The Knoxville Race Riot in Knoxville, Tennessee, was one of several race riots that took place in the “Red Summer” of 1919. It was a race riot, which means it involved violence between different racial groups. This event took place on August 30 and 31, 1919. For many years after the Civil War, Knoxville was seen as a city where Black and White people got along. This was unusual for a city in the Southern United States. Black citizens in Knoxville could vote, hold public jobs, and even work as police officers. In 1918, a respected Black leader named Charles W. Cansler wrote that relations between races in Knoxville were very good. He said that no race riots had ever happened there. The last place anyone — least of all a Knoxvillian — might have looked for signs of impending racial violence was surely in this east Tennessee city, where Mayor John E. McMillan, a Democrat, had denounced the Ku Klux Klan, and gained a following among Blacks.
The riot began on August 30, 1919, when an intruder entered the home of Bertie Lindsey, a twenty-seven-year-old White woman. In late May of 1919 while her husband was looking for a job in Akron, Ohio she was living alone in their home until mid-July, when her 21-year-old first cousin, Ora Smyth, moved in from her parents' farm. Bertie Lindsey and Ora Smyth were asleep in a double bed in the front room when someone entered. The women were awakened, and a pistol shot was fired, striking Bertie Smyth Lindsey in the chest. She died almost immediately. The only witness was Lindsey’s twenty-one-year-old cousin, Ora Smyth. Smyth, who soon after the intruder left their Knoxville home, ran next door to the house of a city policeman. Two patrolmen, Jim Smith and Andy White, arrived on the scene. Smyth described the intruder as a light-skinned Negro, with a gun in one hand and a flashlight in the other.
Patrolman White then got his superior officer's permission to go with three others in search of a man White considered a prime suspect. The man's name was Maurice F. Mays. Andy White, immediately accused Maurice Mays. Mayes, a well-known political figure, was rumored to be the illegitimate son of Knoxville Mayor John E. McMillan. Mays had a reputation for associating with both Black and White women, making him unpopular with many of the city's White residents. He became known as “Uncle John’s bastard son”. He was a well-known African American political figure who briefly served as a deputy sheriff in North Knoxville. Though he was married, he did not live with his wife — or with his mother and stepfather. He was known to have connections among gamblers and prostitutes.
Patrolman Smith later testified that Officer White specifically singled out Mays because of a personal grudge. At around 3:30 AM, Knoxville police arrived at the Mays home on Humes Street. The only evidence they found was a .38 revolver, which the officers decided must have been fired recently. They arrested Mays and took him back to Eighth Street, where the distraught Ora Smyth “identified” him as the intruder after barely glancing at Mays. Maurice Franklin Mays was then taken to the Knox County jailhouse. Police in Knoxville knew there might be trouble. So, they moved Maurice Mays from the smaller city jail to the larger Knox County Jail. The county Sheriff W. T. Cate then, fearing trouble, arranged for Mayes to be removed to Chattanooga.
At around 8:00 a.m. the next morning, angry Whites began to congregate near the Knox County Jail. A few individuals broke into the jail in search for Mays thinking Mays was there. A much larger and angrier crowd formed in Market Square. By late afternoon, about 5,000 people were in Market Square. By noon, news of the murder had spread, and scattered groups of men began to congregate in the downtown market square. Guns were everywhere in evidence. A crowd of curious onlookers had gathered at the county jail, thinking Mays was being held there. Around 5:00 PM, the crowd at the jail became very angry. They demanded that Mays be brought out. Deputy sheriff Carroll Cate and jailer Earl Hall told them Mays was not there. They even let some people from the crowd look inside the jail. Sheriff Cate and Hall could not convince the crowd that Mays was gone, they locked the jail's strong riot doors.
Unable to find Mays, around 8:30 PM, the rioters used dynamite to break into the jail. They searched every floor for Mays. In the ensuing melee, no Black prisoners were disturbed, but a dozen White inmates were freed, including three under murder charges. The liquor storage room was pillaged, and the jail demolished. As rumors of violence circulated, the crowd broke into downtown hardware stores, armed themselves, and fought a pitched gun battle with the residents of a predominantly Black neighborhood. A detachment of the National Guard, from a nearby training camp had been called in to reinforce the outnumbered policemen. They proved to be of little use in controlling the crowd, as guardsmen joined the White mob and fired into Black-occupied buildings.
While the White mob was smashing windows and taking more guns and ammunition from hardware stores and pawn shops along the way, soldiers rushed to set up machine guns at Vine and Central and at other points in the vicinity. When the soldiers turned onto Vine Street, a gun battle started. Black defenders fired at both the rioters and the soldiers. The shooting continued for several hours. The black defenders tried to capture the machine guns many times but could not. They were outgunned and slowly left Central and Vine. One National Guard officer was killed accidentally by his own men, and one African American was also shot and killed. By dawn a nervous calm had settled over the empty streets. On the morning of Sunday, August 31, several hundred additional guardsmen restored order.
The effect on the Black community was devastating. The National Guard quickly blocked off Central Street. They searched all Black homes, sometimes forcibly in the blocked area. A rule was put in place that everyone had to be home by a certain time. Also, 200 white citizens were temporarily made special police officers. Small reports of violence continued throughout the day. Whites, on the other hand, were generally left alone by the authorities. Thirty-six Whites were arrested, but an all-White jury refused to convict any of them. From the moment of Mayes arrest he had steadfastly maintained his innocence. The state, with equal steadfastness, moved rapidly to convict and punish him. He called the case against him "unfair and prejudiced."
In October 1919, Mays's trial began. Former mayor Samuel Heiskell was a special prosecutor. Mays was defended by lawyers Reuben Cates and William F. Yardley. During the first two days of testimony 15 witnesses were called, including the husband of Bertie Lindsey, the doctor who examined her body, and several police officers involved in the investigation. But the most attention by far was paid to two people: Ora Smyth, the eyewitness, and Andy White, the arresting officer. As the trial entered its third day, Cates called White back to the stand for more cross-examination and attempted to show that he had nursed a long-standing grudge against Mays and was attempting to frame him for the Lindsey murder. White had focused his suspicion on Mays even before his investigation, Cates suggested.
The first defense witness was Mays himself. In a soft-spoken but confident manner, he described his activities on the day of the crime. The defense called 20 more witnesses to support Mays's claim of innocence. The state took just 35 days after Bertie Lindsey's murder to arrest and convict the only suspect and prescribe his punishment. An all-White jury took 18 minutes to find Mays guilty, of Lindsey's death. But two and a half years would elapse before it administered that punishment to Maurice Mays. Even though there was no clear reason for the crime and very little evidence, Mays was found guilty. No reports on fingerprints or ballistics or an autopsy were presented in evidence. The case was later overturned by the Tennessee Supreme Court. But Mays was found guilty again in a second trial in April 1921 and sentenced him to die in the electric chair. Six months later, the Tennessee Supreme Court affirmed the verdict, finding no trial errors and no technical flaws to warrant another reversal. On March 15, 1922, as he continued to proclaim his innocence, Maurice Mays died in the electric chair.
Because no African American prisoners were harmed in the mob’s assault on the jail, many historians believe that Mayes was the only target of the crowd. The subsequent march to the African American section of town and the ensuing firefight has convinced other historians that while the Knoxville riot of 1919 may not have begun as a race riot, it ultimately became one. Mayor McMillan’s earlier attacks on the Ku Klux Klan and the city’s comparatively placid racial atmosphere demonstrate a progressive attitude among many Whites that stands in sharp contrast to the mob action of August 30-31, 1919. Deputy Carroll Cates estimated that between 25 and 30 had been killed, while National Guard Major Maurice Martin placed it between 30 and 40. Others placed the death toll in the hundreds. The riot prompted many African Americans to flee the city. In 1926, former mayor John McMillan believed to have been Mays's biological father, committed suicide.