Four decades after the Civil War ended, tensions had risen between white and black populations in the northern states with race riots erupting in Ohio, Indiana, Missouri, Kansas and other areas.

Springfield - Friday, Aug. 14, 1908

• Police arrest George Richardson, a black man falsely accused of raping a white woman, Mabel Hallam.

• A white crowd gathers at the Sangamon County Jail, demanding the release of Richardson, and another black prisoner, Joe James, accused of the July murder of a white man.

• Sheriff Charles Werner creates a diversion and moves the prisoners to Bloomington.

• The mob takes its vengeance out on Harry Loper, a white man who let the sheriff use his car to move the inmates. Loper's car and restaurant are burned. A riot erupts.

• Springfield's state militia is called in, but a lack of ammunition makes the unit ineffective.

• In two areas filled with black-owned businesses and residences, dozens of stores, offices and homes are methodically ransacked and burned. Estimates say from 5,000 to 12,000 spectators watched.

• Meanwhile, about 2,000 black residents flee to the State Arsenal, nearby Camp Lincoln, and other Central Illinois towns where some post signs telling blacks to keep moving. In Jacksonville and Peoria, blacks can't leave trains.

Saturday, Aug. 15

• About 2 a.m., local barber Scott Burton, a black man protecting his property, is shot dead; his body is dragged a block and lynched from a tree, and shot again.

• Around 5 a.m. Bloomington troops, along with other state units, arrive. The Daily Pantagraph reports the unit rescues a black man from a mob, and that troops are fired upon by rioters.

• By afternoon, about 500 members of the state militia patrol quell one mob action, but others flare up. More Illinois units are called in, but don't arrive for hours.

• At 7p.m., a mob heads to the home of William Donnegan, a black retired shoemaker. His throat is slashed, and he's dragged to a schoolyard where they try to hang him. Troops rush him to the hospital, but he dies the next morning.

• As midnight nears, close to 1,500 militia troops are around the state capitol.

Sunday, Aug. 16 and later

• By dawn, much of the state's capital is in ruins. Nearly 4,000 troops patrol the city, marking the largest deployment of Illinois militia to this day. Seven people are dead, including two who were lynched. Forty homes and 24 businesses are ruined.

• Of more than 100 riot indictments, there is only one conviction for a minor crime. The killers of Burton and Donnegan remain free, as do the many arsonists.

• Richardson is freed in September, after Hallam recants. James is returned to Springfield and later executed.

SOURCES: text of Roberta Senechal de la Roche; Ron Swan; and The Daily Pantagraph archives