6th Annual CRR19 Historic Bike Tour

Join The Chicago Race Riot of 1919 Commemoration Project (CRR19), Organic Oneness, Illinois Tech, and supporting partners on Saturday, July 20th, 2024 at 35th and State Parking lot for the 6th annual CRR19 Bike Tour. Check-in begins at 9:15am with opening ceremony of healing at 10am.

This year's commemoration will feature prototypes of the glass markers created by our art studio partner, Firebird Community Arts, and brief remarks from Ald. Robinson and other elected officials.

Following the ceremony, the 2-hour bike tour will travel through the Bronzeville and Bridgeport neighborhoods. On the bike tour, you will learn about the history of Eugene Williams and how his unjust racist killing sparked the Chicago Race Riot of 1919 - the worst incident of racial violence in City history and among twenty-five such incidents across the nation that came to be known as the Red Summer.

After the ride, you will enjoy a a free lunch, music, and opportunity to engage with local organizations and resources tables.

Everyone is strongly encouraged to wear a helmet. Please adhere to COVID guidelines and comfort level with distant to others. In the event of rain, the event will move indoors to another location in Bronzeville (TBD) and the ride will be postponed.

Free parking is available on city streets, including on Michigan Ave. north of 35th Street, as well as in an IIT parking lot (D4) which can be entered from E. 34th St., i.e. from the north side of that lot; this lot is just to the east of the CTA Green Line tracks.

The event is free with an option for donations. All donations of $30 or more will receive a Chicago Race Riot 1919 shirt at the check-in table.

The Chicago Race Riot of 1919 Commemoration Project (CRR19) exists to commemorate the worst incident of racial violence in the city’s history. The Chicago Race Riot of 1919 is long forgotten, despite its huge impact on the subsequent shape and development of the city. CRR19 will offer a powerful model for how to use dispersed public art to remember past atrocities and provoke conversations about their legacy to ignite conversations about racism, past and present, in Chicago and the nation. Inspired by Stolpersteine, an ongoing German project to honor Holocaust victims, we intend to create and install artistic markers at each of the 38 locations where someone was killed in 1919. Formally launched on the 100th anniversary of the 1919 riot, we believe that now is the moment for Chicago to confront its bloodiest chapter and heal the wounds that time alone has not. We must remember America’s troubled past of racial violence and white supremacy if we wish to improve the future. To move towards racial equality and justice by creating chances for more discussions and more challenging ones about race and racism, past and present.

CRR19 website: https://chicagoraceriot.org/

CRR19 introductory video:

Organic Oneness is the fiscal sponsor and program partner for CRR19. We are a grassroots social justice organization that ​co-creates with communities to mobilize systemic change, healing and wellness, foregrounding Black, Indigenous, and People of Color. Through a community building process, we identify solutions and co-create events and programs that address racial & environmental justice, and healing & wellness for all ages; build capacity, elevate conversations, learn together, heal ourselves, and attain understanding, liberation and unity. We provide transformational spaces that foster a mindset of truth and justice at the individual, community, and institutional levels, with the overall goal of changing systems for the betterment of BIPOC communities. www.OrganicOneness.org

Firebird Community Arts empowers and connects people through the healing practice of glassblowing and ceramics.We serve those who have been impacted by structural or individual trauma, including violently-injured youth, veterans, formerly-incarcerated individuals, undocumented and immigrant populations and Chicago Public School students on the South and West sides. www.firebirdcommunityarts.org

The priority is to build formal relationships and partnerships between Illinois Tech, local community-based organizations, businesses, and Chicago Public Schools, as well as the surrounding Chicago community areas. With a general focus on shoring up education opportunities and amplifying art and culture, as well as stimulating economic development, the Office of Community Affairs and Outreach Programs aims to be the connective tissue linking the Illinois Tech community—faculty, students, and staff—with the organizations, businesses, and individuals looking to make a positive change in Bronzeville and in the surrounding communities on the South Side. www.iit.edu/community-affairs

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Parking lot, West 35th Street & South State State, Chicago, United States