For more than a month, mayhem and murder, rape and robbery had been rampant in Indianapolis and surrounding Marion County. Husbands armed themselves, then armed their wives. People bought watchdogs. Locksmiths did a land-office business and householders chained their doors at night. From exclusive Meridian Hills to Pat Ward's Bottoms, nerves were taut. Indianapolis had escaped race trouble during the war, but all the ingredients for an explosion were there now.
The city has 65,000 Negroes, 15% of the population. For whatever sociological or economic reasons, Negroes had generally been involved wherever the police could get a line on a...
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