The Evansville Race Riot of 1903 was the deadliest civil disturbance in Evansville's history, displacing roughly 2,000 Black residents and exposing racial violence in the urban Midwest.
Key Facts
- Total deaths
- 13 people
- Seriously wounded
- more than 40 people
- Black residents displaced
- approx. 2,000 of 8,000 residents
- Riot duration
- July 3–10, 1903
- Mob size at jail (July 6)
- several thousand people
- Triggering incident
- Shooting of policeman Louis N. Massey on July 3
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
On July 3, 1903, John Tinsley shot and fatally wounded senior policeman Louis N. Massey after Massey attempted to arrest him outside a bar. The killing inflamed racial tensions in Evansville, and a mob of about 150 armed white men formed the next day intending to lynch Tinsley, unaware he had been secretly transferred to Vincennes by Sheriff Chris Kratz.
Between July 4 and July 10, 1903, successive mobs — swelling to several thousand on July 6 — besieged the Vanderburgh County Jail. Militia guards opened fire on the crowd, killing and wounding several rioters. The mob then looted hardware stores and stormed Black neighborhoods, attacking residents, homes, and businesses. Governor Winfield T. Durbin deployed the Indiana National Guard to restore order.
The riot resulted in 13 deaths, more than 40 serious injuries, and the flight of roughly 2,000 of Evansville's 8,000 Black residents from the city. The violence stands as the worst in Evansville's recorded history and illustrates the broader pattern of anti-Black mob violence in early twentieth-century American cities.
Political Outcome
Mob violence was suppressed after Indiana National Guard deployment; roughly 2,000 Black residents fled Evansville and the city's Black community suffered lasting displacement.
Local law enforcement nominally in control; racial tensions high following policeman's killing
State militia imposed order; Black population significantly reduced through forced displacement