Tells the story of the two days leading up to August 14, 1908. Two black men sat in the county jail, accused of unrelated sexual assault and murder crimes against whites. Police secretly took the prisoners out through the back door and put them on a train to a jail 60 miles away. When the crowd learned that the prisoners were gone, they began destroying buildings, looting, and eventually lynching two prominent members of the black community. The rampage continued until Governor Charles Deneen called in the Illinois National Guard. One of the immediate effects of the riot was to spur civil rights leaders to found the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

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