Thread by @AnthonyMKreis

There’s a lot of talk about the Tulsa riot, but it was one point in a pattern of racial violence in American cities. The Atlanta race riot of 1906 continues to shape the city today— it was deadly and gave birth to a new wave of segregation and disenfranchisement in Georgia.

In fall 1906, Georgia was in the middle of a hotly contested gubernatorial election. Hoke Smith (who won) ran a campaign grounded in white supremacy— he repeatedly made baseless allegations that Black men were sexually assaulting white women and Georgians should take action.

At the same time, Atlanta was rapidly growing. Poor Black Georgians and poor whites flooded the city looking for work. The stiff competition for jobs between white and Black Atlantans stirred up anger among white Atlantans, who resented having to stand on equal footing for work.

Some Black Atlantans were thriving throughout Downtown. Especially on Decatur Street. Alonzo Herndon was the most successful entrepreneur of all. On Peachtree Street, he opened a high end barbershops— a crystal palace— that drew in all sorts of well-to-do customers downtown.

After additional allegations of sexual assaults against white women perpetrated by Black men were published in the papers, on Sept. 22 a mob of whites in the thousands poured into downtown Atlanta and around Decatur Street. They attacked Black Atlantans, pulled them off trolleys.

The white mob hanged bodies of Black victims from city lampposts. The white mob went into Herndon’s barbershop, dragged two barbers out of the store, and murdered them. In all, between 25 and 100 Black residents were killed. It took the governor three days to call in the guard.

City leaders were embarrassed— not by the mob— but by the bad press the city received. So, a deal was struck. Eventually, Black businesses were segregated from the previously integrated immediate downtown areas and moved on Auburn Ave— what we now recognize as Sweet Auburn.

And the next legislative session, the Georgia General Assembly adopted a disenfranchisement law that took Black voter participation from ~25% to under 5%. Hoke Smith got his way. Atlanta was more segregated than ever. Black voting strength was decimated.

Atlanta is often referred to as “the city too busy to hate.” Nothing could be further from the truth in the early 20th Century. And the consequences of those riots still shape our city’s geography and culture today. The past is never really past.