Chicago burned long before its buildings did.In the searing summer of 1919, the Windy City became a battleground. As Black veterans returned from World War I with dignity and expectations, they met a society unwilling to grant them basic rights, let alone respect. When a Black teenager was killed for crossing an invisible racial line on Lake Michigan's segregated beach, the city erupted.Riot in the Windy City unearths the deep fault lines of racial tension, economic anxiety, and political betrayal that fueled one of the deadliest race riots in American history. Through gripping narrative, personal accounts, and historical clarity, James G. Edwards II exposes how Chicago's streets became war zones—and how the embers of injustice still smolder today.This is more than history. It's a warning.

Chicago burned long before its buildings did.In the searing summer of 1919, the Windy City became a battleground. As Black veterans returned from World War I with dignity and expectations, they met a society unwilling to grant them basic rights, let alone respect. When a Black teenager was killed for crossing an invisible racial line on Lake Michigan's segregated beach, the city erupted.Riot in the Windy City unearths the deep fault lines of racial tension, economic anxiety, and political betrayal that fueled one of the deadliest race riots in American history. Through gripping narrative, personal accounts, and historical clarity, James G. Edwards II exposes how Chicago's streets became war zones—and how the embers of injustice still smolder today.This is more than history. It's a warning.

Chicago burned long before its buildings did.In the searing summer of 1919, the Windy City became a battleground. As Black veterans returned from World War I with dignity and expectations, they met a society unwilling to grant them basic rights, let alone respect. When a Black teenager was killed for crossing an invisible racial line on Lake Michigan's segregated beach, the city erupted.Riot in the Windy City unearths the deep fault lines of racial tension, economic anxiety, and political betrayal that fueled one of the deadliest race riots in American history. Through gripping narrative, personal accounts, and historical clarity, James G. Edwards II exposes how Chicago's streets became war zones—and how the embers of injustice still smolder today.This is more than history. It's a warning.