Carol Gunio

History 3090

March 27, 2006

Atlanta Race Riot: Newspapers Difference of Opinions

This year marks the 100^th year anniversary of the Atlanta Race Riots, which began on September 22, 1906 and continued until September 26^th. Much of the violence was fueled by political events and the Atlanta newspapers printing stories about alleged crimes committed by Negroes. The riots were also reported in many other newspapers and magazines across the country and overseas in England and France. The difference of opinions regarding the reporting of the riots and what actually occurred were very evident in the many articles. There were some papers that wrote about the “yellow journalism” that was evident in various papers. This paper will first research the actual events of the riots with some background events that incited the white men into the rage. Then a comparison of the reporting by Atlanta newspapers versus stories published in other areas of the United States.

Actual Recorded Events

The Atlanta Race Riots began on September 22, 1906. Two factors are attributed to the riots. The gubernatorial race of Hoke Smith consisted of race-baiting. Hoke Smith had aroused racial animosity by calling for the total disfranchisement of blacks.¹ Also between August and September there were a number of articles in the five Atlanta newspapers reporting about problems with blacks. These newspapers’ staffs understood that public fascination with black-on-white assaults helped boost sales in an intensely competitive market.² On September 22^nd there were reports that black men had raped white women. Of the supposed rapes, one took place in DeKalb County and three took place in Atlanta.

The public believed that their white beliefs or supremacy were being destroyed because of the black assaults on white women. However, the exact details of the assaults cannot be backed up because of there are no details of court testimony. During this time period, the simple glance from a black man could constitute an assault. The mob leaders were going after the blacks to preserve and restore the order to their beliefs between white supremacy and blacks. Prior to the riots there were debates locally, statewide and nationally over the proper place for blacks. Hoke Smith’s victory helped to confirm the whites’ supremacy.

Prior to the riots, blacks began to organize things to defend themselves much like the whites were because of reports that were printed in newspapers. The blacks were importing guns and ammunition into the homes and communities. There had already been times when the blacks, both men and women, had to defend their property from the whites moving in on their communities.

On September 22^nd, a white mob gathered on Decatur Street. The mobs’ fury was provoked by extra editions of the newspapers headlining the assaults on white women. The men began shouting that all the black men needed to be killed to protect their women. On Auburn Street they began attacking streetcars and destroying shops and businesses that were owned by blacks. The mobs also destroyed homes owned by blacks. While the attacks were going on, word spread of them and more whites joined the mobs. These attacks were primarily on property that bordered property owned by whites. The city police and local militia were present, but did little to stop the mobs. The blacks were surprised and outnumbered by the whites and could do little to protect themselves and their property. Blacks did try to stop the distribution of the extra editions of the newspapers and tried to fight back. There was a bigger fight near the post office. At the old union depot was the worst attack, where the mob wanted to kill all the blacks in town. The fire chief also used the hoses to spray water on the mobs to help break up the riot. These sent the mobs down different streets and continued to attack blacks and were shouting for a lynching. During the first night of rioting, five blacks were killed.

September 23^rd saw the arrival of the state militia. Again many of the militia left their ranks and joined the white rioters. The streets were quiet on Sunday for the most part, as there were some small fights around the city. Groups of blacks would take the dead black bodies off of the streets so they could have a proper burial. With the militia present, they provided whites with “a sense of Security.”³

The disturbances started up again on Monday, September 24^th. The whites had heard rumors that the blacks were planning an attack on the whites. Because of these rumors, the riots moved to Brownsville which was a middle-class area south of Clark University where attacks continued on the blacks. While the blacks were trying to defend themselves, they found themselves being arrested by the police for weapons violations. When a policeman was shot and killed, the blacks went to hide in their homes. Dark Town was an area that had the reputation of being the place where the bad blacks lived. Raids against Dark Town and Brownsville were bold attempts to extend white power into the private spaces that African Americans had long defended from white incursion.⁴ These areas were not like the others because they bordered white property.

The police and militia began entering homes on September 24^th to find guns and arrest the rioters, but instead they beat and arrested more blacks. They were also focused on avoiding retaliatory attacks by the blacks. Blacks stated that the militia and police were not trying to re-establish peace; rather they were taking out their hatred for blacks just like the mobs.

On Tuesday, the 25^th, a meeting of leading citizens was called for 4 P.M., in the courthouse by Samuel D. Jones, president of the Chamber of Commerce.⁵ The committee consisted of 1,000 whites and blacks who pleaded for an end to the riot and to help rebuild Atlanta after the riots. Mr. Jones was elected to go to black churches to speak to their congregations. He was to assure them that peace would be restored and those who were guilty of the attacks would be punished. Mr. Jones also went to the city council members regarding saloons. At first, he wanted to have saloons who served blacks needed to be closed. As a compromise, all saloons both white and black were closed until early October. Each saloon was investigated to make sure that they were orderly businesses.

Atlanta Newspapers

The Atlanta papers were publishing articles stating that there were assaults on white women. The white men were getting very nervous about these assaults and felt that everything should be done to protect the white women. They were demanding that the county board meet immediately and prevent any more assaults. Some of the remedies they felt were necessary were substantially increasing the number of country police. One article in the Atlanta Journal stated “Every man in Fulton county should, if necessary, be made a deputy – a volunteer policeman – and should be given the power of using his discretion to prevent the occurrence of any more of these unspeakable crimes.”⁶ The white man also felt that since it was their right to protect their homes and property, that this also included their woman.

The Atlanta Constitution had a reporter writing an article regarding where the weapons were coming from that were used in the riots. The claims were that a number of guns and ammunition came from the city of Columbus, Georgia and surrounding areas were sent to Atlanta for the riots. The writer also was using information that was from exaggerated telephone conversations. One of the conversations claimed that there were 6,000 people killed in Atlanta.

The newspapers also reported that the blacks needed to be frightened as much as possible. It was suggested that the white women (wives, daughters and sisters) be taught how to use guns to protect them. With the yellow journalism found in one Atlanta newspaper, other local papers followed with more yellow journalism. With the riots continuing the Atlanta News continued with the yellow journalism, while the other local papers were asking for law and order in the city. Whites were beginning to see the violence as appalling and wanted an end to the riots.

The editors of the Atlanta newspapers were also using the papers for political influence. They made the public believe that the white elites were being attacked by the blacks. The owners of the Atlanta Journal likewise used racist attitudes to build that newspaper’s political influence locally and to establish a platform for Progressive reform.⁷

National Newspapers / Magazines

Many newspapers from other areas around the country reported on the exaggerations that were found in the Atlanta newspapers. In the New York Times on September 24, 1906 contained an excerpt from the Atlanta Constitution’s Editorial Section. The fear of the white man was evident in the editorial with mention of the attacks on white women. It is interesting to note that within the editorial the writer wrote that in the indiscriminate fury of the movement several innocent victims were deprived of their lives.⁸ Another article in the New York Times reported that feelings against blacks were stirred by speeches from Hoke Smith during the governor’s race. The New York Times and World papers both published a letter from Washington about the riots in Atlanta asking blacks to show self-control and not retaliate.

A number of articles were run in the Washington Post with regards to the riots. One article published on September 24^th wrote of the causes of the riots and mirrored the reports in the New York Times. It was also felt that Hoke Smith and Senator Tillman’s talks about the blacks were the cause. Such utterances stirred up the bad blood of the illiterate classes and prepare them for riot and murder.⁹ Another article printed on September 26, 1906 published news about the riots in Atlanta. The conclusion of the article wrote of the hundreds of rumors that were reported to the authorities and newspapers. In not a single instance had any of the tales been verified – indeed, the opposite had been established – that they were absolutely false.¹⁰ When dispatches were sent from Atlanta to other local papers, there was incorrect information. This information was being censored or were suppressing the facts.¹¹

An article in the Wisconsin Weekly Advocate also wrote of the assaults on white women prior to the riots. Also how many innocent blacks being killed by the mobs and they were just killed because they were black. They felt that the mob leaders should be sought out and held responsible for the deaths of the blacks during the riots. The Wisconsin Weekly Advocate acknowledged the black issue as being an issue for the nation and not just the south, as reference was made to a lynching in New York.

Again in The Independent from New York wrote of the assaults of white woman. The article also talked of the sensationalized articles in Atlanta papers regarding these attacks. Extra editions being published about the attacks and had inciting headlines. It was even written that at least one of the newspapers, which has openly suggested and commended lynching.¹² A black man who was said to be innocent by one of the assault victims was still lynched.

CONCLUSIONS

The exact number of deaths as a result of the riot is not clear. Some sources report that the confirmed number of deaths was a total of twenty-five blacks and one white person while others report ten blacks and two whites were killed. Reports in the New York Times stated also that the exact number of deaths could not be determined. Blacks were secretly taking the bodies of the dead and giving them a proper burial. There were hundreds of people injured. Many of the black wounded men were hidden because they were afraid of retaliation by the whites.

Many people of Atlanta were surprised how the white mobs, which consisted of a small group of whites, were able to cause so much harm to their community. Extensive damage was done to black property and a lot was destroyed. As a result of the riots many blacks left Atlanta to stay away from trouble, but many were away only temporarily. Many black Atlantans lost their jobs or abandon the lives they had attempted to build in the city.¹³

While the Atlanta papers did print a lot of sensationalized articles and may not have substantiated some of the resources, they did acknowledge comments by eighteen papers from around the country by printing excerpts from those papers in Atlanta. Some of these articles wrote of yellow and sensational journalism. Others wrote of Atlanta being the shame of the South and the unfair treatment of the blacks during the riots. Many accused people in Atlanta were denied due process; rather the mob used their own justice against the blacks by killing them by beating them up, lynching, stab wounds or gun shots. Other Georgia papers felt that the mob riots were an extreme action, but they felt that their women should be protected. These papers hoped that their police learned a lesson from Atlanta and would help them to be prepared to protect their women. While others wrote of Atlanta and the sympathy they felt for Atlanta’s affluent citizens and how ashamed they are of the riots. But at the same time they wrote “It begins to look as though this southland is not big enough for both negro and the white man.”¹⁴ Some of the sentiment was that innocent blacks would not help to capture black criminals. As a result the southern white man will treat the negro like a brute and a beast if nothing else to tame him, for tame he shall be or exterminated.¹⁵

It was thought that the riots helped to put the blacks in their place and that the blacks would be kept in their place for many years. It was felt that segregation in the South would help to ensure racial harmony and prevent any further assaults on white women. It was also unfortunate that the newspapers only wrote of blacks who committed crimes. There were rarely articles about the success of educated blacks in the community.

Nationally and worldwide, news had spread of the Atlanta Race Riots. In fact it was compared to similar episodes that occurred with attacks in Russia and Poland for example. Information regarding the riots was still being published in national newspapers and magazines into the spring of 1907 because so many were wanting to know the facts of the riot. Atlanta’s image had been tarnished and actions were taken to help improve the image. Atlanta worked at improving their commercial trading with cities in the north and east. The Atlanta newspapers also learned from their actions during the riots. They also did not sensationalize racial stories in the years after the 1906 race riots.

End Notes

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¹ Kenneth Coleman, A History of Georgia, 2^nd ed., s.v. “Part Five: 1890 – 1940.”

² David Fort Godshalk, Veiled Visions: the 1906 Atlanta Race Riot (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2005), 35.

³ Gregory Mixon, The Atlanta Riot (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2005), 104.

⁴ Godshalk, Veiled Visions 109.

⁵ Franklin M. Garrett, Atlanta and Environs, Vol. II. (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1969), 503.

⁶ “Protect Our Women At Any Cost,” The Atlanta Journal, 25 August 1906.

⁷ Mixon, The Atlanta Riot, 104.

⁸ “Atlanta Views On Riots.: Blame for the Outbreak is Laid on the Negroes,” The New York Times, 24 September 1906, p. 2.

⁹ “Blames Tillman and Smith,” The Washington Post, 24 September 1906, p. 2

¹⁰ “19 Dead In Atlanta: Governor Calls More Troops to the Capital,” The Washington Post, 26 September 1906, p. 1.

¹¹ “19 Dead In Atlanta,” The Washington Post, 26 September 1906, p. 1.

¹² “Race Riots and Murders in Atlanta,” The Independent, 27 September 1906.

¹³ Godshalk, Veiled Visions 106.

¹⁴ “Press Comment on Atlanta’s Outbreak,” The Atlanta Constitution, 26 September 1906.

¹⁵ “Press Comment on Atlanta’s Outbreak,” The Atlanta Constitution, 26 September 1906.