Atlanta Massacre of 1906
22-24 September 1906Decatur Street and the Brownsville neighbourhood, Fulton County, GA
After a campaign season built on invented reports of Black assaults, white mobs attacked Black Atlantans for three days, killing at least 25 people and accelerating the removal of Black voting rights in Georgia.
The 1906 Georgia governor's race was fought between two white candidates competing over how completely to disenfranchise Black voters, amplified by newspapers that ran repeated and largely invented reports of Black men assaulting white women.
On the evening of 22 September crowds of white men formed downtown and moved through Decatur Street and Peters Street, beating and killing Black people they found in the streets, on streetcars and in their workplaces. The violence continued for three days and reached the Black neighbourhoods of Brownsville and Darktown, where residents armed themselves; police and state militia then disarmed Black residents and arrested them. At least 25 Black people were killed - probably more - and two white men died.
The massacre destroyed Black commercial life on Decatur Street, pushed Black professional and business life toward Auburn Avenue, and silenced Black political voice in the city. In 1908 Georgia amended its constitution to disenfranchise Black voters almost completely, which is what the campaign had promised.
Sources
- Atlanta Race Riot of 1906New Georgia Encyclopedia, Georgia Humanities and University of Georgia Pressgeorgiaencyclopedia.org
- The Atlanta Race Riot (1906)BlackPast.orgblackpast.org