[Civil Rights]:

American Civil Liberties Union. Chicago Division. Report. Anti-Negro and Anti-Semitic Violence on the South Side [caption title].

[Chicago: 1949]. 6,[1]pp. of mimeographed text on tall folio sheets, stapled. Minor wear. Very good. Item #5689

On the night of November 8, 1949, a Jewish labor leader named Aaron Bindman held a union meeting in his house on Chicago's South Side. The meeting was attended by "several members of his union, including Negroes" invited to "listen to a Hawaiian union delegate to the recent CIO convention." This meeting sparked "the most violent outbreak of anti-Negro, anti-Semitic feeling in the recent history of Chicago," when white, mostly Irish residents of the neighborhood confronted Bindman about the presence of Black people in his house. Over the next few nights, neighborhood residents gathered outside Bindman's house, at first participating in "loud angry anti-Negro shouting," which eventually turned into anti-Semitic vitriol directed at Bindman, who was Jewish, and accusations of Communism weren't far behind. Eventually the talk turned to violence, as bigoted residents in the neighborhood clashed with students from the University of Chicago who had heard about the tensions. The present report details the events of the week, and also includes the text of a letter sent by the ACLU to the mayor of Chicago, Martin Kennelly. The letter suggests several action items to the mayor, including "making drastic changes in the personnel and practices of the police department" (several police officers either sympathized with the mob, looked the other way, or participated in the violence). Stapled to the report is a one-page listing of thirty-three "Publications Available in the Chicago Office of the American Civil Liberties Union."

Price: $450