The Chicago Race Riot of 1919 Commemoration Project (CRR19) commemorates the worst incident of racial violence in the city’s history. The event has been long forgotten despite its impact on the subsequent shape and development of the city. Our 2.5-hour historic bike tour allows people to see, first-hand, some of the locations related to the events of 1919, the long shadow of residential segregation, as well as the incredible resilience of the local Black community. Our slow-paced ride will travel about 8 miles and features many stops along the way in Bronzeville and Bridgeport, two adjacent Southside neighborhoods with quite distinct, albeit interlinked, histories and demographics.
Formally launched on the 100th anniversary of the riot, we aim to ignite conversations about past and present racism in Chicago and across the US. The path to achieving racial equity and justice first demands acknowledging the horrors of the past and the ways that structural inequities persist in communities of color.
Stolpersteine, an ongoing German project commemorating Holocaust victims, offers us a powerful model for how to use dispersed public art to remember past atrocities and provoke conversations about their legacy. Inspired by Stolpersteine, CRR19 and our art studio partner created and installed commemorative markers at each of the 38 locations where someone was killed in 1919. We will visit a few of our markers.
Please make a donation so we can continue to offer our tours for free and expand our public art.
What you need to know:
The Bike Tour will take place on Friday, September 4, 2026 before the official beginning of sessions at the Socialism 2026 conference later that afternoon.
Riders are responsible for bringing their own bikes, and are encouraged to be proactive in securing a bike by the time the tour starts. If you need to rent a bike, you can rent a bike from the City's Divvy bicycle fleet. For a day-pass, the cost is $19.90/day which entitles one to 3 hours free, then $0.20/min after that. Pricing is here. (Note: e-bikes are more expensive).
A map of Divvy bike locations can be found here.
Riders will meet with their bikes at 9:00am at the front entrance to the Hyatt Regency McCormick Pl., 2233 S Martin Luther King Dr. (the tour will begin at 9:30).
The tour will end by 12pm.
Bike helmets must be provided by riders themselves.
The tour is very slow-paced (3-4 mph), mostly along bike lanes, and in a group.
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