Chicago Race Riot of 1919-- Part 6: James Crawford Shoots at Police and Is Killed

BIKE TOUR

The first stop after the beach is at the city's oldest black Baptist church, the 145-year-old Oliver Baptist at 3101 S. King Drive.  During the 1920s it had  some 10,000 members and was the largest black church in the United States and the largest Protestant church in the world.

It was an active station on the Underground Railroad during slavery and in effect was the community center in Chicago's segregated "Black Belt" at the time, home of 40 different social, economic and cultural organizations and, during the riots it was headquarters for those trying to stop the violence.

D. Bradford Hunt of Chicago's Newberry Library who helped lead the bike tour said:  "Eugene Williams drowns.  Police refuse to arrest the white guy.  African Americans on the beach are furious.  At some point an African American man shoots a gun at police.  Someone gets injured.  Police chase him over the tracks, toward Olivet, and about two blocks northeast, they shoot and kill the guy."

The man was James Crawford, 37, a Southerner who had come up from Georgia, shot at 6 p.m. on July 27 at 29th Street and Cottage Grove Avenue.

Near Death Experience at Indy 500 in 1992-- Part 3: Steve Wissen's Other IMS Encounters

As horrible as was his experience, Steve Wissen remembers other:  "I was the first one to get to Gordon Smiley when he died  (in 1982).  I was with the first crew to reach Danny Ongais (1981) when he had his horrifying wreck.  Good grief, who can forget Jim Crawford (1990)?  We had already started to pull out, and the next thing we know, he's 10 feet above our heads, car and all."

But, he says, he has also had some great times with the friends he made.  He remembers A.J. Foyt telling stories during rain delays.

Buddy Lazier was the 1996 Indianapolis 500 Champion and made his 20th run in the storied race on Sunday (but didn't finish).

Wissen did not attend the 101st Running this past Sunday because of a family wedding.

We did have a terrifying wreck this past Sunday on the 52nd lap between Scott Dixon and Jay Howard.  How Dixon walked away from this is beyond me.

--Cooter

Indy 500 Safety Crew Member Almost Killed in Race 25 Years Ago-- Part 1

From the May 27, 2017,Indianapolis (Ind.) Star "Driver meets safety crew member he nearly killed during race 25 years ago" by Clifton Brown.

Buddy Lazier also cpmpeted in this year's 500.

"Steve Wissen was nearly killed by Buddy Lazier's race car 25 years ago.  The two men had never met until Thursday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

"In 1992, Lazier's race car streaked toward Wissen while he was doing his job on the track as chief of the IMS safety crew, cleaning up debris from Tom Sneva's wreck in Turn 4.  Lazier left the pits and re-entered the track after the accident, accelerating to catch the field that was under the yellow flag.

"Lazier didn't realize Wissen's crew was still on the track in Turn 4.  By the time Lazier saw Wissen, it was almost too late.  The race car moved toward Wissen at more than 200 mph like a guided missile.  Wissen raised his hands to his head.  He closed his eyes.  He prepared for the worst.

"'I was standing in the high-speed groove,' recalled Wissen, now 65 years old.  'It was like I watched it in slow motion.'

"Lazier missed Wissen by inches, deftly guiding the car between Wissen and the wall.  Wissen was so close to being hit that he was spun around and knocked to the ground by the backdraft from Lazier's car."

--Cooter

There Was Another Auto Racing Track Near Indianapolis-- Part 2: Bloody Jungle Park Speedway

In places, you can still find remnants of the track, a combination of gravel and oil.  The grandstands, still standing as already mentioned, were built in 1947 and the track opened in 1927.

Jungle Park was bloody almost since the beginning.  In the track's second season, race official Earl Parker was mowed down by a speeding racer as he repaired the track.  The following July, a spectator was killed..  Two months later its first driver was lost and the next year another spectator was knocked unconscious when a race car flew into a fence post causing it to hit him.

Three more drivers were killed at Jungle Park the next two years.  At the time, seatbelts were nonexistent and emergency medical care rudimentary, but that was racing back then.  Even the Indianapolis Motor Speeedway, a sophisticated, well-funded racing operation, had 22 fatalities in the 1930s, three of them spectators.

--DaCooy

Bikes Were All the Chicago Rage in the 1890s-- Part 3: Competition and Females

Hundreds of cyclists competed in the annual Pullman Bicycle Race which drew as many as 100,000 spectators along its 15 mile route

Cycling tracks were built in the parks.  Garfield Park was where the black cyclist Major Taylor set a world record in 1899 while doing a mile in just over a minute 22 seconds.  The Chicago Tribune called him "The Colored Wonder."

There were other endurance competitions racing for six days with only short breaks.  One such competition took place at the Chicago Colesium which resulted in Illinois' General Assembly making it illegal to race for more than 12 hours straight.

Some worried that the female body was too fragile to withstand the physical efforts of cycling.  Others feared that bicycling made it too easy for young men and women to socialize away from watchful eyes.  One coachman crashed in 1896 when he was distracted by the sight of "a well-formed woman wearing a suit of of red bloomers."

--DaCoot