Biden to designate the site of 1908 race riot a national monument [Video]

President Joe Biden will sign 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 will be joined by civil rights leaders to mark the 116th anniversary of the riots, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said during a briefing Wednesday.The designation of the Springfield national monument comes weeks after the city found itself at the epicenter of calls for racial justice after a White sheriff’s deputy shot and killed Sonya …