What was built
- Established or development period
- 1850s–1908
- Peak period
- 1900s
- Who built the community
- Black residents of Lincoln's home city, many working in coal mining, domestic service and small trades.
- Black population
- Roughly 2,500 Black residents in 1908.
- Businesses
- Black-owned barbershops, saloons, restaurants and boarding houses in the Levee and Badlands districts.
- Financial institutions
- Not yet documented
- Churches
- Several Black congregations.
- Schools
- Not yet documented
- Hospitals
- Not yet documented
- Newspapers
- Not yet documented
- Entertainment & cultural institutions
- Not yet documented
- Other community institutions
- Not yet documented
- Black land & property ownership
- Black home ownership in the Badlands and near the rail yards.
- Economic significance
- A modest but established Black working-class economy in the Illinois capital.
What happened
- What happened?
- On August 14–16, 1908, a white mob destroyed Black homes and businesses in the Badlands, lynched two Black men: Scott Burton and William Donnegan, and drove hundreds of Black residents out of Springfield.
- Trigger or precipitating event
- Two alleged crimes by Black men and the sheriff's transfer of the accused out of the city, which enraged the assembled crowd.
- Underlying historical context
- Northern racial hostility, competition for jobs and housing, and the persistence of lynching outside the South.
- Method of destruction / displacement
- Mob Violence · Arson · Lynching · Expulsion
- Date or period of destruction
- August 14–16, 1908
- Confirmed / documented deaths
- 2 Black men lynched; several additional deaths among rioters.
- Estimated deaths
- Not yet documented
- People displaced
- Hundreds of Black residents left the city, many permanently.
- Homes destroyed
- Approximately 40 Black homes and more than 20 businesses.
- Businesses destroyed
- Not yet documented
- Acres or property lost
- Not yet documented
Afterward
- What happened to the land?
- Portions of the destroyed district were later covered by rail and roadway construction; archaeological remains of burned homes were uncovered in 2014.
- Was compensation paid?
- None.
- Was the community rebuilt?
- Partially
- What was rebuilt?
- Not yet documented
- Destroyed or displaced again?
- Not yet documented
- Second displacement date
- Not yet documented
- Second displacement cause
- Not yet documented
- What exists there today?
- The 1908 Springfield Race Riot National Monument, designated in 2024, and preserved home foundations.
- Descendant, reparation & restoration efforts
- Designation as a national monument, an archaeological preservation campaign and the NAACP's founding in 1909 in direct response to the violence.
- Historical significance
- The violence that prompted the founding of the NAACP the following year.
Sources
- Source lookupFind
National Park Service, 1908 Springfield Race Riot National Monument
- Book or scholarly workFind
Roberta Senechal de la Roche, The Sociogenesis of a Race Riot: Springfield, Illinois, in 1908 (University of Illinois Press, 1990)
- Source lookupFind
Illinois State Historic Preservation Office archaeological reports (2014)
- Primary recordFind
NAACP founding documents, Library of Congress
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Last verified: 2026-09-20. This is a living historical collection. Additional communities and documentation will be added as research and verification continue.