Atlanta Race Riot
Encyclopedia
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...
, USA which began the evening of September 22 and lasted until September 26, 1906. An estimated 25 to 40 African-Americans were killed along with 2 confirmed European Americans. The main cause was the rising tension between whites and blacks as a result of competition for jobs, black desire for civil rights
Civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...
, Reconstruction, and the gubernatorial election of 1906.
Causes
Atlanta was considered to be a prime example of how whites and blacks could live together in harmony; however, with the end of the Civil War an increased tension between black wage-workers and the white elite began. These tensions were further exacerbated by increasing rights for blacks, which included the right to vote. With these increased rights, African-Americans began to enter in the realm of politics, began establishing businesses, and gaining notoriety as a social class. These newly acquired African-American rights brought increased competition between blacks and whites for jobs and heightened class distinctions.These tensions came to a boil with the gubernatorial election of 1906 in which Hoke Smith
Hoke Smith
Michael Hoke Smith was a newspaper owner, United States Secretary of the Interior , 58th Governor of Georgia , and a United States Senator from Georgia.-Biography:...
and Clark Howell
Clark Howell
Clark Howell was a Pulitzer Prize winning American newspaper man and politician from the state of Georgia.-Biography:Howell was born on September 21, 1863 in Atlanta, Georgia...
competed for the Democratic nomination. Both candidates were looking to find ways to disenfranchise black voters because they felt that the black vote could throw the election to the other candidate. Hoke Smith was a former publisher of the Atlanta Journal and Clark Howell was the editor of the Atlanta Constitution. Both candidates used their influence to incite white voters and help spread the fear that whites may not be able to maintain the current social order. These papers and others attacked saloons and bars that were run and frequented by black citizens. These "dives", as whites called them, were said to have nude pictures of women, some of whom were white. Competing for circulation, the Atlanta Georgian and the Atlanta News began publishing stories about white women being molested and raped by black men. These allegations were reported multiple times and were largely false accusations.
The Atlanta Race Riot
On September 22, 1906, Atlanta newspapers reported four alleged assaults on local white women. Soon, some 10,000 white men and boys began gathering on Decatur Street in the Five Points area downtown. The newspapers with their incendiary headlines were circulated, and the mob soon turned violent, running down, beating, stabbing.Outcomes
It is estimated that there were between twenty-five to forty African AmericanAfrican American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
deaths. It was confirmed that there were only two White
White people
White people is a term which usually refers to human beings characterized, at least in part, by the light pigmentation of their skin...
deaths. Significant African American social changes were also an outcome of the riot. This included a disturbance of black housing and social patterns. In the years after the riot, African Americans were most likely to live in settled black communities. These communities were most likely found to the west of the city near Atlanta University
Clark Atlanta University
Clark Atlanta University is a private, historically black university in Atlanta, Georgia. It was formed in 1988 with the consolidation of Clark College and Atlanta University...
or in eastern downtown. Black businesses were dispersed to the east, where a thriving black business district soon developed. Other outcomes included an increase in black suffrage in 1908.
Efforts to promote biracial understanding included the creation of the Commission on Interracial Cooperation in 1919 (Which later evolved into the Southern Regional Council). However, white supremacist organizations, such as the Ku Klux Klan, made their return in the city. Nathan Bedford Forrest
Nathan Bedford Forrest
Nathan Bedford Forrest was a lieutenant general in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War. He is remembered both as a self-educated, innovative cavalry leader during the war and as a leading southern advocate in the postwar years...
Klan No. 1 had a membership of over 15,000 within the city, displaying a newfound white bitterness towards blacks.
External links
- Defending Home and Hearth: Walter White Recalls the 1906 Atlanta Race Riot
- NPR: Atlanta Race Riot
- Atlanta Race Riot - The Coalition to Remember the 1906 Atlanta Race Riot
- Atlanta Race Riot of 1906 - Article in The New Georgia Encyclopedia
- Rage in the Gate City - The online home for the book on the 1906 Atlanta Race Riot by Rebecca Burns
- An appeal to reason: an open letter to John Temple Graves, by Kelly Miller. c1906. (searchable facsimile at the University of Georgia Libraries; DjVuDjVuDjVu is a computer file format designed primarily to store scanned documents, especially those containing a combination of text, line drawings, and photographs. It uses technologies such as image layer separation of text and background/images, progressive loading, arithmetic coding, and lossy...
& layered PDF format) - The Atlanta riot: a discourse [delivered] October 7, 1906, by Francis J. Grimke. 1906. (searchable facsimile at the University of Georgia Libraries; DjVuDjVuDjVu is a computer file format designed primarily to store scanned documents, especially those containing a combination of text, line drawings, and photographs. It uses technologies such as image layer separation of text and background/images, progressive loading, arithmetic coding, and lossy...
& layered PDF format) - http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6106285- Npr article about the 1906 Race Riot with interview
- http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/104/-Brief summary of Events
- http://www.1906atlantaraceriot.org/-Historical Foundation with Overview and ways to get involved
- http://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/stories_events_atlanta.html- Brief overview with interview
- http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-3033-Brief overview of 1906 Race Riot
- Georgia National Guard orders and reports regarding the Atlanta Race Riot, 1906. From the collection of the Georgia Archives.
- Georgia National Guard correspondence regarding the Atlanta Race Riot, 1906. From the collection of the Georgia Archives.