"Atlanta massacre" redirects here. For the shooting spree at trading day firms, see 1999 Atlanta day trading firm shootings. For the shooting spree at three spas, see 2021 Atlanta spa shootings.
1906 Atlanta massacre
Part of the Nadir of American race relations
The cover of French magazine Le Petit Journal in October, 1906, depicting the Atlanta race riot
Location
Atlanta, Georgia
Date
September 22–24, 1906
Target
African Americans
Deaths
25+ African Americans, 2 white Americans
Injured
90+ African Americans, 10 white Americans
Perpetrators
White mobs, and Fulton county police.
The 1906 Atlanta Race Massacre, also known as the 1906 Atlanta Race Riot, was an episode of mass racial violence against African Americans in the United States in September 1906. Violent attacks by armed mobs of White Americans against African Americans in Atlanta, Georgia, began after newspapers, on the evening of September 22, 1906, published several unsubstantiated and luridly detailed reports of the alleged rapes of 4 local women by black men. [1] The violence lasted through September 24, 1906.[2] The events were reported by newspapers around the world, including the French Le Petit Journal which described the "lynchings in the USA" and the "massacre of Negroes in Atlanta,"[3] the Scottish Aberdeen Press & Journal under the headline "Race Riots in Georgia,"[4] and the London Evening Standard under the headlines "Anti-Negro Riots" and "Outrages in Georgia."[5] The final death toll of the conflict is unknown and disputed, but officially at least 25 African Americans[6] and two whites died.[7] Unofficial reports ranged from 10–100 black Americans killed during the massacre.[8] According to the Atlanta History Center, some black Americans were hanged from lampposts; others were shot, beaten or stabbed to death. They were pulled from street cars and attacked on the street; white mobs invaded black neighborhoods, destroying homes and businesses.
The immediate catalyst was newspaper reports of four white women raped in separate incidents, allegedly by African American men. A grand jury later indicted two African Americans for raping Ethel Lawrence and her niece Mabel Lawrence. An underlying cause was the growing racial tension in a rapidly-changing city and economy, competition for jobs, housing, and political power.
The violence did not end until after Governor Joseph M. Terrell called in the Georgia National Guard, and African Americans accused the Atlanta Police Department and some Guardsmen of participating in the violence against them. Local histories by whites ignored the massacre for decades. It was not until 2006 that the event was publicly marked – on its 100th anniversary. The next year, the Atlanta massacre was made part of the state's curriculum for public schools.[9]
^Kuhn, C. & Mixon, G., "Atlanta Race Massacre of 1906" Georgia Humanities (2022) [1]
^Charles Crowe, "Racial Massacre in Atlanta: September 22, 1906." Journal of Negro History 54.2 (1969): 150–173. online
^"Un lynchage monstre" (September 24, 1906) Le Petit Journal
^"The Race Riots in Georgia". Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Aberdeen Press and Journal. September 25, 1906. p. 6.
^"Anti-Negro Riots". London, England. London Evening Standard. September 26, 1906. p. 7.
^Burns, Rebecca (September 2006). "Four Days of Rage". Atlanta Magazine: 141–145.
^"Whites and Negroes Killed at Atlanta; Mobs of Blacks Retaliate for Riots – Two Whites Killed; Many Negroes Surrounded; Two of Band That Killed an Officer Try to Escape, but Are Captured and Lynched." (September 25, 1906) New York Times
^"The 1906 Atlanta Race Massacre: How Fearmongering Led to Violence". November 8, 2022.
^Shaila Dewan, "100 Years Later, a Painful Episode Is Observed at Last", New York Times, 24 September 2006; accessed 30 March 2018
and 24 Related for: 1906 Atlanta race massacre information
The Elaine massacre occurred on September 30 – October 2, 1919, at Hoop Spur in the vicinity of Elaine in rural Phillips County, Arkansas where African...
often boiled over into violence, sometimes extreme, such as the 1943 Detroit race riot. Since the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, and especially...
Tulsa racemassacre, also known as the Tulsa race riot or the Black Wall Street massacre, was a two-day-long white supremacist terrorist massacre that...
the Ocoee Massacre, which was subsequently released to many streaming services on the 100th anniversary the next day. Atlantamassacre of 1906 List of incidents...
Attorney Navigates Jim Crow Atlanta". Georgia Historical Quarterly, Winter 2007, vol. 91, issue 4, 453–477. Rabinowitz, Howard N. Race Relations in the Urban...
reports characterized as a race riot. Florida had an especially high number of lynchings of black men in the years before the massacre, including the lynching...
the South Side, were heavily implicated in the riots. The 1921 Tulsa racemassacre in Tulsa, Oklahoma, was even more deadly; white mobs invaded and burned...
S2CID 143935694. Ehrenhaus, Peter; Owen, A. Susan (July–October 2004). "Race Lynching and Christian Evangelicalism: Performances of Faith". Text and Performance...
United States Nadir of American race relations New York City draft riots of 1863 Ocoee massacre (1920) Porvenir massacre (1918) Racism against Black Americans...
incident anywhere in the state was spotlighted and magnified. To the Negro race throughout the South and to some extent in other parts of the country, this...
then-Governor Allen Candler, The Atlanta Constitution, Coweta County, the town of Palmetto, and Jacob Hass of Atlanta. Over the next few days, the furor...
government had no program to help them. Racial antagonism erupted in 1919 as race riots of whites against blacks in numerous cities across the U.S.; it was...
1898, also known as the Wilmington massacre of 1898 or the Wilmington coup of 1898, was a coup d'état and a massacre which was carried out by white supremacists...
The Haymarket affair, also known as the Haymarket massacre, the Haymarket riot, the Haymarket Square riot, or the Haymarket Incident, was the aftermath...
2006. "AtlantaRace Riot". Archived from the original on September 21, 2008. Retrieved September 6, 2006. Charles Crowe, "Racial Massacre in Atlanta: September...
to New Orleans. The Republican Party did not abandon efforts to regulate race relations in the South until at least 1890, with the failure of the Lodge...
Women. Atlanta, Georgia: Atlanta Georgian and Sunday American. Latimer Felton, Rebecca (1919). Country Life in the Days of my Youth. Atlanta, Georgia:...
lynching (1905) 1906Atlantaracemassacre Kemper County, MS (1906) Walker family (1908) Springfield race riot of 1908 Slocum, TX, massacre (1910) Laura...
The New Orleans Massacre of 1866 occurred on July 30, when a peaceful demonstration of mostly Black Freedmen was set upon by a mob of white rioters, many...
chosen that year to add to the National Recording Registry. 2005: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution listed the song as Number One on "100 Songs of the...
the case from a southeast Georgia district attorney to one in the metro Atlanta area 300 miles (480 km) away. The Cobb County District Attorney's Office...
Global Information