.S. Navy sailors and Black residents escalated into a night of chaos. The unrest resulted in the deaths of at least two Black men and injuries to dozens more. White mobs—many of them servicemen—looted Black businesses and attacked Black citizens with little intervention from local authorities. This event marked one of the early flashpoints of what would become known as the Red Summer of 1919, a period of widespread racial violence across the United States following World War I, driven by economic tensions, returning Black veterans demanding civil rights, and white backlash.
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