5. The Same: The Race Riots

While the memorable coroner’s jury was investigating the casualties of the race riots there was evidence that many or perhaps most of the whites doing the rioting were members of political clubs. The Ragens emphatically denied this, as Mr. Frank Ragen does today. Several negroes testified that on the night the riot started a crowd of Halstead Street youths became involved in an argument with a colored man. According to the testimony the youth sadi:

"Remember it's the Ragen Colts your're dealing with. We have two thousand members between Halstead and Cottage Grove, and Forty-third and Sixty-third streets. We intend to run this district. Look out."

Patriotism for the United States is a potent sentimeant among the Ragens. Five hundred Ragen members went in to the United States armed forces during the war. Jimmie O'Brien, president of the club, said that while the riots were going on the organization had thousands at their quarters listening to a musical program. The organization was thinned out by enlistments in the army and the vacancies were filled up with a lot of young men who "raised Cain and worse," said Mr. O'Bren, who very likely had tried to attract the members away from engaging in the riots. Militia men in charge of the district of the race riots were harassed by hoodlums in the neighborhood, who hooted them and threatened to take away their guns and invade the negro district. It was difficult to prove that any of these hoodlums arrested were memers of the Ragen Colts, and the police released them.