One of the ugliest blots on the pages of Evansville’s history was the bloody race riot of 1903, which started over a 5-cent glass of beer.
On the evening of July 3, a black man who called himself Robert Lee (this may have been a alias) was drinking beer at Ossenberg’s saloon at 10th and Mulberry streets. He got into an argument with Thomas Berry, a black bartender, over payment for a nickel beer. Berry finally threw Lee out of the saloon as Lee loudly threatened that he would come back and “get” him.
A white policeman name Louis Massey was walking his beat in the neighborhood. Berry told the officer about Lee’s threat. Presently Lee returned, and as he was about to re-enter the saloon, Massey placed a restraining hand on his shoulder. Lee wheeled around and fired point blank in the policeman’s abdomen.
Before Massey fell, he returned fire and struck Lee in the left shoulder. After several more shots were fired, Massey was rushed to the hospital and Lee was hauled off to jail.
As the morning of July 4th dawned, Massey died, the first Evansville police officer to be killed in the line of duty. When word of his death spread throughout the city, an angry mob began to form.
Sheriff Christian Kratz, sensing that some really nasty trouble was brewing, slipped Lee out of the jail under guard and shipped him by train to the Knox County jail in Vincennes, Indiana.
The angry mob, which had grown to several hundred, many now drunk, refused to believe Lee was gone.
They cut down a telephone pole and used it as a battering ram to try to break into the jail.
As the hysteria escalated, gunshops were looted of firearms and ammunition.
Several black business establishments were set afire, some windows were shot out of Downtown stores, and there was a general outbreak of lawlessness all over the city. Many of the black citizens fled for their lives into the country and hid in the woods,
Mayor Charles Covert ordered all saloons closed and sent an urgent plea to Governor Winfield Durbin for assistance. The governor immediately ordered three companies of the state militia to Evansville, a force of approximately 1000 men.
The rioting continued through July 5th and 6th. By nightfall on July 6th the militia who had cordoned off the jail, was confronted on Fourth Street by a mob of several thousand angry citizens. Rocks were thrown at the militia with taunts of “tin soldiers” and “nigger lovers.” An effigy of a black man was hanged from a light pole.
Suddenly from somewhere in the crowd a shot rang out. It was never determined if an order had been given to the militia, but it opened fire on the mob. Six persons were killed outright and five more died later.
One of those killed was a little girl named Hazel Allman, who was struck by a ricocheting bullet as she sat in their buggy on Court Street. They had driven in from the country to see the excitement.
More than 50 people had to be taken to the hospital with wounds. Five members of the militia were also wounded from gunfire from the mob.
This brought and end to the civil unrest. A grand jury was quick convened and charged Lee with first degree murder.
Meanwhile, Lee had been transferred to the state penitentiary at Jeffesonville.
His shoulder wound had grown worse, and on July 31st, before he could be returned to Evansville for trail, he died and was buried in a pine box in Walnut Ridge Cemetery in Jeffersonville.
Later, it was reported, Vanderburgh County cot a bill for $31 to cover Lee’s burial expenses.
Ironically, Lee’s wife also died, reportedly killed by a train while fleeing from the city along the railroad track
