SAVE THE DATE: 7TH ANNUAL CRR19 TOUR ON JULY 26, 2025
Organic Oneness is the proud fiscal sponsor and program partner for the Chicago Race Riot of 1919 Commemoration Project (CRR19) directed by Dr. Peter Cole and Dr. Franklin Cosey-Gay.
CRR19 offers tours to provide education about the race riot of 1919 that has been hidden in traditional educational settings. A goal of this initiative is to use dispersed public art to remember past atrocities and provoke conversations about their legacy. Inspired by Stolpersteine, an ongoing German project honoring Holocaust victims, CRR19 intends to create and install artistic markers, created by Firebird Community Arts, at each of the 38 locations where someone was killed in 1919.
CRR19 offers tours to provide education about the race riot of 1919 that has been hidden in traditional educational settings. A goal of this initiative is to use dispersed public art to remember past atrocities and provoke conversations about their legacy. Inspired by Stolpersteine, an ongoing German project honoring Holocaust victims, CRR19 intends to create and install artistic markers, created by Firebird Community Arts, at each of the 38 locations where someone was killed in 1919.
Transforming the Vortex of Violence from 1919 to the Vortex of Healing in 2024
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The 6th annual Chicago Race Riot of 1919 historic tour celebrated the installation of the first five of 38 markers on July 20, 2024 near the northeast corner of 35th and State known as the Vortex of Violence. Shortly after the riot in 1919, the Chicago Defender named this corner the Vortex of Violence because five people out of 38 were killed in this location. This initiative hopes to repair the harms of the past and transform the energy of this corner into the Vortex of Healing. Over 300 participants joined the ribbon cutting ceremony with CRR19 partners, sponsors, and co-creators. Mayor Brandon Johnson opened the ceremony followed by remarks from key partners.
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Get a glimpse of the annual event in these mini-documentary videos.
See community-building and healing in action!
See recap videos and pictures from each CRR19 community-building historic tour below. Each year, approximately 300 participants traveled through Bronzeville, Bridgeport, and surrounding neighborhoods to hear stories from historians and community leaders. The tours highlights key race riot areas as well as locations showcasing the resilience of the Black community, including the Chicago Defender, Chicago Bee, Ida B. Wells, and Victory Monument.
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CRR19 Pictures (more to come!)
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CRR19 Articles
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Read more about the history of this Race Riot of 1919 from a Baha'i perspective in an article written by Nilufar Rezai-Tofighi, Organic Oneness board member.
“Truthfulness is the foundation of all human virtues. Without truthfulness progress and success, in all the worlds of God, are impossible for any soul. When this holy attribute is established in man, all the divine qualities will also be acquired.” -The Baha'i Faith |
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Word in Black interviewed Dr. Franklin Cosey-Gay (Board Chair of Organic Oneness and Co-Director of CRR19) about the reparation efforts of the Eugene Williams Scholarship. “What I’m hopeful for is that our youth, our awardees, learn about Eugene Williams. That they learn about the structural policies and practices connected to race and racism, and that they become engaged in civics as active leaders working toward addressing these policies and practices,” says Dr. Franklin Cosey-Gay, the Violence Recovery Program Director at University of Chicago Medicine, a not-for-profit academic medical health system based on the campus of the University of Chicago.
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