Wartime industry in the 1940s attracts workers to the shipyards of booming Beaumont, Texas, where the Piney Woods meets the bayous of the Neches River.

On this day in 1943, for the second time in two weeks, a white woman alleges to have been raped by a Black man. 4000 white people gather at the jail, but the woman cannot identify any of the suspects as her assailant. Mobs enter Black neighborhoods, assaulting residents and destroying 100 homes. Martial law and a curfew are declared. The National Guard is called in and the highways are closed. Black workers are banned from going to work. Liquor stores and parks are closed. Violence continues for several days. Two Black men and one white man are killed, dozens injured, and more than 200 arrested. No one is prosecuted for the deaths.