Brittnee Bethea

Spring 2006

History 3090

 

The Atlanta Race Riot of 1906 and How African Americans Were Affected

 

            Can one believe that in Atlanta, Georgia, that twenty five African Americans and two whites were killed based on the color of their skin?  Well, this happened almost one hundred years ago when on September 22, 1906, when a race riot broke out.  It was kind of odd that the African Americans and the whites had been living together freely in communities since April of 1865, when the Civil War and slavery had ended.  Even twenty years before the riot, a man named Henry W. Grady gave a speech before the New England Society in New York on December 22, 1886, entitled The New South.   Grady said:

The New South presents a perfect democracy, the oligarchs leading into the popular movement—a social system compact and closely knitted, less splendid on the surface, but stronger at the core—a hundred farms for every plantation, fifty homes for every palace, and a diversified industry that meets the complex needs of this complex age.  The New South is enamored of her new work.  [Also,] no section shows a more prosperous laboring population that the negroes of the South, none in fuller sympathy with the employing and land-owning class.1

 

Although Grady had some good ideas for the New South, many did not accept his ideas because they were not interested in Northern interests, growing other crops, or raising the price of cotton.  Many white Southerners found it amusing how Grady portrayed the race relation of the South to the North.  In 1887, Grady helped establish the International Cotton Exposition where millions of dollars would be invested in the South and many jobs would be established.  Grady died three years after giving this speech, so he was not around to give his opinion on the race riot.  However, a monument of Grady was built at Marietta Street and Forsyth Street to represent the fact that he was a newspaperman, a writer, and coined the phrase the New South.  The white mob, which killed the first three African Americans of the riot, dragged the bodies of the African Americans to the foot of the monument to show what the New South was really about. 

            Prior to the riot in 1906, Atlanta was going through a gubernatorial race.   The candidates were Hoke Smith and Clark Howell.  This gubernatorial race was such an issue because “the candidates attempted to use negrophobia in Georgia to their favor.”2  Another thing that was occurring was a newspaper war between the different papers in Atlanta.  They would see who could get a story out the fastest, who would have the best headline, and how cheap they could sell the paper for just to sell more copies than another paper.   Also during this time, “The Georgian suggested that eleven assaults had been made by blacks against white women during the past seven weeks alone.”3  So in September the Southern white race had enough of these so called “Negro Crimes” and formed a mob. 

            On the evening of Saturday, September 22, 1906, the riot broke out.  The newspapers would issue extras whenever a big event happened in the riot.  “The Constitution stated that “the first disorder” occurred at Pryor and Decatur streets, where white youths assaulted a black bicycle messenger, who was then rescued by the police.”4   The mob contained between 2,000 and 10,000 people on the first night.  They were “armed with sticks, rocks, guns, and other weapons of violence, they “made war upon the negro population” until after midnight.”5  The mob was walking up and down the streets just looking for unlucky African Americans, who were not at home, that they could kill. 

Since some African Americans had heard a rumor about the riot occurring, “black businesspersons and professionals—blocked from purchasing firearms from white businesses—secretly began importing arms into the city.”6  The African Americans who were at home during the time of the riot would sit near a window with their gun watching for the mob to come.  As the mob was walking the streets there was a time when there was no one on the street.  However off in the distance they saw a street car heading toward Grant Park, the street car had both white and African American passengers.  “Frenzied whites hurl rocks through the passenger windows and force their way inside the car.”7  The mob allowed the whites to escape, but the four African American men and three African American women were beaten.  Only one of the men and all three women were conscious.    The police were called in to stop the fighting on the street car.  After this incident, the mob broke up into four units and walked the streets.  Since there were fewer people out on the streets and street cars, the mob vandalized any African American businesses they came across.  Early on the morning of Sunday, September 23, 1906, the state militia was called to help with the riot.  The state militia that reported was the Fifth Georgia Infantry.  The state militia lined the streets of downtown.  When many whites woke up, they got on street cars and headed downtown to see the damage that had been caused from the riot the night before.  During the day, the whites were walking the streets looking for African Americans who had committed crimes on white women.  In the afternoons, it is said that black men were going around shooting at white people walking the streets.  The mob hears of this and goes to Auburn Avenue and sees a street car containing an African American.  The mob blocks the path of the street car and shakes it off of the lines.  On W. Harris Street, an African American is walking up and down the sidewalk with a rifle and ammo.  He runs into the alley and fires upon the whites.  Police Sergeant Hewell hears the shots and investigates what has happened and arrests the man.  The mob is fighting with the sergeant because they want to lynch the man.  After the attack of the street car, the militia was placed at the end of the street car line in order to warn African Americas not to go downtown.  The African Americans were smashing the street lights in their neighborhoods, so the mob could not see at night when walking the streets.  Also, on Sunday no extras were published by the newspapers because the state militia said it was too dangerous.  On Monday, September 24, 1906, Judge Nash Broyles enters the Fulton County recorder’s court to hear the cases of both white and African American people arrested because of the riot.  Broyles said:

Any person guilty of inciting a riot and brought before me for trail may expect to receive the limit of the law.  Guilty negroes will be prosecuted, but the innocent ones must be protected.  I’ll give you thirty days without a fine and hand you over to the superior court under a $5,000 bond for assault with intent to murder and for rioting.8

 

Also, on that Monday a military order is issued to not sell firearms, and the mayor orders saloons to be closed.  There were twenty five more deputy sheriffs that became a part of Fulton County to help with enforcing the laws now that the riot is over.    

Although the riot only lasted for three days, the violence of the riot left a lasting impression on people both white and African American.  In some cases, the riot had changed their lives forever.  The word of the riot had spread fast to the nation and world wide.  “The outside world was shocked by the disorder in this “model” New South city, the violence and destruction of the 1906 riot were the predictable conclusion to two decades of hate mongering.”9  The Atlanta riot received press in other major newspapers in the nation.  The Washington Post contained an article from the Philadelphia Press comparing the Atlanta riot to the draft riot that happened in New York during the Civil War.  In New York the mob had just opened an attack on the negroes.10  The New York Times published an article where Booker Washington says, “Riots helped Negroes [have a] better understanding between races since [the] Atlanta clash.”11  The Atlanta Constitution published an article where Governor Jelks, of Alabama, talks about Atlanta’s riot.   The Governor says, “Races must have understanding.  The two races can never get on until there is an understanding on part of both to make common cause against criminals.”12  In the Cleveland Journal Rev. Dr. Francis J. Grimke gave advice “To every, black man throughout the southland, I say, and say deliberately, be prepared to defend yourselves if necessary.”13   “The Atlanta race riot had a number of significance effects on the city and its tourism business.”14  However the city wanted to “restore law and order and to return to business as usual in Atlanta.”15  The riot mostly affected the African Americans.  Many of the African American population left Atlanta because they were afraid that another race riot would break out.  The African Americans who stayed in Atlanta saw the changes that African American businesses had to make.   “The race riot resulted in the segregation of African American businesses in Atlanta.”16  The businesses relocated to African American parts of town.  “Following the riot, there was a large influx of black businesses to Auburn Avenue.”17  John Wesley Dobbs renamed Auburn Avenue to “Sweet Auburn” because he called it “the richest Negro street in the world.”18  ”Sweet Auburn” became known as the black downtown due to the fact that so many African American businesses were located here.   Some of the African Americans that were affected by the race riot are William Edward Burghardt Du Bois, Alonzo Herndon, Booker T. Washington, John Wesley Dobbs, and Walter White.  These African Americans were either a resident in the city and/or did business in the city.

William Edward Burghardt Du Bois was born in 1868 in Massachusetts.  Du Bois attended school at Fisk University, Harvard, and the University of Berlin.  In 1897, he moved to Georgia.  Du Bois came to Atlanta to take a faculty position at Atlanta University.  The position Du Bois was placed in was to establish a program for sociology and its curriculum.  Although Du Bois was pleased with his job in Atlanta, he was not pleased with how African Americans did not have appropriate medical services.  He felt like the loss of his son was due to this fact.  In his early years at Atlanta University, he published many books relating to the African American conditions in Georgia.  In 1905, he founded the Niagara Movement, which is a group of African American intellectuals.  When the riot broke out in September of 1906, Du Bois was in Alabama doing research.  During the riot, “he armed himself with a shotgun and sat on the steps of South Hall at Atlanta University, protecting his wife and daughter.”19  Du Bois wrote a poem entitled “A Litany of Atlanta” to express his views of the riot.  “Afterward he kept a double-barreled shotgun in his home for protection against the white mobs.”20  In 1909, help found the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).  In the following year, Du Bois would leave Georgia but later return in 1934.  Du Bois continued to research and write books.  Although Du Bois continued to be productive after the riot, his life would always be changed by the events he witnessed in the Atlanta race riot.

Alonzo Herndon was born in Social Circle, Georgia into slavery in 1858.  He was the son of Frank Herndon, who was his master.  At age seven, his mother and their family went into share cropping.  Herndon was able to do odd jobs to make some extra money, which allowed him to get out of Social Circle.  When Herndon left Social Circle in 1878, he had $11.00 and a year of education.  After leaving Social Circle, he ended up in Jonesboro, Georgia, where he learned the trade of barbering.  In 1882 Herndon was able to move to Atlanta, where he worked for an African American barber on Marietta Street.  By 1904, Herndon owned three barbershops.  His shop at 66 Peachtree Street was spacious and appeared to be well designed on the inside.  This is the shop where most elite whites came to get their hair cuts.  In 1905, Herndon purchased the Mutual Insurance Association that was failing.  He was able to turn the company into the Atlanta Life Insurance Company, which is owned by African American stockholders.   On the evening of September 22, 1906, Herndon had closed his barbershop on 66 Peachtree Street early because he heard what was going to happen.   It was a good thing that he left early because the windows were smashed.  The Herndons stayed here throughout the riot, but after the riot Herndon’s wife and son left for Philadelphia to attend a better school.  Herndon’s wife wrote Booker T. Washington saying, “The riot and the unsettled conditions here make us feel that we can never hope to have [a home] in this ungodly section.”21  After the riot, Herndon stayed in Atlanta and did business like normal, and in 1927 he died the richest black man.  Although Herndon did not feel the need to keep a gun with him in years following the riot, he just felt the need to get his son away from the violence for a while. 

            Booker T. Washington was born a slave in Virginia in 1865.  At age nine he started working in the salt and coal mines in West Virginia.  He desperately wanted to get an education, so he enrolled in Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute in 1872.  Washington paid his way through school by being a janitor.  Seven years later Washington became an instructor at Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute; he also directed 75 Native Americans.  Washington did such a good job at Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute that in 1881 Tuskegee Institute had asked him to be principal and organizer of an African American school.  In 1895, Washington gave his speech known as the Atlanta Compromise at the Atlanta Exposition.  “One-third of the population of the South is of the negro race.”22  So his speech was given to a mixed audience.  Washington was a teacher and spokesman for the African Americans.  In September of 1906, when the riot broke out Washington became the most influential spokesman for the African Americans.  Washington would spend two days a week helping out the African Americans in Atlanta.  Washington said, “The main thing now is to keep the colored people from becoming discouraged.”23  Washington believes, “all agree that the police authorities were criminally negligent and, in fact, in many cases sided with the rioters.”24  Everything was quiet in the city and would probably stay that way for a while. 

It is to the honor of the white people and the colored people of Atlanta that immediately after the riot in 1906, the best people of both races came together in a determination that the conditions which made that outbreak possible should be changed.25

 

Washington did not feel pressured by the whites because he just believed that there would come a day where African Americans would be just as equal and able to mingle with whites.  Washington’s views are what helped the African Americans the most.

            John Wesley Dobbs was born in 1882 in Kennesaw, Georgia.  Here he was raised in poverty on a farm.  His parent’s divorced, so he went to Savannah in 1891 to live with his mother.  In Savannah he was able to go to school full time, but that came to an end when the family could no longer afford to pay for an education.  Dobbs education did go up to the fifth grade.  Dobbs got the chance to move to Atlanta in 1897, and attend Atlanta Baptist College.  In 1903, Dobbs took the civil service exam to become a railway mail clerk for the U.S. Post Office in Atlanta.  Dobbs worked with the U.S. Post Office for thirty two years.  In 1906, when the riot broke out Dobbs was at home.

John Wesley Dobbs sat, in a fright, inside the bolted front door of 446 Auburn Avenue, gripping his Colt revolver.  His ammunition was set neatly on the floor next to him.  Dobbs often practiced his marksmanship at a local shooting range, as was the custom among railway mail clerks.  He had been issued the gun to protect the U.S. mail, though now he would not hesitate to use it to protect his family.26 

 

When the riot was over, “As a precaution, John Wesley Dobbs kept guns and bullets hidden in his house for decades to come” because he was afraid of what might happen.27  The Dobbs daughters grew up and went to Spelman College in Atlanta after the riot.  “Dobbs worked to instill in his children a sense of self-worth and a desire to succeed.  He forbade them to attend segregated events and constantly reminded them of their equality.”28    The years following the riot Dobbs founded the Atlanta Civic and Political League in 1936.  In 1946, he co-founded the Atlanta Negro Voters League.  During the later part of Dobbs life he really worked toward African American equality.  Then in 1961 when he passed away, it was also the same day that Atlanta city schools were desegregated.  Even though Dobbs came up in poverty, he viewed the race riot a much worse experience.

            Walter White was born in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1893.  From the last name White on would probably assume that he was a white man, however, he is an African American.  White was only thirteen years old when the riot broke out in 1906.  At the time the riot started, White and his dad were out on the streets delivering mail.  Since their skin was so light, they were able to pass for white men.  That night when they returned home he “was handed a gun by his father, a postal carrier, as a white mob approached the family home on Houston Street.”29  “Walter White was affected profoundly by the experience” he now knew who he was.30  Despite the fact that White was an African American; he went on to accomplish many things.  In 1916, he graduated from Atlanta University.  After graduating, he got a job with the Standard Life Insurance Company.   Then from 1925 to 1955, he was the chief secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).   He was able to speak of the out come of Brown v. Board of Education in 1954.  Although White found out early in life what race was, he was able to overcome that tragic event.

            The Atlanta Race Riot of 1906 is a forgotten piece of history by many.  Many people just simply do not know about it.  Many others have a horrible memory of the time.  The African Americans in this essay are very different people, but all are affected for one general reason only by the color of their skin.   As the Centennial approaches, many are hoping to make a lasting impression on people as they are putting together an exhibit, entitled Red was the Midnight; The 1906 Atlanta Race Riot Exhibition, at the Dream gallery of the Martin Luther King National Historic Site’s Visitor Center.  The exhibit will be on display from May 2006 to February 2007.  Hopefully, the message will get across to others.

Notes

 

  1. Henry W. Grady.  “The New South.”  The New England magazine, Volume 8, Issue 1, March 1890.
  2. Gary M. Pomerantz, Where Peachtree Meets Sweet Auburn. (New York: A Lisa Drew Book/Scribner, 1996), 72.
  3. Gary M. Pomerantz, Where Peachtree Meets Sweet Auburn. (New York: A Lisa Drew Book/Scribner, 1996), 73.
  4. Gregory Mixon, The Atlanta Riot. (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2005), 87.
  5. Gregory Mixon, The Atlanta Riot. (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2005), 86.
  6. David Fort Godshalk, Veiled Visions. (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2005), 84.

7.   Mark Bauerlein, Negrophobia.  (San Francisco: Encounter Books, 2001),

165.

8.   Mark Bauerlein, Negrophobia.  (San Francisco: Encounter Books, 2001), 186-187.

9.  Dorsey, Allison. To Build Our Lives Together Community Formation in      Black Atlanta, 1875-1906. (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2004) 158.

     10. “Atlanta and New York,” The Washington Post, 26 September 1906 p.6.

11. “Riot Helped Negroes, Says Booker Washington,” New York Times, 27 November 1906, p.6.

12. “Races Must Have Understanding,” The Atlanta Constitution, 25 September 1906, p.3. 

13. “Atlanta Riot,” Cleveland Journal, 3 November 1906, vol. 4, p. 4.

14.  Harvey K.Newman.   Southern Hospitality Tourism and The Growth of Atlanta.  (Tuscaloosa: The University of Alabama Press, 1999),68.

15. Harvey K.Newman.   Southern Hospitality Tourism and The Growth of Atlanta.  (Tuscaloosa: The University of Alabama Press, 1999),68.

16. Harvey K.Newman.   Southern Hospitality Tourism and The Growth of Atlanta.  (Tuscaloosa: The University of Alabama Press, 1999),70.

17. Atlanta’s Sweet Auburn (Washington, DC: Department of Interior) [database on-line]; available from Historic American Buildings Survey/ Historic American Engineering Record, HABS GA-1170, 3.

18. Atlanta’s Sweet Auburn (Washington, DC: Department of Interior) [database on-line]; available from Historic American Buildings Survey/ Historic American Engineering Record, HABS GA-1170, 4.

19. Gary M. Pomerantz, Where Peachtree Meets Sweet Auburn. (New York: A Lisa Drew Book/Scribner, 1996), 75.

20. Derrick P. Alridge.   “W.E.B. Du Bois,” The New Georgia Encyclopedia.  Published 14 May 2003.

21. Carloe Merritt, The Herndons An Atlanta Family.  (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2002),101.

22. Booker T. Washington, Up From Slavery.  (New York: Penguin Books Ltd, 2000), 151.

23. Booker T. Washington, “To Wallace Buttrick,” The Booker T. Washington Papers, Vol. 9 (1981): 80.

24. Booker T. Washington, “To Francis Jackson Garrison,” The Booker T. Washington Papers, Vol. 9 (1981): 84.

25. Booker T. Washington, “To William Malone Baskervill,” The Booker T. Washington Papers, Vol. 12 (1981): 116.

26. Gary M. Pomerantz, Where Peachtree Meets Sweet Auburn. (New York: A Lisa Drew Book/Scribner, 1996), 76.

27. Gary M. Pomerantz, Where Peachtree Meets Sweet Auburn. (New York: A Lisa Drew Book/Scribner, 1996), 76.

28. Matthew Bailey. “John Wesley Dobbs,” The New Georgia Encyclopedia.  Published 26 August 2005.

29. Gary M. Pomerantz, Where Peachtree Meets Sweet Auburn. (New York: A Lisa Drew Book/Scribner, 1996), 75.

30. Gary M. Pomerantz, Where Peachtree Meets Sweet Auburn. (New York: A Lisa Drew Book/Scribner, 1996), 76.