en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_St._Louis_massacre
2 corrections found
who founded the UNIA in 1916
This date is wrong: Marcus Garvey founded the UNIA in Jamaica in 1914, not 1916.
Full reasoning
Multiple authoritative sources date the founding of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) to 1914 in Jamaica. The U.S. National Archives says Garvey was the founder of the UNIA and that it was "formed in Jamaica in July 1914." Parks Canada likewise states that "The UNIA was founded in Jamaica in 1914 by Marcus Mosiah Garvey." Because these sources independently place the organization's founding in 1914, the article's statement that Garvey founded it in 1916 is incorrect.
2 sources
- Marcus Garvey (August 17, 1887 - June 10, 1940) | National Archives
Garvey was known as the founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). Formed in Jamaica in July 1914, the UNIA aimed to achieve Black nationalism through the celebration of African history and culture.
- The Universal Negro Improvement Association of Canada - Canada.ca
The UNIA was founded in Jamaica in 1914 by Marcus Mosiah Garvey.
By 1917, the Black population had increased to about 20,000 out of almost 100,000 total.
Both figures here are too high. A peer-reviewed history puts East St. Louis's Black population in July 1917 at at most about 13,000, and an official 1917 Census Bureau table estimates the city's total population at 74,708.
Full reasoning
This sentence overstates both the Black population and the city's total population in 1917.
A peer-reviewed article in International Review of Social History states that "Between 1910 and 1917, the black population of East St Louis doubled" and that Black residents were "at the most about 13,000 people as a whole by July 1917." Since the article itself gives the 1910 Black population as about 6,000, a doubling would be roughly 12,000, and McLaughlin explicitly caps the figure at about 13,000—not 20,000.
For the city's total population, an official Bureau of the Census publication for 1917 lists East St. Louis, Ill. with an estimated population of 74,708 (with 58,547 in the 1910 census). That directly contradicts the claim that the city had "almost 100,000 total" in 1917.
So the sentence materially inflates the size of both the Black population and the city's overall population for that year.
2 sources
- Reconsidering the East St Louis Race Riot of 1917
"Between 1910 and 1917, the black population of East St Louis doubled" and Blacks were "at the most about 13,000 people as a whole by July 1917."
- Financial Statistics of Cities Having a Population of Over 30,000: 1917
Table 1 identifies the first population column as the estimate for the middle of fiscal year 1917; the row for East St. Louis, Ill. gives 74,708, with 58,547 in the 1910 census.