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Introduction
The Spring Valley race riot of 1895 was a violent racial conflict provoked by Eastern and Southern European immigrants against African American coal workers in the mining town of Spring Valley, Illinois. The violence of the conflict is typically isolated to August 4, 1895, but tensions remained high and skirmishes occurred through August 10, 1895.

== Background == Spring Valley is a city located in Bureau County, Illinois, nearly 100 miles southwest of Chicago. In the 1880s and 1890s, the community was growing in size

Prior to the Spring Valley race riot, the state of Illinois "remained ripe for race wars." These conflicts largely coincide with the end of Reconstruction and the beginnings of the period of Nadir of American race relations which were largely defined by violence against African Americans.