The places where innocent Black men and women were pulled from trolleys, shot in their workplace, and beaten to death by a mob of 10,000 white men and boys are still there.
The 1906 Atlanta Race massacre shaped the city's geography, economy, society and power structure. The white-on-Black violence in Atlanta shattered hopes of racial harmony and forced thousands from their homes.
The legacy of Atlanta's killings is being restored. There will be historic markers and tours for the September anniversary. A one-act play will be performed in groups. The goal of seating 5000 people to discuss the effects is ambitious.
The massacre doesn't fit in Atlanta's depiction of the civil rights movement, but these activists insist on telling the truth.
King Williams, a journalist who gives tours about what happened, said that the killings of at least 25 Black people and the destruction of Black-owned businesses were meant to prevent African-Americans from claiming equal status.
According to The Associated Press, negroes were pulled from street cars and beaten with clubs, bricks and stones by the mob. It was almost certain death if a negro ventured resistance or remonstrated.
Georgia State University's campus was the starting point for the violence. Williams explains on the tour that the mob set fire to saloons and pounced on Black men and women after reading about attacks on white women.
The barbershop where Herndon made his first fortune was called the Crystal Palace. Poorer white people couldn't stomach the success of a black man.
There were bodies at the statue. Grady championed Atlanta but also championed a lot of the racial rhetoric that we still see today. Most people walk by his statue four blocks from CNN Center.
There are steps from the bridge to the railroad tracks below. The Gammon Theological Seminary is located in the heart of a thriving African American neighborhood.
The mob came searching for weapons on the third day and ransacked businesses and pulled women and children from their homes. A white officer was killed and some 250 black people were arrested. Ann Hill Bond said that no white person was responsible for any of the deaths.
There was no question about the cause. The editor of the Atlanta Constitution and the publisher of the Atlanta Journal were both campaigning for the same position. The papers printed stories about attempts to attack white women.
The publisher of "Voice of the Negro" was run out of town after tying the articles to the racist campaigns.
Most Black people were not allowed to vote for another 50 years after Smith became governor. The Census shows that Atlanta became two-thirds white by 1910. The need to avoid violence was one of the reasons why the city imposed segregation on neighborhoods. One of the nation's leading insurers for Black families was founded by Herndon.
When the massacre was added to Georgia's eighth- grade curriculum in 2007, the label "riot" remained.
Correct language is important for us to remember and honor the lives that were lost. This was a large scale slaughter. Bond leads a change the name campaign. This is the correct way to tell the truth in order to heal. You never heal if you don't rip the Band-Aid off.
The Out of Hand Theater company will perform a one-act play about the massacre by playwrights.
fake news is the biggest through-line for me.
Some people react to Williams on his tours. It is like discovering fire for college students. Older Atlantans are surprised they didn't know about it. He says that people who have skin in the game in the city get squeamish.
A lot of what happened in 1906 overlaps today. A lot of people don't like that Atlanta doesn't shine when it tries to be a respected city on a hill.
Allison Bantimba, who co-founded the Fulton County Remembrance Coalition, said that the violence doesn't match the image of Atlanta that Black people have of it.
Bantimba thinks that restoring the history will make a difference. A lot of people will have to reorient themselves after removing the veil.
That's right.
Michael Warren is a member of the race and ethnicity team.
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