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The population of Springfield had increased since the Civil War. People outnumbered the jobs
and black and european immigrants competed with white workers for factory and coal mining jobs. Sometimes blacks
were brought in as replacements for striking laborers. Springfields black population was the largest of any city
in Illinois. With the competition for jobs it created bad feelings between the white and black people. Thus the
tension began.
| The first incident occurred in the summer of 1908 when Clergy Ballard's home was broken into.
He was awakened by noises and went to investigate and found the stranger at his daughter's bedside. The intruder
ran and Mr. Ballard gave chase. He caught the intruder, but the intruder slit Mr. Ballard's throat with a straight
razor and he died the next day. Before his death he identified the intruder as Joe James, who according to sources had a long police record. The city of Springfield
was outraged and was it was believed it was a sexual assualt case. The crowd caught up with Mr. James and beat
him unconscious before the police could rescue him from them. He was taken to the jail for murder and rape charges. |
Joe James
(Taken from the State Journal Register)
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George Richardson
(Taken from the State Journal Register)
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Then on August 14, 1908, the State Journal Register printed that a white woman named Mabel Hallam
was dragged from her bed and raped by a black man, George Richardson, at her house (1153 N. Fifth St.) near midnight
on Thursday, Aug. 13, 1908. Since Mrs. Hallam was a respectable citizen of Springfield, everyone believed her.
Now the city of Springfield had two black men in jail on rape charges.
Mabel Hallam was twenty-one years old and wife of a city streetcar conductor. |
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