A project started more than 6 years ago by area Congressional leaders to get Springfield’s 1908 Race Riot site designated as a national monument came to a reality yesterday.
The Biden Administration announced yesterday that on the day of the 116th anniversary of the 1908 Race Riot in Springfield, President Joe Biden would use his authority under the Antiquities Act to designate the site as a national monument. The site will now be managed by the U.S. National Park Service. This designation ensures the historic site will be preserved to tell the story of the site that became a critical moment in American civil rights history, as it spurred the creation of the NAACP.
During the excavation as part of the Springfield High Speed Rail project in 2014, 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. Most of the devastation associated with the riot was concentrated in an area between Mason and Madison, and 9th and 12th Streets. The site, which was designated in 2019 by the Trump Administration as the 30th addition to the African-American Civil Rights Network, contains the foundations of five of the dozens of homes that were burned and destroyed during the riot as well as other archaeological resources that were unearthed during the construction project.
A bill in Congress to get the site designated as a National Historic site has stalled amid partisan in-fighting in an election year. With the president’s designation, it circumvents the need for the legislation.