Biden designates site of 1908 race riot in Springfield, Illinois, a national monument [Video]

President Joe Biden signed a proclamation Friday designating the site of a 1908 race massacre in Springfield, Illinois, a national monument.For two nights in August 1908, a White mob laid siege to Springfield, indiscriminately looting, burning and destroying Black-owned homes and businesses, in a race riot that would become known as the Springfield Massacre.Two Black men were lynched during the riot and their deaths fueled calls to start a national movement for political and racial justice that ultimately led to the creation of the oldest civil rights organization in the country: the NAACP.Biden marked the 116th anniversary of the riots by calling out the movement in recent years to “literally erase history” by limiting what can be taught in schools about America’s complex, racist past.The president said the new national monument preserves part of that history, “so our children, our grandchildren, everybody, understands what happened – and what can still …