Illinois congress members seek 1908 Race Riot designation

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) - Illinois members of Congress are seeking National Historic Monument status for the Springfield site of the 1908 Race Riots.

Republican U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis tells The (Springfield) State Journal-Register that he and Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth will introduce legislation to memorialize the crisis in Abraham Lincoln's hometown which led to the forming of the NAACP.

It's set for a block-long stretch downtown where city officials and the NAACP are planning a memorial. A 2014 railroad construction project unearthed the remains of homes burned during the rioting and artifacts from a mid-1800s immigrant neighborhood.

The conflagration raged from Aug. 14-16, 1908. Two black men suspected of attempting to rape white women were secreted out of town. A furious lynch mob ransacked black neighborhoods, burning homes and killing residents.

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Information from: The State Journal-Register, http://www.sj-r.com