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Read & Run Chicago is partnering with the The Chicago Race Riot of 1919 Commemoration Project (CRR19) and Lookingglass Theater for a special, one-of-a-kind running tour commemorating the 1919 Chicago Race Riot on the same day and in the same place the multi-day riots began over 100 years ago.

The Chicago Race Riot of 1919 is long forgotten, despite its huge impact on the subsequent shape and development of the city. Runners will stop at various locations in Bronzeville featured in Claire Hartfield’s book A Few Red Drops and learn more about the devastating and lasting impact the events had on the city. Starting and ending from the Eugene Williams Memorial Marker, 125 Fort Dearborn Drive, Chicago (¼ mile north of 31st Street Beach), this running event includes an easy-paced, 5-mile loop in Bronzeville featuring TikTok Historian Sherman Dilla, author Arionne Nettles, CRR19 director Peter Cole, and Dan Duster, great grandson of Ida B. Wells. At the end of our route, runners will have the option to watch the free Lookingglass Theater performance of Sunset 1919, an artistic ritual featuring music, movement, art and word, commemorating the start of the 1919 Chicago Race Riot.

This event is child friendly, so parents: please feel free to bring your children to start teaching them about this important event in our city’s history!