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The Atlanta Riot
%
Ray Stannard Baker
Republished, by permission, from The American
Magazine for April, 1907, the first of a series
called " Following the Color Line," now
being published in that magazine
&
Committee of Twelve
For the Advancemnt of the Interest*
of the Negro Rac«
CHtYUfcV, PA.
Copyright, 1907, l>y the Phillips Publishing Co. All rights reserved
i
/
A NEGRO OF THE CRIMINAL TYPE
The lowest stratum, in all of our American lif'\ is the " worthless negro," as
he is called in the South. He is a wanderer, here to-day, there to-morrow; he is
densely ignorant and lazy and often with no white var ru )o is his friend. He
corks only wh "12 he hungry ,*• and he is as much a cntnx tal as he dares to be.
i > is h Li J JT, g/, Zl L'/j '''/ rr r7<fry yrar, tin u , i \'at::<el\ verv small compared
with the 10,000,000 negroes in the country, that ' er most of the trouble in the
South. It carouses in the saloons, overflows the /u , till th-' chain-gangs: the ac-
>\i'?its of its horrible crimes against women floth ' e > -papers, giving a bad
name >0 ''V entire negro race
[The American Magazine]
A RACE RIOT, AND AFTER
BY RAY STANNARD BAKER
ILLUSTRATED WITH PHQTOGRAPHS BY A. B. PHEI.AN AND OTHERS
PON the ocean of antago¬
nism between the white and
negro races in this coun¬
try, there arises occasion¬
ally a wave, stormy in its
appearance, but soon sub¬
siding into quietude. Such
a wave was the Atlanta riot. Its omi¬
nous size, greater by far than the ordi¬
nary race disturbances which express them¬
selves in lynchings, alarmed the entire
country and awakened in the South a new
sense of the dangers which threatened it.
A description of that spectacular though
superficial disturbance, the disaster incident
to its fury, and the remarkable efforts at
reconstruction will lead the way naturally—
as human nature is best interpreted in
moments of passion—to a clearer under¬
standing, in future articles, of the deep and
complex race feeling which exists in this
country.
On the twenty-second day of September,
1906, Atlanta had become a veritable social
tinder-box. For months the relation of the
races had been growing more strained.
The entire South had been sharply annoyed
by a shortage of labor accompanied by high
wages and, paradoxically, by an increasing
number of idle negroes. In Atlanta the
lower class—the "worthless negro"—had
been increasing in numbers: it showed
itself too evidently among the swarming
saloons, dives, and "clubs'' wnicn a com¬
plaisant city administration allowed to
exist in the very heart of the city. Crime
had increased to an alarming extent: an
insufficient and ineffective police force
seemed unable to cope with it. With a
population of 115,000 Atlanta had over
17,000 arrests in 1905; in 1906 the number
increased to 21,602. Atlanta had many
more arrests than New Orleans with nearly
three times the population and twice as
many negroes; and almost four times as
many as Milwaukee, Wisconsin, a city
nearly three times as large. Race feeling
had been sharpened through, a long and
bitter political campaign, negro disfran¬
chisement being one of the chief issues under
discussion. An inflammatory play called
"The Clansman," though forbidden by
public sentiment in many Southern cities,
had been given in Atlanta and other places
with the effect of increasing the prejudice
of both races. Certain newspapers in At¬
lanta, taking advantage of popular feeling,
kept the race issue constantly agitated,
emphasizing negro crimes with startling
headlines. One newspaper even recom¬
mended the formation of organizations of
citizens in imitation of the Ku Klux
movement of reconstruction days. In the
clamor of this growing agitation, the voice
of the right-minded white people and
industrious, self-respecting negroes was
COPVRIOHT. 1007. BY THE PHILLIPS PUBLISHING CO. ALL RIOHT8 RESERVED
I
The pawnshops, with windows like arse¬
nals, furnish the low class of negroes and
whites with cheap revolvers and knives
almost unheard. A few ministers of both
races saw the impending storm and sounded
a warning—to no effect; and within the
week before the riot the citizens, the city
administration and the courts all waked up
together. There were calls for mass-
meetings, the polise began to investigate
the conditions of the low saloons and dives,
the county constabulary was increased in
numbers, the grand jury was called to meet
in special session on Monday the 24th.
But the awakening of moral sentiment in
the city, unfortunately, came too late.
Crime, made more lurid by agitation, had
so kindled the fires of hatred that they could
not be extinguished by ordinary methods.
The best people of Atlanta were like the
citizens of prosperous Northern cities,
too busy with money-making to pay atten¬
tion to public affairs. For Atlanta is
growing rapidly. Its bank clearings jumped
from ninety millions in 1900 to two hun¬
dred and twenty-two millions in 1906, its
streets are well paved and well lighted, its
street-car service is good, its sky-scrapers
are comparable with the best in the North.
In other words, it was progressive—few
cities I know of more so—but it had for¬
gotten its public duties.
Within a few months before the riot there
had been a number of crimes of worthless
negroes against white women. Leading
negroes, while not one of them with whom I
talked wished to protect any negro who was
really guilty, asserted that the number of
jthese crimes had been greatly exaggerated
and that in special instances the details had
been over-emphasized because the criminal
was black; that they had been used to
further inflame race hatred. I had a per¬
sonal investigation made of every crime
against a white woman committed in the
few months before and after the riot.
(Three, charged to white men, attracted com¬
paratively little attention in the newspapers,
although one, the offense of a white man
named Turnadge, was shocking in its details.
Of twelve such crimes committed by negroes
in the six months preceding the riot two
were cases of rape, horrible in their details,
three were aggravated attempts at rape,
three may have been attempts, three were
pure cases of fright on the part of the
white woman, and in one the white woman,
first asserting that a negro had assaulted
her, finally confessed attempted suicide.
The facts of two of these cases I will
narrate—and without excuse for the horror
of the details. If we are to understand the
true conditions in the South, these things
must be told.
One of the cases was that of Mrs.
Knowles Etheleen Kimmel, twenty-five
years old, wife, of a farmer living near
Atlanta. A mile beyond the end of the
street-car line stands a small green bunga¬
low-like house in a lonely spot near the
edge of the pine woods. The Kimmels
who lived there were not Southerners by
birth but of Pennsylvania Dutch stock.
They had been in the South four or five
years, renting their lonesome farm, raising
cotton and corn and hopefully getting a
little ahead. On the day before the riot a
strange rough-looking negro called at the
back door of the Kimmel home. He wore
a cast-off khaki soldier's uniform. He
asked a foolish question and went away.
Mrs. Kimmel was worried and told her
husband. He, too, was worried—the fear
of this crime is everywhere present in the
South—and when he went away in the
afternoon he asked his nearest neighbor
to look out for the strange negro. When
he came back a few hours later, he found
fifty white men in his yard. He knew what
had happened without being told: his wife
was under medical attendance in the house.
She had been able to give a clear de¬
scription of the negro: bloodhounds were
brought, but the pursuing white men had
so obliterated the criminal's tracks that he
could not be traced. Through information
given by a negro a suspect was arrested
and nearly lynched before he could be
brought to Mrs. Kimmel for identification;
when she saw him she said: "He is not
the man." The criminal is still at large.
One day weeks afterward I found the
husband working alone in his field: his
wife, to whom the surroundings had become
unbearable, had gone away to visit friends.
He told me the story hesitatingly. His
prospects, he said, were ruined: his neigh¬
bors had been sympathetic but he could
not continue to live there with the feeling
that they all knew. He was preparing to
the negroes as much as I could. But many
of them won't work even when the wages
are high: they won't come when they agree
to and when they get a few dollars ahead
they go down to the saloons in Atlanta.
Every one is troubled about getting labor
and every one is afraid of prowling idle
negroes. Now, the thing has come to me,
and it's just about ruined my life."
When I came away the poor lonesome
fellow followed me half-way up the hill,
asking: "Now, what would you do?"
One more case. One of the prominent
TWO NEGROES OF THE CRIMINAL TYPE
Will'Johnson, who is now in the Atlanta
jail charged with the Camp assault (see
page 578), has already been convicted of
another assault
Lucius Frazier, who entered a home in
the residence district, where a mother, wife
and four daughters were alone. A neighbor,
called by one of the daughters, saved them
give up his home and lose himself wnere
people did not know his story. I asked
him if he favored lynching, and his answer
surprised me.
"I've thought about that," he said. "You
see, I'm a Christian man, or I try to be.
My wife is a Christian woman. We've
talked about it. What good would it do?
We should make criminals of ourselves,
shouldn't we? No, let the law take its
course. When I came here, I tried to help
florists in Atlanta is W. C. Lawrence. He
is an Englishman, whose home is in the
outskirts of the city. On the morning
of August 20th his daughter Mabel, four¬
teen years old, and his sister Ethel,
twenty-five years old, a trained nurse who
had recently come from England, went
out into the nearby woods to pick ferns.
Being in broad daylight and within sight of
houses, they had no fear. Returning along
an old Confederate breastworks, they were
DECATUR STREET, WHERE THE RIOT ORIGINATED
It is a street of low saloons, dives, negro "clubs" and pawnshops, frequented by
the lowest classes of both races. A few days before the riot an investigating committee
counted no fewer than 2455 idle negroes in the 40 saloons of Decatur street
met by a brutal-looking negro with a club
in one hand and a stone in the other. He
first knocked the little girl down, then her
aunt. When the child " came to " she found
herself partially bound with a rope.
"Honey," said the negro, "I want you to
come with me." With remarkable pres¬
ence of mind the child said: "I can't, my
leg is broken—" and she let it swing limp
from the knee. Deceived, the negro went
back to bind the aunt. Mabel, instantly
untying the rope, jumped up and ran for
help. When he saw the child escaping the
negro ran off.
"When I got there," said Mr. Law¬
rence, " my sister was lying against the
bank, face down. The back of her head
had been beaten bloody. The bridge of
her nose was cut open, one eye had been
gouged out of its socket. My daughter
had three bad cuts on hef head—thank
God, nothing worse to either. But my
sister, who was just beginning her life,
will be totally blind in one eye, probably
in both. Her life is ruined."
About a month later, through the in¬
formation of a negro, the criminal was
caught, identified by the Misses Lawrence,
and sent to the penitentiary for forty years
(two cases), the limit of punishment for at¬
tempted criminal assault.
In both of these cases arrests were made
on the information of negroes.
The effect of a few such crimes as
these may be more easily imagined than
described. They produced a feeling of
alarm which no one who has not lived
in such a community can in any wise
appreciate. I was astonished in travel¬
ing in the South to discover how widely
prevalent this dread has become. Many
white women in Atlanta dare not leave
their homes alone after dark; many white
men carry arms to protect themselves
and their families. And even these pre¬
cautions do not always prevent attacks.
But this is not the whole story. Every¬
where I went in Atlanta I heard of the fear
of the white people, but not much was said
cf the terror which the negroes also felt.
And yet every negro I met voiced in some
way. that fear. It is difficult here in the
North for us to understand what such a
condition means: a whole community name-
lessly afraid!
The better-class negroes have two
sources of fear: one of the criminals of their
own race—such attacks are rarely given
much space in the newspapers—and the
other the fear of the white people. My
very first impression of what this fear of
the negroes might be came, curiously
enough, not from negroes but from a fine
white woman on whom I called shortly
after going South. She told this story.
" I had a really terrible experience one
evening a few days ago. I was walking
along street when I saw a rather
good-looking young negro come out of a
hallway to the sidewalk. He was in a
great hurry, and, in turning suddenly, as
a person sometimes will do, he acciden¬
tally brushed my shoulder with his -arm.
Pie had not seen me before. When he
turned and found it was a white woman
he had touched, such a look of abject
terror and fear came into his face as I
hope never again to see on a human coun¬
tenance. He knew what it meant if I was
frightened, called for help and accused
him of insulting or attacking me. He
stood still a moment, then turned and ran
down the street, dodging into the first
alley he came to. It shows, doesn't it,
how little it might take to bring punish¬
ment upon an innocent man!"
The next view I got was through the
eyes of one of the able negroes of the South,
Bishop Gaines of the African Methodist
Episcopal Church. He is now an old
man, but of imposing presence. Of wide
attainments, he has traveled in Europe, he
owns much property, and rents houses to
white tenants. He told me of services he
had held some time before in south Georgia.
Approaching the church one day through
the trees, he suddenly encountered a white
woman carrying water from a spring.
She dropped her pail instantly, screamed
and ran up the path toward her house.
"If I had been some negroes," said
Bishop Gaines, " I -should have turned and
fled in terror; the alarm would have been
given, and it is not unlikely that I should
have had a posse of white men with blood¬
hounds on my trail. If I had been caught
JACKSON ROW
One of a number of black settlements in Atlanta. Small, dilapidated houses crowded
into irregular alleys are filled ivith negroes, many of them widows zvith children, who
make a living bv serving white families. These negroes are all near the edge of poverty,
descending sometimes into crime, but living a happy-go-lucky life
5
"SCpsn
^Sfeigwfe*
saw. a [,„,
ft"
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Facsimiles of some Atlanta papers of Sept. 22, igo6
"*~\i
what would my life have been worth ? The
woman would have identified rne—and
what could I have said? But I did net
run. I stepped out in the path, held up
one hand and said:
"' Don't worry, madam, 1 am Bishop
Gaines, and I am holding services here in
this church.' So she stopped running and
I apologized for having startled her."
The negro knows he has little chance
to explain, if by accident or ignorance he
insults a white woman or offends a white
man. An educated negro, one of the ablest
of his race, telling me of how a friend of his
who by merest chance had provoked a num¬
ber of half-drunken white men, had been set
upon and frightfully beaten, remarked:
"It might have been me!"
Now, I am telling these things just as
they look to the negro; it is quite as im¬
portant, as a problem in human nature, to
know how the negro feels and what he says,
as it is to know how the white man feels.
On the afternoon of the riot the news¬
papers in flaming headlines chronicled
four assaults by negroes on white wom¬
en. I had a personal investigation made of
each of those cases. Two of them may have
been attempts at assaults, but two pal¬
pably were nothing more than fright on
the part of both the white woman and
the negro. As an instance, in one case
an elderly woman, Mrs. Martha Hol-
combe, going to close her blinds in the eve¬
ning, saw a negro on the sidewalk. In a
terrible fright she screamed. The news was
telephoned to the police station, but before
the officials could respond, Mrs. Holcombe
telephoned them not to come out. And
yet this was one of the "assaults" chroni¬
cled in letters five inches high in a news¬
paper extra.
^ In short, Atlanta before the riot was in a
condition of extraordinary nervous ten¬
sion. A thorough study of the psychology of
this riot, as of many others, would un¬
doubtedly show that the chief cause was
^fear—fear on both sides—the sort of panic
fear that strikes out blindly, not knowing
or caring what it hits.
And finally on this hot Saturday half-
holiday, when the country people had come
in by hundreds, when every one was out of
doors, when the streets were crowded,
when the saloons had been filled since early
morning with white men and negroes, both
drinking—certain newspapers in Atlanta
began to print extras with big headings
announcing new assaults on white women
by negroes. The Atlanta News published
five such extras, and newsboys cried them
through the city ;
"Third assault."
"Fourth assault."
The whole city, already deeply agitated,
was thrown into a veritable state of panic.
The news in the extras was taken as truth¬
ful; for the city was not in a mood then for
cool investigation. Calls began to come
in from every direction for police protec¬
tion. A loafing negro in a back yard, who
in ordinary times would not have been
noticed, became an object of real terror.
The police force, too small at best, was
thus distracted and separated.
In Atlanta the proportion of men who
go armed continually is very large: the
pawnshops of Decatur and Peters streets,
with windows like arsenals, furnish the low
class of negroes and whites with cheap
revolvers and knives. Every possible ele¬
ment was here, then, for alhurderous out¬
break: the good citizens, white and black,
were far away in their homes; the bad
men had been drinking in the dives per¬
mitted to exist by the respectable people
cf Atlanta; and here they were gathered,
by night, in the heart of the city.
And finally a trivial incident fired the
tinder. Fear and vengeance generated it:
it was marked at first by a sort of rough,
half-drunken horseplay, but when once
blood was shed, the brute, which is none
too well controlled in the best city, came out
and gorged itself. Once permit the shackles
of law and order to be cast off, and men,
white or black, Christian or pagan, revert
to primordial savagery. There is no such
thing as an orderly mob.
Crime had been committed by negroes,
but this mob made no attempt to find the
criminals: it expressed its blind, unreason¬
ing, uncontrolled race hatred by attacking
every man, woman or boy it saw who had a
black face. A lame boot-black, an inof¬
fensive, industrious negro boy, at that
moment actually at work shining a man's
shoes, was dragged out and cuffed, kicked
and beaten to death in the street. Another
young negro was chased and stabbed to
death with jack-knives in the most un¬
speakably horrible manner. The mob
entered barber shops where respectable
negro men were at work shaving white
customers, pulled them away from their
chairs and killed them. Cars were stopped
and inoffensive negroes were thrown through
the windows or dragged out and beaten.
They did not stop with killing and maim¬
ing: they broke into hardware stores and
armed themselves, they demolished not
only negro barber shops and restaurants,
but they robbed stores kept by white men.
Of course the Mayor came out, and the
police force and the fire department, and
finally the Governor ordered out the militia
—to apply that pound of cure which should
have been an ounce of prevention.
It is highly significant of Southern condi¬
tions—which the North does not under¬
stand—that the first instinct of thousands
of negroes in Atlanta, when the riot broke
out, was not to run away from the white
people but to run to them. The white man
who takes the most radical position in oppo¬
sition to the negro race will often be found
loaning money to negroes, feeding them and
their families from his kitchen, or defending
"his negroes" in court or elsewhere. All
of the more prominent white citizens of
Atlanta, during the riot, protected and fed
many colored families who ran to them in
their terror. Even Hoke Smith, Governor
elect of Georgia, who is more distrusted by
the negroes as a race probably than any
other white man in Georgia, protected many
negroes in his house during the disturbance.
In many cases white friends armed ne¬
groes and told them to protect themselves.
One wTidow I know of who had a single
black servant, placed a shot-gun in his
Postmaster Price of Brownsville, a
negro graduate of Atlanta University who
was one of those arrested and charged with
supplving the negro people with arms
hands and told him to fire on any mob that
tried to get him. She trusted him abso¬
lutely. Southern people possess a real
liking, wholly unknown in the North, for
individual negroes whom they know.
So much for Saturday night. Sunday
was quiescent but nervous—the atmosphere
full of the electricity of apprehension. Mon¬
day night, after a day of alarm and of prowl¬
ing crowds of men, which might at any
moment develop into mobs, the riot broke
forth again—in a suburb of Atlanta called
Brownsville.
When I went out to Brownsville, knowing
of its bloody part in the riot, I expected to
find a typical negro slum. I looked for
squalor, ignorance, vice. And I was sur¬
prised to find a large settlement of negroes
practically every one of whom owned his
own home, some of the houses being as
attractive without and as well furnished
within as the ordinary homes of middle-
class white people. Near at hand, sur¬
rounded by beautiful grounds, were two
negro colleges—Clark University and Gam¬
mon Theological Seminary. The post¬
-office was kept by a negro. There were sev¬
eral stores owned by negroes. The school-
house, though supplied with teachers by the
county, was built wholly with money per¬
sonally contributed by the negroes of the
neighborhood, in order that there might be
adequate educational facilities for their
children. They had three churches and not
a saloon. The residents were all of the in¬
dustrious, property-owning sort, bearing
the best reputation among white people
who knew them.
Think, then, of the situation in Browns¬
ville during the riot in Atlanta. All sorts
of exaggerated rumors came from the city.
The negroes of Atlanta were being slaugh¬
tered wholesale. A condition of panic fear
developed. Many of the people of the
little town sought refuge in Gammon
Theological Seminary, where, packed to¬
gether, they sat up all one night praying.
President Bo wen did not have his clothes
off for days, expecting the mob every mo¬
ment. He telephoned for police protec¬
tion on Sunday, but none was provided.
Terror also existed among the families
who remained in Brownsville; most of the
men were armed, and they had decided,
should the mob appear, to make a stand
in defense of their homes.
At last, on Monday evening, just at dark,
R
a squad of the county police, led by Offr
Poole, marched into the settlement
Brownsville. Here, although there had bet
not the slightest sign of disturbance, the
began arresting negroes for being armed
Several armed white citizens, who were not
officers, joined them.
Finally, looking up a little street they saw
dimly in the next block a group of negro
men. Part of .he officers were left with the
prisoners and part went up the street. As
they approached the group of negroes, the
officers began firing: the negroes responded.
Officer Heard was shot dead; another officer
was wounded, and several negroes were
killed or injured.
The police went back to town with their
prisoners. On the way two of the negroes
in their charge were shot. A white man's
wife, who saw the outrage, being with
child, dropped dead of fright.
The negroes (all of this is now a matter
of court record) declare that they were
expecting the mob; that the police—not
mounted as usual, not armed as usual, and
accompanied by citizens—looked to them
in the darkness like a mob. In their fright
the firing began.
The wildest reports, of course, were cir¬
culated. One sent broadcast was that 500
students of Clark University, all armed, had
decoyed the police in order to shoot them
down. As a matter of fact, the university
did not open its fall session until October
3, over a week later—and on this night there
were just two students on the grounds.
The next morning the police and the
troops appeared and arrested a very large
proportion of the male inhabitants of the
town. Police officers, accompanied Ly
white citizens, entered one negro home,
where lay a man named Lewis, badly
wounded the night before. He was in bed;
they opened his shirt, placed their revolvers
at his breast, and in cold blood shot him
through the body several times in the
presence of his relatives. They left him
for dead, but he has since recovered.
President Bowen, of Gammon Theologi¬
cal Seminary, one of the able negroes in At¬
lanta, who had nothing whatever to do with
the riot, was beaten over the head by one of
the police with his rifle-butt. The negroes
were all disarmed, and about sixty of them
were finally taken to Atlanta and locked
up charged with the murder of Officer
Heard.
Type of colored student at Clark University
In the Brownsville riot four negroes were
killed. One was a decent, industrious,
though loud-talking, citizen named Fambro,
who kept a small grocery store and owned
two houses besides, which he rented. He
had a comfortable home, a wife and one
child. Another was an inoffensive negro
named Wilder, seventy years old, a pen¬
sioner as a soldier of the Civil \\ ar, who
was well spoken of by all who knew him.
He was found—not shot, but murdered by
a knife-cut in the abdomen—lying in a
woodshed back of Fambro's store. Mc-
Gruder, a brick mason who earned $4 a
day at his trade, and who had laid aside
enough to earn his own home, was killed
while under arrest by the police; and Robin¬
son, an industrious negro carpenter, was
shot to death on his way to work Tuesday
morning after the riot.
And after the riot in Brownsville, what?
Here was a self-respecting community of
hard-working negroes, disturbing no one,
getting an honest living. How did the riot
affect them? Well, it has demoralized
them, set them back for years. Not only
were four men killed and several wounded,
but sixty of their citizens were in jail.
Nearly every family had to go to the law¬
yers, who would not take their cases without
money in hand. Hence the little homes
had to be sold or mortgaged, or money bor¬
rowed in some other way to defend those
arrested, doctors' bills were to be paid, the
undertaker must be settled with. Oh, a
riot is not over when the shooting stops!
And when the cases finally came up in
court and all the evidence was brought out
every negro went free; but two of the
county policemen who had taken part in the
shooting, were punished. George Muse,
one of the foremost merchants of Atlanta,
who was foreman of the jury which tried the
Brownsville
negroes, said:
" We think
the negroes
were gathered
together just
as white peo¬
ple were in
other parts of
the town, for
the purpose of
defending
their homes.
We were
shocked by the
conduct which
the evidence
showed some
of the county
police had
been guilty
of."
After the
riot was over,
many negro
families, terri¬
fied and feel¬
ing themselves
unprotected,
sold out for
whaT they
could get—I
heard a good
many pitiful
stories of such
sudden and
costly sacrifices — and left the country,
some going to California, some to Northern
cities. The best and most enterprising
are those who go: the worst remain. Not
only have negroes left Brownsville, but
they have left the city itself in consider¬
able numbers. Labor will thus be still
scarcer and wages may be higher in At¬
lanta because of the riot.
It is significant that not one of the negroes
killed and wounded in the riot was of the
criminal class. Every one was industrious,
respectable and law-abiding. A white com¬
mittee, composed of W. G. Cooper, Secre¬
EX-GOVERNOR W. S. NORTHEN
One of the best known and most respected citizens
of Georgia, leader of the Christian League, 'who has
been speaking throughout Georgia, urging obedience to
law a?id complete justice to the negro
tary of the. Chamber of Commerce, and
George Muse, a prominent merchant, and
backed by the sober citizenship of the town,
made an honest investigation and has issued
a brave and truthful report. It is a report
which deserves to be read by every Amer¬
ican. Here are a few of its conclusions:
1. Among the
victims of the
mob there was
not a single
vagrant.
2. They were
earning wages
in useful work
up to the time
of the riot.
3. They were
supporting
themselves and
their families
o r dependent
relatives.
4. Most of
the dead left
small children
and widows,
mothers or sis¬
ters with prac-
t i c a 1 1 y no
means and
very small
earning capac¬
ity. V
5. The wound¬
ed lost from
one to eight
weeks' time, at
50 cents to $4
a day, each.
6. About 70
persons were
wounded, and
among these
there was an
immense
amount of suf-
f e r i n g . In
some cases it
was prolonged and excruciating pain.
7. Many of the wounded are disfigured,
and several are permanently disabled.
8. Mo'st Of them were in humble circum¬
stances, but they were honest, industrious
and law-abiding citizens and useful members
of society.
9. These statements are true of both white
and colored.
10. Of, rthe wounded, ten are white and
sixty are colored. Of the dead, two are white
and ten are colored ; two female, and ten male.
This includes three killed at Brownsville.
11. Wild rumors of a larger number killed
have no foundation that we can discover. As
the city was paying the funeral expenses of
victims and relief was given their families,
10
JOHN E. WHITE
Pastor of the Second Baptist Church
and the head of a great movement which
plans the appointment of cofnmittees to con¬
sider broadly the whole negro question
CHARLES T. HOPKINS
Leader of tne Civic League in Atlanta.
Born in Tennessee and educated at Williams
College, Mr. Hopkins has become one of ihr
ablest men at the bar in Atlanta
they had every motive to make known their
loss. In one case relatives of a man killed
in a broil made fruitless efforts to secure re¬
lief.
12. Two persons reported as victims of the
riot had no connection with it. One, a negro
man, was killed in a broil over a crap game;
and another, a negro woman, was killed by
her paramour. Both homicides occurred at
some distance from the scene of the riot.
The men who made this brave report did
not mince matters. They called murder,
murder; and robbery, robbery. Read this:
13. As twelve persons were killed and sev¬
enty were murderously assaulted, and as, by
all accounts, a number took part in each as¬
sault, it is clear that several hundred mur¬
derers or would-be murderers are at large in
this community.
At first, after the riot, there was an in¬
clination in some quarters to say:
"Well, at any rate, the riot cleared the
atmosphere. The negroes have had their
lesson. There won't be any more trouble
soon."
But read the sober conclusions in the
Committee's report. The riot did not pre¬
vent further crime.
14. Although less than three months h p
passed since the riot, events h^ve alre.ul
denr-nitrated that the slaughter of the
nocent does it t deter the criminal ch^
from combatting more crimes. Rapes at d
robbery have been committed in the fit.
during that time.
15. The slaughter of the innocent doe-,
drive away good citizens. From one small
neighborhood twenty-five families have gone.
A great many of them were buying homes on
the instalment plan.
16. The crimes of the mob include robbery
as well as murder. In a number of cases the
property of innocent and miotfi 1 ding people
was taken. Furniture was destroyed, sin ill
shops were looted, windows were sinasliid
trunks were burst open, money was take'
from the small hoard, and articles of v.ili
were appropriated. In the commission
these crimes the victims, bolli men
women, were tr> ated with unspeak il I
tality.
17. As a result of four dav^ 1 t 1 in
there are in this glad Christm i>!
of both races mourning their h
husbands of both races moiir
wives; there are orphan children of both
races who cry out in vain for faces they will
see no more; there are grown men of both
races disabled for life, and all this sorrow
has come to pfeople who are absolutely in¬
nocent of any wrong-doing.
In trying to find out exactly the point of
view and the feeling of the negroes—which
is most important in any honest considera¬
tion of condi¬
tions—I was
handed the fol¬
lowing letter,
written by a
young colored
man, a former
resident in At¬
lanta ; now a
student in the
North. He is
writing frank¬
ly to a friend.
It is valuable
as showing a
real point of
view—the bit-
terness, the
hopelessness,
the distrust:
". . . It
is possible that
you have
formed at least
a good idea of
how we feel as
the result of
the horrible
eruption in
Georgia. I
have not
spoken to a
Caucasian on
the subject
since then.
But, listen:
How would
REV. H. H. PROCTOR
Pastor of the First Congregational Church {colored),
to which belong many of the best colored families of
Atlanta, and a leader of the Colored Civic League
of 'best' and worst citizens to slaughter
your people in the streets and in their own
"homes and in their places of business?
Do you think that you could resist the
same wrath that caused God to slay the
Philistines and the Russians to throw
bombs ? I can resist it, but with each new
outrage I am less able to resist it. And
yet if I gave
way to my feel¬
ings I should
become just
like other men
. . . of the
mob! But I
do not . . .
not quite, and
I must hurry
through the
only life I shall
live on earth,
tortured by
these experi-
ences and
these horrible
impulses, with
no hope of ever
getting away
from them;
they are ever
present, like
the just God,
the devil, and
my conscience.
"If there
were no such
thing as Chris-
t i a n i ty we
should be
hopeless."
Besides th's
effect on the
negroes the
riot for a week
you feel, if with our history, there came a
time when, after speeches and papers and
teachings you acquired property and were
educated, and were a fairly good man, it
were impossible for you to walk the street
(for whose maintenance you were taxed)
with your sister without being in mortal
fear of death if you resented any insult
-offered to her ? How would you feel if you
saw a governor, a mayor, a sheriff, whom
you could not oppose at the polls, en¬
courage by deed or word or both, a mob
or more prac¬
tically paralyzed the city of Atlanta. Fac¬
tories were closed, railroad cars were left>
unloaded in the yards, the street-car system
was crippled, and there was no cab-service
(cabdrivers being negroes), hundreds of
servants deserted their places, the bank
clearings slumped by hundreds of thou¬
sands of dollars, the state fair, then just
opening, was a failure. It was, indeed,
weeks before confidence was fully restored
and the city returned to its normal con¬
dition.
One more point I wish to make before
taking up the extraordinary reconstructive
work which followed the riot. I have not
spoken of the men who made up the mob.
We know the dangerous negro class—after
all a very small proportion of the entire
negro population. There is a correspond¬
ing low class of whites, quite as illiterate as
the negroes.
The poor
white hates the
negro, and the
negro dislikes
the poor white.
It is in these
lower strata of
society, where
the races rub
together in un¬
clean streets,
that the fire is
generated.
Decatur and
Peters streets,
with their
swarming sa¬
loons and
dives, furnish
the point of
contact. I
talked with
many people
who saw the
mobs at differ¬
ent times, and
the universal
testimony was
that it was
made up
largely of boys
and young
men, and of
the low crimi¬
nal and semi-
criminal class.
The ignorant
negro and the uneducated white; there lies
the trouble!
This idea that 115,000 people of At¬
lanta—respectable, law-abiding, good citi¬
zens, white and black—should be disgraced
before the world by a few hundred crim¬
inals was what aroused the strong, hones
citizenship of Atlanta to vigorous action.
The riot brought out all that was worst
in human nature; the reconstruction has
brought all that is best and finest. I think
DR. W. F. PENN
This prosperous negro physician's home was visited
by the mob. He was rescued by a white man in an
automobile and upon appeal to a mass meeting of
white citizens troops were sent to protect his family
there has been no more hopeful or cour¬
ageous movement in the South since the
war than this effort of the good men of
Atlanta to get hold of the monumentally
complex negro problem in a new way.
Almost the first act of the authorities
was to close every saloon in the city, after¬
ward revoking all the licenses—and for
two weeks no
liquor was sold
in the ^iiy.
The police, at
first accused
of not having
done their best
in dealing with
the mob, ar¬
rested a good
many white
rioters, and
Judge Broyles,
to show that
the authorities
had no sym¬
pathy with
such disturb¬
ers of the
peace, sent
every man
brought before
him, 24 in all,
to the chain-
gang for the
largest possi¬
ble sentence,
without the
alternative of
a fine. The
grand jury
met and boldly
denounced the
mob; its re¬
port said in
part:
" That the
Home of Dr. Penn
13
Home of Barber Nash
TYPES OF THE BEST CLASS OF NEGRO HOMES IN ATLANTA
There are many well-to-do negroes living in fine houses. In these homes are pianos
and otgans, books, pictures, and other signs of a comfortable and progressive home life.
Many blocks in Howell street are owned almost exclusively by negroes—some ^doctors,
postal or railway mail clerks, ministers, barbers, storekeepers, real-estate dealers and others
sensationalism of the afternoon papers in
the presentation of the criminal news to the
public prior to the riots of Saturday night,
especially in the case of the Atlanta News,
deserves our severest condemnation."
But the most important and far-reaching
effect of the riot was in arousing the strong
men of the city. It struck at the pride of
those men of the South, it struck at their
sense of law and order, it struck at their
business interests. On Sunday following
the first riot a number of prominent men
gathered at the Piedmont Hotel, and had
a brief discussion-: b'*t It was not until
Tuesday afternoon, wheg, the wor-t of the
news from Brownsville had- come in, that
they gathered in the courthouse with the se¬
rious intent of stopping the riot at all costs.
Most, of the prominent men of Atlanta
were present. Sam D. Jones, president of
the Chamber of Commerce, presided. One
of the first speeches was made by Charles
T. Hopkins, who had been the leading spirit
in the meetings on Sunday and Monday.
He expressed with eloquence the humilia¬
tion which Atlanta felt.
COUIc
"Saturday evening at eight o'clock," he
said, "the credit of Atlanta was good for
any number of millions of dollars in New
York or Boston or any financial center;
to-day we couldn't borrow fifty cents. The
reputation we have been building up so
arduously for years has been swept away
in two short hours. Not by men who
have made and make Atlanta, not by men
who represent the character and strength
of our city, but by hoodlums, understrap¬
pers and white criminals. Innocent negro
men have been struck down for no crime
whatever, while peacefully enjoying the
life and liberty guaranteed to every Ameri¬
can citizen. The negro race is a child
race. We are a strong race, their guard¬
ians. We have boasted of our superiority
and we have now sunk to this level—we
have shed the blood of our helpless wards.
Christianity and humanity demand that
we treat the negro fairly. He is here, and
here to stay. He only knows how to do
those things we teach him to do; it is our
Christian duty to protect him. I for one,
and I believe I voice the best sentiment of
14
this city, am willing to lay down my life
rather than to have the scenes of the last
few days repeated."
In the midst of the meeting a colored
man arose rather doubtfully. "He was,
however, promptly recognized as Dr. W. F.
Perm, one of the foremost colored phy¬
sicians of Atlanta, a graduate of Yale Col¬
lege—a man of much influence among his
people. He said that he had come to ask
the protection of the white men of Atlanta.
He said that on the day before a mob had
come to his home; that ten white men,
some of whose families he knew and had
treated professionally, had been sent into
his house to look for concealed arms; that
his little girl had run to them, one after
another, and begged them not to shoot her
father; that his life and the lives of his
family had afterward been threatened,
so that he had had to leave his home; that
he had been saved from a gathering mob
by a white man in an automobile.
" What shall we do ?" he asked the meet¬
ing—and those who heard his speech said
that the silence was profound. "We have
been disarmed: how shall we protect our
lives and property? If living a sober, in¬
dustrious, upright life, accumulating prop¬
erty and educating his children as best he
knows how, is not the standard by which a
colored man can live and be protected in the
South, what is to become of him? If the
kind of life I have lived isn't the kind you
want, shall I leave and go North ?
" When we aspire to be decent and indus¬
trious we are told that we are bad examples
to other colored men. Tell us what your
standards are for colored men. What are
the requirements under which we may
live and be protected? What shall we
do?"
When he had finished, Col. A. J. Mc-
Bride, a real estate owner and a Confeder¬
ate veteran, arose and said with much feel¬
ing that he knew Dr. Penn and that he
was a good man, and that Atlanta meant
to protect such men.
"If necessary," said Col. McBride, "I
will go out and sit on his porch with a rifle."
Such was the spirit of this remarkable
meeting. Mr. Hopkins proposed that the
white people of the city express their deep
regret for the riot and show their sympathy
for the negroes who had suffered at the
hands of the mob by raising a fund of
money for their assistance. Then and
there $4,423 was subscribed, to which the
city afterward added $1,000.
But this was not all. These men, once
thoroughly aroused, began looking to the
future, to find some new way of preventing
the recurrence of such disturbances.
A committee of ten, appointed to work
with the public officials in restoring order
and confidence, consisted of some of the
foremost citizens of Atlanta:
Charles T. Hopkins, Sam D. Jones, President
of the Chamber of Commerce; L. Z. Rosser,
President of the Board of Education; J. W. Eng¬
lish, President of the Fourth National Bank;
Forrest Adair, a leading real estate owner; Cap¬
tain W. D. Ellis," a prominent lawyer; A. B.
Steele, a wealthy lumber merchant; M. L. Collier,
a railroad man; John E. Murphy, capitalist; and
H. Y. McCord, President of a wholesale grocery
house.
One of the first and most' unexpected
things that this committee did was to send
for several of the leading negro citizens of
Atlanta: the Rev. H. H. Proctor, B. J,
Davis, editor of the Independent, a negro
journal, the Rev. E. P. Johnson, the Rev.
E. R. Carter, the Rev. J. A. Rush and
Bishop Holsey.
This was the first important occasion in
the South upon which an attempt was made
to get the two races together for any serious
consideration of their differences.
They held a meeting. The white men
asked the negroes, "What shall we do to
relieve the irritation?" The negroes said
that they thought that colored men were
treated with unnecessary roughness on the
street-cars and by the police. The white
members of the committee admitted that
this was so and promised to take the matter
up immediately with the street-car company
and the police department, which was done.
The discussion was harmonious. After the
meeting Mr. Hopkin^ said:
" I believe thdse- negroes understood the
situation bettel tl»an ve did. I was aston¬
ished- *-t their :ntell'g'?nce and diplomacy.
They never referrea to the riot: they were
looking to the future. I didn't know that
there were such negroes in Atlanta."
Out of this beginning grew the Atlanta
Civic League. Knowing that race prej¬
udice was strong, Mr. Hopkins sent out
2,000 cards, inviting the most prominent
men in the city to become members. To
his surprise 1,500 immediately accepted,
only two refused, and those anonymously;
500 men not formally invited were also
taken as members. The League thus has
the great body of the best citizens of At¬
lanta behind it. At the same time Mr.
Proctor and his committee of negroes had
organized a Colored Co-operative Civic
League, which at this writing has a mem¬
bership of fifteen hundred of the best col-
. ored men in the city, and a small committee
which meets the committee of the white *
league.
Fear was expressed that there would be
another riotous outbreak during the Christ¬
mas holidays, and the League proceeded
with vigor to help prevent it. New police¬
men were put on, and the committee worked
with Judge Broyles and Judge Roan in is¬
suing statements warning the people against
lawlessness. They got an agreement with
the newspapers not to publish sensational
news; the sheriff agreed, if necessary, to
swear in some of the best men in town
as extra deputies; they asked that saloons
be closed at four o'clock on Christmas
Eve; and through the negro committee, they
brought influence to bear to keep all col¬
ored people off the streets. When two
county police got drunk at Brownsville and
threatened Mrs. Fambro, the wife of one
of the negroes killed in the riot, a member
of the committee, Mr. Seeley, publisher of
The Georgian, informed the sheriff and
sent his automobile to Brownsville, where
the policemen were arrested and after¬
ward discharged from the force. As a
result, it was the quietest Christmas At¬
lanta had had in years.
But the most important of all the work
done, because of the spectacular interest it
aroused, was the defense of a negro charged
with an assault upon a white woman. It is
an extraordinary and dramatic story.
Although many people said that the riot
would prevent any more negro crime, sev¬
eral attacks on white women occurred with¬
in a few weeks afterward. On November
13th Mrs. J. D. Camp, living in the suburbs
of Atlanta, was attacked in broad daylight
in her home and brutally assaulted by a ne¬
gro, who afterward robbed the house and
escaped. Though the crime was treated
with great moderation by the newspapers,
public feeling was intense. A negro was
arrested, charged with the crime. Mr.
Hopkins and his associates believed that
the best way to secure justice and prevent
lynchings was to have a prompt trial.
Accordingly, they held a conference with
Judge Roan, as a result of which three
lawyers in the city, Mr. Hopkins, L. Z.
Rosser and J. E. McClelland, were ap¬
pointed to defend the accused negro,
serving without pay. A trial-jury com¬
posed of twelve citizens, among the most
prominent in Atlanta, was called—one of
the ablest juries ever drawn in Georgia.
There was a determination to have imme¬
diate and complete justice.
The negro arrested, one Joe Glenn, had
been completely identified by Mrs. Camp
as her assailant. Although having no
doubt of his guilt, the attorneys went at the
case thoroughly. The first thing they did
was to call in two members of the negro
committee, Mr. Davis and Mr. Carter.
These men went to the jail and talked with
Glenn, and afterward they all visited the
scene of the crime. They found that
Glenn, who was a man fifty years old with
grandchildren, bore an excellent reputa¬
tion. He rented a small farm about two
miles from Mrs. Camp's home and had
some property; he was sober and indus¬
trious. After making a thorough examina¬
tion and getting all the evidence they could,
they came back to Atlanta, persuaded, in
spite of the fact that the negro had been
positively identified by Mrs. Camp—
which in these cases is usually considered
conclusive—that Glenn was not guilty.
It was a most dramatic trial; at first, when
Mrs. Camp was placed on the stand she
failed to identify Glenn; afterward, re¬
versing herself she broke forth into a pas¬
sionate denunciation of him. But after the
evidence was all in, the jury retired, and
reported two minutes later with a verdict
"Not guilty." Remarkably enough, just
before the trial was over the police in¬
formed the court that another negro, named
Will Johnson, answering Mrs. Camp's de¬
scription, had just been arrested, charged
with the crime. He was subsequently
identified by Mrs. Camp.
Without this energetic defense, an in¬
nocent, industrious negro would certainly
have been hanged—or if the mob had been
ahead of the police, as it usually is, he
would have been lynched.
But what of Glenn afterward?
When the jury left the box Mr. Hopkins
turned to Glenn and said:
uWell, Joe, what do you think of the
case?"
He replied: "Boss, I 'spec's they will
hang me, for that lady said I was the man,
but they won't hang me, will they, 'fore I
see my wife and chilluns again?"
He was kept in the tower that night and
the following day for protection against a
possible lynching. Plans were made by
his attorneys to send him secretly out of
the city to the home of a farmer in Ala¬
bama, whom they could trust with the
story. Glenn's wife was brought to visit
the jail and Glenn was told of the plans
for his safety, and instructed to change his
name and keep quiet until the feeling of
the community could be ascertained.
A ticket was purchased by his attorneys,
with a new suit of clothes, hat and shoes.
He was taken out of jail about midnight
under a strong guard, and safely placed on
the train. From that day to this he has
never been heard of. He did not go to
Alabama. The poor creature, with the
instinct of a hunted animal, did not dare
after all to trust the white men who had
befriended him. He is a fugitive, away
from his family, not daring, though inno¬
cent, to return to his home.
Another strong movement also sprung
into existence. Its inspiration was relig¬
ious. Ministers wrote a series of letters to
the Constitution. Clark Howell, its edi¬
tor, responded with an editorial entitled
"Shall We Blaze the Trail?" W. J.
Northen, ex-Governor of Georgia, and one
of the most respected men in the state, took
up the work, asking himself, as he says:
"What am I to do, who have to pray
ever)' night?"
He answered that question by calling a
meeting at the Colored Y. M. C. A. build¬
ing, where some twenty white men met an
equal number of negroes, mostly preachers,
and held a prayer meeting.
The South still looks to its ministers for
leadership—and they really lead. The
sermons of men like the Rev. John E.
White, the Rev. C. B. Wilmer, the Rev.
W. W. Landrum, who have spoken with
power and ability against lawlessness and
injustice to the negro, have had a large
:nfluence in the reconstruction movement.
Recently ex-Governor Northen has been
traveling through the State of Georgia,
making a notable series of speeches, urging
the establishment of law and order organi¬
zations, and meeting support wherever he
goes. He has talked against mob-law and
lynching in plain language. Here are some
of the things he says:
" We shall never settle this until we give
absolute justice to the negro. We are not
now doing justice to the negro in Georgia.
"Get into contact with the best negroes;
there are plenty of good negroes in Georgia.'
What we must do is to get the good white
folks to leaven the bad white folks and the
good negroes to leaven the bad negroes."
There must be no aristocracy of crime:
a white fiend is as much to be dreaded as
a black brute.
Another great movement, headed by the
Rev. John E. White, plans the appoint¬
ment of committees by the governors of the
various Southern States to consider broadly
the whole negro question.
These movements do not cover specifi¬
cally, it will have been observed, the enor¬
mously difficult problems of politics, and the
political relationships of the races, nor the
subject of negro education, nor the most
exasperating of all the provocatives—those
problems which arise from human con¬
tact in street cars, railroad trains, and in
life generally.
That they will meet the greatest diffi¬
culties in their work is shown by such an
editorial as the following, published De¬
cember 12th by the Atlanta Evening News: *
" No law of God or man can hold back the
vengeance of our white men upon such a criminal ^
(the negro who attacks a white woman). If nec¬
essary, we will double and treble and quadruple
the law of Moses, and hang off-hand the criminal,
or failing to find that a remedy, we will hang two,
three, or four of the negroes nearest to the crime,
until the crime is no longer done or feared in all
this Southern land that we inhabit and love."
But these reconstructive movements are,,
in their beginnings, full of significance and
hope: they mean that the strong people in
the South, stirred by a moral impulse, are
trying to grapple with these problems in a
new way—a constructive way.
* On January 31, 1907, the Atlanta Evening News-
went into the hands of a receiver—its failure being- due
largely to the strong public sentiment against its course-
before and during the riot.
17
DOCUMENTARY APPENDIX
« ft ' 1 >t • * •
III order to give ft clearer and more detailed view of conditions in Atlanta during
and after the riot, the following documents and statistics'compiled by^Mr. franklin
Clarkfn arc here appended: 'J "
EDITORIAL INCITEMENT
On the evening preceding that of the riot,
the Atlanta Newt published the following
editorial:
It l§ Time lt» Art. men
Two more' unspeakable crimes have been
committed in this county.
Men of Fulton, what will you do to stop
these outrages against the women ? ;
Shalt this trmfole wav« of criminality con¬
tinue?
Shall them tlrvi!* W prrmitt*d to as¬
sault and atmcttt kill «*wt and go un-
punished f
Surety; thtm L afe* f>r <>*>*»* (Kt
content urn of tW V * tbM mori «m«| better
protection k i-KTff ti »« I'ttM iu«irtiunrt>
The oft Hers oi in# law Hrtfl powrrlcM to
prevent the commits* m of the** crime*.
The laws fail to restrain the brutes who are
bent on ravishing defemeleM white women.
All of the power of the police and of the
county officer# fails to check the awful out¬
rages of these black imps.
The citizens must be aroused to cooperate
with the law and the officers to put a stop to
these crimes.
Every foot of ground in Fulton must be
patrolled day and night if these outrages con¬
tinue.
Every vagrant,_ loafing unknov/n negro
must be taken up and sent to the"chain-gang
for long periods.
; The community must be cleared of these
vagabonds who prey upon the. innocent
women victims of their lust.
Posses of men must be on the alert for
these criminals. .. . . , ,
They must be caught and punished swiftly.
The News has raised a reward for the cap¬
ture and conviction of any man who assaults
a white woman.
This reward is ready to be paid when the
guilt of any of these brutes is established.
The News advocated and secured an in¬
crease in the county police force, *
These men are just beginning their work,
and have not had a fair chance to demon¬
strate their efficiency. ■
The News demanded an increase in the city
police force. 1 v
Provision has been made for the increase
of the force on October ist by forty men.
Twenty-four extra men have been added to
the county force.
18
■*»?' * / 4..- -V 1
. <• . >- . ,.-■** 1 gffnh/- if.«*•<£
The News is organizing The ^News' 'Pro¬
tective League of citizens to cooperate with
the officers of the law in running down and
capturing these guilty blacks. * 1
This league will endeavor to prevent the
crimes, if possible, but failings will aid - in
► punishing the criminals. „
Citizens must have , a part in checking the
growth of this crime. " * " * *'
It will require the united effort of the good
white men of this community to protect* our
women.., , - \ • • • s, • 4, •*,-**{<
Let no man withhold his support ,jbf this
movement to provide better protection for
the innocent womanhood of the community'
Join The News' League, or offef your ser
vice# to the authorities, and assist in stopping
this crime before any more of the noble wnue
women of this section have fallen victims of
these infamous devils who are prowling about
-night and day ready to attack the first woman
they meet. « 1 H
It is time to act, men; will you do. your
duty now? -
. * ■ ; -u >h ' * if*
FIRST PROTEST AGAINST'" THE -
.. NEWS" • •
Addressing the Baptist Ministers' Monday
Meeting on September loth, the Rev."John
E. White characterized "The News' League?*
and its offer of reward as followsj as re¬
ported in the Georgian: , ,
" ' The very idea of a newspaper's offering
a reward for lynching, or commending it," is
an outrage upon • decency, and abhorrent* to
our civilization,' said Rev. John E-vWhite*
pastor of the Sprnnf} Baptist rhurrh,' at the
regular weekly" meeting of the Baptist min¬
isters Monday morning." *
'"The recent political campaign has greatly
excited our people in this mattery and I have
been told by a prominent politician, that the
great ground swell which swept ,** over , the
State was due in a large measure to a desire
to do something against the negro.' \
» "It was-at this point that Dr. White made
the remark he did about newspapers which
have commended lynching and urged the for-!
mation of societies outside the pale of the
law. Dr. White's remarks met with the
warm approval of the ministers present." ••
■ - - • ^ V ■ i ,, / i ;■
THE RIOT'S VICTIMS *
• "Twelve persons were killed and 70 were^.
murderously assaulted," is the report of the"
Riot Relief Committee, of which W. R. Joyner
(now mayor) was chairman. "... Two
persons reported as victims of the riot had
no connection with it. One, a negro, was
killed in a broil over a crap game; the other,
a negress, was killed by her paramour. . . .
Among the victims of the mob there was
not a single vagrant. They were earning
wages in useful work up to the time of the
riot. They were supporting themselves and
their families or dependent relatives. Most
of the dead left small children and widows,
mothers or sisters, with practically no means
and very little earning capacity. ... Of
the wounded 10 are white and 60 colored—
two of them females. . . . Most of them
were in humble circumstances, but honest, in¬
dustrious and law-abiding citizens and useful
members of society."
Here is a list verified independently of
persons killed in the course of the disturb¬
ances in and about Atlanta, September 22d,
23d, 24th and 25th, including two killed in
broils:
Killed
IVkite:
County Policeman James Heard, shot dead
in South Atlanta, September 24th, by negroes.
Negroes:
Frank Fambro (supposed to have fired the
shot which killed Policeman Heard), gro-
ceryman, head of family, owned his home,
at South Atlanta, September 24th.
Sam Magruder, brickmason, head of a
family, owned his home, South Atlanta, Sep¬
tember 24th; fiandcuffed at the time he was
shot.
Annie Shepperd, negress, shot at point-
blank in a broif in East Third Street, Sep¬
tember 22d.
Henry Welch, lame negro bootblack, work¬
ing at business when killed.
Milton Brown, 30 years old, driver for
Stecks Coal Company, had been paid off and
was shoppirfg; murdered in the street, leaves
wife and two children.
Will Marion, bootblack, September 22d.
Frank Smith, 18 years old, Western Union
messenger, sole support of his mother, Sep¬
tember 22d; stabbed to death with jack-
knives.
Willis Morland, porter, shot to death,
leaves mother, wife and four children.
James Fletcher, boy, 16 years old, killed
going to school.
George Wilder, aged 78, laborer, owned
his home, killed by stabbing, South Atlanta,
September 24th.
Sam Robinson, carpenter, going to his
work at South Atlanta, shot by soldiers for
not halting, September 25th, left wife and
three children.
Clem Rhodes, driver, killed September
22d, leaves mother, sister, wife and four
children.
Leola Maddox, 30 years old. She and her
husband were shopping in Mitchell Street.
Mob beat both and stabbed her. She died
a week later; she was a janitress, her hus¬
band a section hand: respectable persons.
Lynched
Zeb Long, occupation unknown, arrested
September 23d in Brownville for carrying a
new pistol; taken from jail, hanged and shot
by mob at East Point, September 24th.
Ten whites and sixty blacks were wounded,
many seriously.
SEPTEMBER SESSION OF THE
GRAND JURY ON THE RIOT
Resolutions condemning lawlessness and
violence in Atlanta, approving the action of
Mayor Woodward in closing the saloons and
thanking Recorder Broyles for his punish¬
ment of offenders were passed by the Ful¬
ton County Grand Jury on September 26,
1906:
We, the members of the Grand Jury, em¬
panelled and sworn for the September term
of the Fulton Superior Court, wish to place
on record our severe condemnation of the
recent exhibition of the spirit of lawless¬
ness in our community as an unspeakable
and unmitigated evil. We appeal to all con¬
servative and law-abiding citizens to exert
their utmost influence for the prompt and
vigorous suppression of mob violence, and
for the strict enforcement of law and order.
We call upon the good people of the county,
who are advised of the identity of any per¬
son or persons, who either took part in the
recent rioting in this city, or were witnesses
of same, to furnish to the Grand Jury the
names of such participants or witnesses, to
the end that those persons who may be shown
to have taken part in the rioting, either as
leaders or participants, may be presented by
the Grand Jury for trial.
The assaults on the women of this county
must cease, but the killing and maiming of
innocent persons is no punishment for the
original crime. One crime is never cured by
the commission of another crime. The riot¬
ing of last Saturday night is a blot on the
good name of this county, and an outrage on
our Anglo-Saxon civilization. When an hon¬
est appeal to the courts of the country shall
no longer be available, we will have incurred
exposure to the greatest private and public
calamity. Let us, therefore, at every peril
and sacrifice, uphold the strong arm of the
court; aid in the enforcement of law in let¬
ter and in spirit, and thus preserve the bless¬
ings of orderly liberty to ourselves and to
our children.
A. J. West, foreman, J. R. Nutting, John
M. Green, James M. Couper, Ernest Wood¬
ruff, Albert Steiner, W. H. Kiser, LVmps
Perkinson, S. C. Huff, B. M. Blount, Edwin
Kingsbery, Joseph Thompson, H. L. Harral-
son, Frank Hawkins, George E. King, George
W. Sciple, J. W. Cotton, L. H. Beck.
The following resolutions were also passed:
To the Hon. J. G. Woodward, Mayor At¬
lanta, Ga.:
We, the Grand Jury of Fulton County,
now in session, commend your action in clos¬
ing the saloons of the city, and we earnestly
request that you do not allow them to be
opened until after next Saturday night. Re¬
spectfully submitted, A. J. West, foreman.
Resolved, by the Grand Jury of Fulton
Comity, That the Hon. Nash R. Broyles,
judge of the Recorder's Court of this city,
deserves and has the thanks of the good peo¬
ple of the whole county for the fearless and
determined manner in which he has dis¬
charged the difficult duties of his position in
connection with the recent unfortunate riot¬
ing in this city. A. J. West, foreman.
Resolutions condemning the action of the
evening newspapers of Atlanta, published in
part on page 13 of Mr. Baker's article, were
also passed.
OCTOBER SESSION OF THE GRAND
JURY ON THE RIOT
On October 30, 1906, the Grand Jury had
this to say of the riot:
We carefully investigated the recent un¬
fortunate riot, many witnesses having been
examined, and every effort having been made
to arrive at the exact facts, and as a result
a large number of indictments were found.
It is the opinion of the Grand Jury that, had
the Police Department opposed a determined
front to the mob at the inception of the riot
all serious trouble could have been averted.
After the riot was under full headway the in¬
dividual members of the police force, with
some exceptions, seem to have acted with
courage and with a consciousness of the
gravity of the situation, except that there
was too little disposition to resort to stringent
measures Tn protecting the innocent and help¬
less. When innocent persons were being
maimed and murdered no measure was. too
extreme for their protection. We regret ex¬
ceedingly to report that some members of the
police force failed signally and absolutely in
the performance of their duty on that fatal
Saturday night. Whether their failure was
due to cowardice, or to active sympathy with
the rioters, their conduct was a blot on the
fair name and face of Atlanta, and brought
reproach upon the whole Police Department
of the city.
We believe that the better class of both
races are urgently demanding the restricting
of all lawlessness and the prompt enforce¬
ment of the law, and we think the time has
arrived when cooperation between the best
elements of both races can be brought to bear
in lessening crime. To reach the criminal
negro, we urge upon all law-abiding negroes
that they do everything in their power to as¬
sist the public authorities to ferret out crime
and to apprehend the criminal.
For the protection of our rural population,
we urge the establishment of a thoroughly
equipped and efficient rural constabulary or¬
ganized by each county and aided by the
State.
\ We wish to commend the action of our City
Council in providing that no saloon shall in
future be allowed to serve both races. We
wish further to call the attention of the city
authorities to the fact that many billiard and
pool rooms in the city are places that tend to
create and foster indolence and crime, espe¬
cially those patronized and conducted by ne¬
groes. We recommend that this matter be
carefully considered by the proper authorities,
and that such of those places as are detri¬
mental to the public good be discontinued.
We believe the crime of assault with in¬
tent to rape should be made a capital of¬
fense in the discretion of the jury trying the
case. We are strengthened in this conviction
by a case we have been called on to investi¬
gate during our present service. It was a
case horrible in all of its details, and of the
most revolting and appalling cruelty. The
defendant richly deserved the punishment of
death, but he could only receive a sentence
of twenty years in the penitentiary. We do
most earnestly recommend that our imme¬
diate representatives in the next General
Assembly use their earnest and best efforts
to have a law passed in accordance with this
recommendation.
REPORT OF CHIEF OF POLICE JEN¬
NINGS FOR 1906
Estimated population of Atlanta, 115,000;
area in square miles, 12; number of miles
of streets patrolled, 250; average number of
miles patrolled by 39 patrolmen on the morn¬
ing watch, 6y$; average number of miles pa¬
trolled by 40 patrolmen on*the day watch,
6^41 average number of miles patrolled by
60 patrolmen on the evening watch, 4l/e;
average of one patrolman on the morning
watch to every 2,950 persons; average of one
patrolman on the day watch to every 2,875
persons; average of one patrolman on the
evening watch to every 1,917 persons.
Appropriated to the department.. .$194,214.75
Expenses during the year 1906.... 192,965.08
Balance unexpended $1,249.67
Comparisons
Number of arrests during the year 1906.21,702
Number of arrests during the year 1905.17,195
Amount of fines collected for year
1906 .' $86,294.20
Amount of fines collected for year
1905 55.149-63
An increase for the year 1906 of.. .$31,144.60
Amount of fines worked on streets
for year 1906 $53,048.39
Amount of fines worked on streets
for year 1905 42,461.90
An increase for the year 1906 of. ..$10,586.49
Arrests
State cases 2,101
City cases 19,601
Total 21,702
Which were disposed of as follows:
State cases:
Prosecuted 448
Dismissed 539
Transferred to city docket 785
To other counties 271
Continued 582
Total 2,101
City cases:
Fined 14,454
Dismissed 3,210
Bound over 1,088
Continued 849
Total 19,601
Sex of persons arrested :
White, males 7,515
White, females 676
Colored, males 10,317
Colored, females 3,194
Total 21,702
LYNCHINGS IN GEORGIA
In 1906 lynchings in Georgia were for these
causes:
Assault 1
Attempted assault 3
Disorderly conduct 1
Murder 3
V HOW THE RIOT HURT ATLANTA
FINANCIALLY
From the Atlanta Constitution, September
30, 1906:
The best and most reliable business and
commercial thermometer, the Atlanta Clear¬
ing House Association, in its figures of the
month of September shows the effect of the
recent riots in Atlanta on the welfare and
prosperity of the city in the matter of cold
dollars and cents.
For the first time in many years the totals
for the month fail to show an increase over
the figures of the corresponding month for
the year previous. Atlanta's strides in a
business and commercial way have been as
steady and regular as they have been rapid,
and the effect of the recent riots has been
that of interfering with this steady and rapid
progress for the first time in many years.
From Darwin G. Jones, manager of the
Atlanta Clearing House Association, a Con¬
stitution reporter was able to secure the fol¬
lowing figures:
Clearings for September, 1905. .$15,990,577.15
Clearings for September, 1906. . I5>973,699.80
Decrease, 1906 under 1905 $16,877.35
Up until the time of the riot the clearings
for September, 1906, showed the regular nor¬
mal gain over the previous year. Then came
that Saturday night so costly to Atlanta, and
following in its wake such a business depres¬
sion as has not been known in Atlanta for
many years, according to those in the best
position to know.
But it is in the clearings for the past week
that the effect of the recent troubles on the
business progress and prosperity of Atlanta
is best illustrated. In these clearings the of¬
ficial figure for the past week shows more
than $200,000 decrease over the clearings for
the same week last year.
The official figures are as follows:
Clearings for week ending yes¬
terday $3,659,861.75
Clearings for same week last year 3,773,161.31
These figures show a decrease of $203,-
299-56 for the week, a decrease so great that
the increase during the previous portion of
the month, or that part of September up to
the time of the riots, was overcome and as
a result the monthly clearings for Atlanta
show a decrease for the first time in a very
long period.
REPORT OF PUBLIC COMMITTEE
TO DISBURSE FUNDS COLLECTED
FOR THE RELIEF OF RIOT VIC¬
TIMS
To the Public:
The committee appointed to disburse funds
contributed for the relief of victims of the
mob in the September riot has instructed us
to make a report of its work, and we take
this method of communicating the facts to
the public. The committee is composed of
W. R. Joyner, chairman; Harry L. Schlesin-
ger, Louis Gholstin, M. R. Emmons, W. H.
Patterson, chairman of the City Finance
Committee, and the undersigned.
The treasurer has received contributions
aggregating $4,423, and has paid out, on or¬
ders drawn by the secretary, $4,363.96, leav¬
ing a balance of $59.04 on hand, which is held
for matters not closed up.
In addition to this, the city of Atlanta ap¬
propriated $1,000 for the relief fund, with the
proviso that the funeral expenses of the
mob's victims be paid out of it. These ex¬
penses amounted to $623.65, leaving $376.35
of the city appropriation, which was used for
relief of wounded, except about $125, which
was used to help three or four cases of suf¬
fering among very poor people whose prop¬
erty was destroyed.
At the outset the committee adopted the
plan of paying the doctors' bills of the
wounded and paying them for the time lost.
This policy was carried out as closely as the
funds and the number of wounded would
permit. Where they were treated at the
Grady Hospital this treatment was in lieu
of doctor bills. Each case was investigated
as best we could with the time at our dis¬
posal, and the money was paid out on cer¬
tificates of employers, showing the time lost
and the wages paid.
In this investigation we were greatly aided
by the City Warden, Mr. Thomas Evans,
and it is a pleasure to bear witness to his
faithfulness, intelligence and efficiency as an
official. With a kind heart, he has untiring
energy and discriminating judgment.
In this manner we paid to the wounded
about half the contributed fund, leaving
about $2,200 to be divided among the fami¬
lies of the dead. This sum was divided
among the sufferers in amounts varying
from $50 to $400.
In fixing the amounts to be paid, we con¬
sidered the earning capacity of the deceased
and the needs of the bereaved family. Under
the latter head we considered the number of
dependent children and the ability of the
widow to support them, or her age, infirmity
and helplessness.
It was our purpose to establish a full list
of the disbursements with the name and ad¬
dress of each beneficiary, but there are cir¬
cumstances of a delicate nature connected
with some of these cases, and we have been
brought to the conclusion that such a pub¬
lication would be unwise. We have, how¬
ever, submitted to Mr. W. H. Patterson,
chairman of the City Finance Committee, a
detailed statement of disbursements with
vouchers attached, and they have his ap¬
proval. Any subscriber to this fund who
would like to see the statement and the
vouchers can do so if he will call at the of¬
fice of George Muse, where they are on file.
In connection with this statement of dis¬
bursements we think it our duty, to call at¬
tention to some of the facts which have come
to light during our investigations.
Leaving oat the Brownville cases, where a
number of persons charged with complicity
in the killing of Policeman Heard are out
on their own bonds, the following facts are
true beyond question:
[The seventeen numbered conclusions of
the committee will be found in Mr. Baker's
article, pages 10 and 11.]
In conclusion, we call attention to the fact
that up to this time Atlanta had been a law-
abiding city, and criminals of all kinds, with
a single exception, had been punished by legal
methods. Repeatedly, in view of hundreds of
men, the sheriff has conducted along the pub¬
lic highways prisoners charged with the most
odious crimes, and these prisoners had legal
trials, which resulted in the punishment of
the guilty and the acquittal of the innocent.
Considering this record o'f a law-abiding
community, it is amazing that the things we
have recited could have happened in Atlanta,
and that the small minority which constitutes
the tough element was allowed to crucify this
community in the eyes of the world and
shock the moral sense of our own people.
W. G. COOPER,
GEORGE MUSE.
"AN INFINITESIMAL PER CENT."
Public statement from Mr. S. M. Inman,
Atlanta, January 4, 1907:
" I was North when the Atlanta riot oc¬
curred, and was impressed with the wholesale
denunciation of the entire white people of
Atlanta on account of the brutality and in¬
humanity of a few men—I felt that it was
unfair and unjust to condemn a whole people
for the sins of a few—an infinitesimal per
cent, of the population.
" In the same way I think it wrong to stir
up hatred and create prejudice against the
negroes of our country, because a few of the
most degraded go wrong. The great mass of
the colored people of Georgia are hard-work¬
ing, law-abiding citizens.
" If half the publicity were given to those
who are trying to do right and live right
that is given to the crimes of a few, our peo¬
ple and the world would view them in a dif¬
ferent light."
KINDNESS OF BETTER-CLASS WHITE
MEN DURING THE RIOT
Instances of protection of negroes by
white families during the riot, referred to
in Mr. Baker's article, were common. Here
are a few additional cases:
J. B. Belser, special officer of the Bijou
Theater, resisted on the night of the riot a
mob of 200 at the Marietta Street entrance
to the playhouse. While loading scenery,
three of the negroes of the Atlanta Baggage
and Cab Company were being severely dealt
with. He ran into the crowd, " cut out" the
negroes and hustled them into the stairway
of the Bijou and called a physician. Some
one yelled, " He's got fifteen inside! " With
that the mob pressed toward the entrance,
but Belser locked it from the outside and
drew a pistol. He kept the negroes safe
within the theater during the night.
James N. Reeves, Jr., colored, son of the
negro chaplain of the stockade and county
chain gang, in a street car at corner of Ma¬
rietta and Peachtree streets on the night of
the riot was set upon by white men who
came aboard the cars, stabbed in the fore¬
head with a dirk and " tramped on."
" Except for two police officers who hur¬
ried in," he declares, " I should have been
killed. One of the officers was Chief of
Police Jennings, and the other I did not rec¬
ognize. They lifted me up, and an unknown
white man helped me from the corner of
Piedmont Avenue and Houston Street to my
home, 143 Cain Street. I didn't know him.
When my father came to the door to take
me in this kind white man had gone."
White families generally undertook per¬
sonal protection of their servants. Servants
not in the habit of sleeping in the house were
allowed to stay, and in numerous instances
they brought their relatives to this same pro¬
tection. One rich white man of Peachtree
22
Street gave each negro employee on his place
a shotgun, and told each to use it if any
whites approached threateningly. At South
Atlanta Charles Deckner's and C. Smith's
families gathered in a dozen colored per¬
sons, guarding them a day and a night.
CASES OF NEGRO ATTACKS ON
WHITE WOMEN IN THE SIX
MONTHS PRECEDING THE RIOT
The cases of Mrs. Knowles Etheleen Kim-
mel and of the Misses Lawrence are narrated
in Mr. Baker's article, pages 2 and 3, and are
therefore not included in the list given below.
Case of Mrs. Nancy Du Pree
March 10th.—Mrs. Nancy Du Pree was
found at the house where she worked with
her throat badly cut. She said that a negro
had assaulted her. An armed posse with
bloodhounds searched the country. The
dogs could not strike a trail. The woman
did not die. Later she confessed to an at¬
tempt at suicide because of family unhap-
piness.
Case of Miss Ward
. March 13th.—The little daughter of the
Rev. A. C. Ward, coming home from school
in distress, told her mother that the colored
janitor of the school had treated her offen¬
sively. The janitor's plea and excuse was
that he had found the little girl crying in
the cloak-room, and had tried to pet her by
putting his hand on her shoulder and saying,
" Don't cry, honey." He was sent to the
chain-gang for twelve months.
Case of Annie Laurie Poole
July 31st..—Annie Laurie Poole, fifteen
years old, daughter of a groceryman, J. J.
L. Poole, of 740 Pryor Street, whose home
was in the suburb of Lakewood, at ten
o'clock in the morning was returning along
a country road from a neighbor's, swinging
in her hand her bonnet, in which were some
tomatoes the neighbor had given her. About
125 yards from the Poole house the road
turned, and the sight of the house was hidden
by a knoll.
She heard a heavy step. She looked round.
A negro gripped her by the throat. " Then
came a fierce struggle lasting five minutes."
Her tomatoes were found fifteen minutes
later, by members of her family drawn by
her screams, scattered over the roadway;
two nickels she had were on the opposite
side from where she lay, exhausted, reviving
to consciousness. There were marks on her
throat, her wrists, bruises on her body.
Neighbors gathered. Her father came
home from the store. " If that brute is
caught," he said, "he will never be tried in
the courts."
Journal extras appeared. Atlanta men
hurried out to Lakewood in automobiles,
buggies and on horseback. They came upon
the father, weeping and crying, " My poor
innocent baby girl! " She described the ne¬
gro—" tall, black, with dirty felt hat, black
shirt, blue overalls, muddy shoes."
Toward three o'clock one of the blood¬
hounds, called Troupe, stood by a cabin
across the fields. When one part of the
crowd came up he howled, pointing to the
cabin. Within the cabin were three men
and a woman. One of them, " of medium
height, had partly changed his clothes, and
nearby were a pair of muddy boots." This
one was taken by T. M. Poole, B. L. Johnson
and Simon McGee and marched to the door¬
step of the Poole home. The girl cried,
" That's the one! "
From up the road came the clatter of
mounted police. Who fired nobody would
say, but there was " a roar of powder," and
the negro dropped, three bullets in his heart.
The police swept up to find him still breath¬
ing, " stretched in a pool of blood, confessing
that he had committed the assault."
He was Floyd Carmichael, son of a negro
then serving a jail sentence for arson in
Henry County, and who had left his last
known employer two weeks before.
There was a donkey cart in the group. In
that, after discussion as to what should be
done with him, the dead negro was placed
and taken to Atlanta, the posse riding five
abreast at a walk ahead, and behind the
cart the buggies and automobiles. Opposite
Poole's grocery the procession stopped. The
crowd increased and sought oil and matches,
but was induced to allow the now dead negro
to be taken to an undertaker.
Coroner Thojnpson, after consulting with
Court Attorney Rosser, decided that an in¬
quest was not necessary, as there was no
" provision in law for holding an inquest
where there were eye witnesses to the kill¬
ing." The police said: " The shooting took
place so quickly they could not tell who was
firing and who was not. It was all in such
a brief space of time they were unable to in¬
terfere and stop the shooting."
Said the Georgian: "When asked Wednes¬
day if he would take any action in regard to
the Lakewood lynching, Governor Terrell re¬
plied that there was nothing for him to do.
He said that no reward would be offered for
the lynchers unless such a request was made
by the county authorities. The Governor ex¬
pressed the opinion that if any action was
taken at all, it would be by the Grand Jury."
At the sheriff's office it was also declared
there was nothing for that office to do in the
matter, as " the identity of the lynchers is
unknown."
Dr. O. N. Hardin and Dr. Monroe Smith'
examined the girl and reported that no rape
had been accomplished.
Case of Mrs. Richard Hembree
August 15th.—In a neck of woods, when on
her way to board a trolley for Atlanta, Mrs.
Richard Hembree was set upon by a negro,
robbed of $2.00 and " made the victim of
an attempt at assault." As she handed out
her pocketbook, the negro seized her arm,
dragged her into a thicket, threw her down
and choked her. Mrs. Hembree, being a
strong woman, -fought effectively. She at
last drew her hat pin and the negro fled.
Returning to her home, she was met by a ne¬
gro farmhand, who ran and told her hus¬
band, and hounds and a crowd immediately
began a hunt. Wilbon Matthews was brought
to her doorstep. To fend off peremptory
shooting Justice of the Peace William Wood
addressed the crowd, insisting that no harm
should be done to the captive till Mrs. Hem¬
bree had identified him. She looked at him
a long time, then said: "No, .he isn't the
one," and he was released.
She afterwards recognized Will Johnson,
arrested in the case of Mrs. Camp, which oc¬
curred after the riot (narrated in Mr. Baker's
article, page 16), as her assailant. Johnson
alleged on trial that he was sick on August
15th; and a negro witness certified that John¬
son had remained in his own room all that
day. He was convicted, and sentenced to be
hanged on January 4th. In the Tower where
he was confined he continued to assert his
innocence, saying: " Before my God and be¬
fore men I am innocent. I never did what
they charge me with. They say I must hang,
though, .and I am ready to go. I have been
praying ever since they put me in jail, and
my sins have been forgiven."
On December 22d, Judge Roan of the Su¬
perior Court, upon the application of John¬
son's attorneys, Walter McElreath and Alex
W. Stephens, granted a supersedeas, which
acted as a stay of execution until the fur¬
ther order of the Court. The application was
made on the ground of newly discovered evi¬
dence, the attorneys appointed to the defence
declaring they had discovered that Henry I.
McDuffie, Jr., a former white foreman of the
Southern Ferro Concrete Company, and P.
B. Heyward, a former white employee of
the same company, had made affidavits that
Johnson worked on the day of the assault
at the Southern Express Stables under Fore¬
man McDuffie, from 6.30 o'clock that morn¬
ing until 5 in the afternoon, stopping but
half an hour for dinner, from 12 to 12.30
o'clock. Johnson is still in jail. His pic¬
ture appears with Mr. Baker's article, page 3.
Case of Mrs. Lizzie Cash Chaffin
September 22d—day of the riot: Reported
in afternoon newspapers of this date that
while Mrs. Lizzie Cash Chaffin, of Sugar
Creek, DeKalb County, " was going to feed
her hogs she discovered a negro lurking in
the brush." (That was at two in the after¬
noon of September 21st.)
She ordered him to leave the premises.
He did not move. She went to the house,
got her husband's shotgun and fired at him.
He disappeared in a neighboring swamp.
Mrs. Chaffin's husband and brother, soon
arriving home, started after the negro. At
4.30 o'clock neighbors had collected to hunt
for the " ginger-cake colored man." Facts
were as stated. He was not caught.
Case of Miss Mittie Waits
August 24th.—Miss Mittie Waits, eighteen
years old, an assistant teacher in the school
in the suburb of Adamsville, was, according
to newspaper reports, " made a victim of at¬
tempt at assault." What really happened
was this:
She had gone to a spring in a ravine on
her father's farm to get a drink of water at
about one o'clock in the afternoon. Nearing
it, she heard a noise; looking around, she
saw no one. She bent to dip up some water.
As she straightened, there stood in front of
her, across the spring, " a tall black negro in
blue overalls with a stick in his right hand."
She turned, screamed, and ran back to the
house. The negro ran the opposite way into
a swamp. Neighbors collected; even people
from Atlanta went down to hunt the negro.
Three days after Miss Waits partly identi¬
fied Will Hindsman, who had been taken
near River Camp. She picked him out of ten
or twelve negroes as probably the one who
had " frightened " her.
But the evidence that he was the one was
not convincing, and Will Hindsman was set
loose.
Case of Miss Orrie Bryan
September 20.—"Girl Jumps into Closet to'
Escape Negro Brute," was one of the three-
column headlines over one newspaper ac¬
count of the adventures of Miss Orrie Bryan,
eighteen years old, at 232 Courtland Street,
quite in the center of Atlanta. " With his
yellow lips forming insulting phrases," was
the way the News opened its description,
and commented in the midst of the report
that " this assafclt was a particularly brutal
one."
These were the facts: While Miss Orrie,
her mother and two little sisters were alone
at home, the father being at the Y. M. C. A.,
a negro opened a window and entered. They
saw him come up the hall. He was bare¬
foot and had no trousers on, and one of his
heavy shoes he carried in his hand. Mrs.
Bryan ran out the back door and alarmed the
neighbors. Miss Orrie's way was blocked by
the negro with the uplifted shoe. She closed
the bedroom door, held it, and locked herself
and sister in. Pounding on the door, the
negro cried: " Don't be scared, honey, for I
love you."
Presently he ran from the house. Neigh¬
bors, already aroused by Mrs. Bryan, sur¬
rounded him calling, " Lynch him ! " Police¬
man arrived, handcuffed him, led him away.
At his hearing next day before Recorder
Broyles in the police court he said his name
was Luther Frazier, and his defense was:
" Judge, I don't remember a thing that hap¬
pened last night. If the white folks say I was
in that house I reckon it must be so. I got
drunk with another negro, and the last thing
1 remember was when I was in a barroom
cn Decatur Street. I don't remember any¬
thing about taking off part of my clothes."
His missing clothes had been found in a
clump of bushes in the Bryan yard. " I will
hold this negro on the double charge of as¬
sault with intent to rape, and burglary, in
bonds of $5,000," decided the Recorder, " and
I order him sent to jail."
On September 24th, three days later, Fra-
zier was indicted by the Grand Jury. He has
not yet been tried (March 8th), but is held
in jail.
Case of Mrs. Frank x\rnold
September 22d—day of the riot: " As Mrs.
Frank Arnold," reported the Constitution,
" was going out the back door of her resi¬
dence, 127 Julian Street, about seven o'clock
last night, a negro jumped out of the dark¬
ness, seized and knocked her down. Mrs.
Arnold cried out, and the negro ran for the
woods, while the rest of the family within
the house came to the rescue. The news
spread rapidly through the neighborhood; a
posse was arranged and Court Officers Dun¬
bar and Maddox began to scour the country
for the guilty party. Not long after a crowd
cf white men caught a negro near the Na¬
tional Furniture Company and brought him
up to Broad and Marietta Streets. County
Officer Dunbar conveyed the negro to Fulton
County jail, where he remains to be iden¬
tified."
Two days after the event the News re¬
ported :
" The negro was carried before Mrs. Ar¬
nold, who, it is stated, readily identified him
as the guilty one. No mob had gathered at
that time, and officers in a buggy started to
jail with the black. Accidentally driving in
front of a Marietta Street car the buggy
was overturned, and in the scuffle the ne¬
gro escaped. His coat alone was retained.
Quickly an excited mob of men and boys
assembled and gave chase. They ran the
negro over the hills towards the Zion Hill
Baptist Church. The church was searched
from top to bottom, but no sign of the
wanted one could be found. Had he been
discovered," the News commented, " his end
would have been quick and drastic. Every¬
one of the mob of six hundred or more was
armed, and free display of weapons and
angry, determined threats were made."
Solicitor-General Hill declares that the
negro who escaped in the collision was one
wanted on a different charge. No arrest
ever was made in this case.
Case of Mrs. Mattie Holcombe
September 226—day of the riot: " About
nine o'clock last evening," reported the Con¬
stitution next morning, " Mrs. Mattie Hol-
• combe, elderly, who lives at 275 Magnolia
Street, was in her home alone. She went to
shut the blinds when she discovered a negro
man looking into them. In a terrible fright
the old lady screamed, and the brute got
away. The news was telephoned to the po¬
lice station, and when Call Officers Norris
and Brannon went to respond, the old lady
herself 'phoned that there was no use to
come as the man had gotten away."
No arrest made.
Case of Miss Alma Allen
September 22d—day of the riot: Miss
Alma Allen, stepdaughter of Henry Lan¬
caster, 180 Davis Street, Atlanta, at about
seven-thirty o'clock in the evening was, ac¬
cording to her own story, " out 011 the back
porch washing her hands. There is an open¬
ing from the next street to the back porch.
Suddenly, in the dark, a man appeared beside
me. I lifted my hands out of the water and
screamed. When I screamed the man pushed
me over, and I fell to the floor. My sister
came and then went for the neighbors. I
don't know," added Miss Allen voluntarily,
" whether the man was white or black, I was
so excited." Neighbors traced him a short
distance, then they lost the trail.
No arrest made.
PENALTIES FOR ATTEMPTED AS¬
SAULTS BY WHITES
A $200 fine.—June 5th.—George Cann,
twenty-one years old, a grocer's deliveryman,
entered the apartment of Mrs. Cornelia Hunt,
recently wedded, and not sixteen years old.
"Don't you want some honey?" he testified
he asked her. Mrs. Hunt's answer, he said,
was: " Don't you • think I'm sweet enough
without honey?"
Mrs. Hunt's testimony was that the young
man embraced her and attempted to force
her into the nearby room adjoining the hall
where he met her, and that in the struggle he
had torn her shirt waist, which was offered
in evidence.
Her husband testified that he was a ma¬
chinist who worked at night, and on the
morning in question had gone out for a short
time, and, upon his return, was met at the
front door by his wife, who was in a terribly
excited state, and was afterwards informed
by her of Cann's abuse. Mrs. Christianberry,
a neighbor, corroborated.
Cann was indicted for attempted criminal
assault; but the court gave the jury the pre¬
rogative of finding him guilty (December
19th) of "simple assault," which they did,
and Cann was sentenced to " twelve months
or $200." Cann paid the fine of $200.
A fifteen-year sentence.—December 7th.—
Mrs. Carrie Comstock, agent for a cooking
compound, calling at the home of Robert
Turnadgc, 128 Jones Avenue, asked if the
lady of the house was in. Turnadge said,
" Come in." Mrs. Comstock began telling
Turnadge the efficacy of her ware. Turn¬
adge took hold of her. She resisted. " But
for God coming to my aid just at that mo-
merit," declared Mrs. Comstock, "that man
would have dishonored me. But, as he
passed his hand over my face I seized one of
his fingers in my mouth, and clenched my
teeth upon it. Then he struck me in the face,
broke my nose, and when I finally tried to
escape struck me on the head with the water
pitcher and cursed me as I lay prostrate and
helpless."
Turnadge's defense was that he did not
remember anything of the alleged assault.
He claimed he was drunk and in a fit of in¬
sanity at the time of the crime. Alienists
testified that he had the stigma of a degen¬
erate, and was frequently irresponsible.
" Guilty of attempt at criminal assault, but
with a recommendation to mercy," was the
jury's verdict.
"In deference to the jury," said Judge
Roan, " I sentence you to serve fifteen years
at hard labor in the penitentiary. The maxi¬
mum punishment I might inflict would be
twenty years, which is what, but for the
recommendation of the jury, I would have
imposed upon you. Yours is one of the most
brutal crimes I have known of. I cannot
strongly enough characterize your cowardly
and brutal attack upon this good woman."
Awaiting trial.—December 12th.—In Dqn-
aldsville, on her way from church, Miss
Argene Floyd was seized by a white man,
whose intention seemed to be assault. She
fought him off and shouted, and the man
upon hearing relief coming, fled.
A man answering the description was
caught at the station while purchasing a
ticket for the night train, and was later
identified by Miss Floyd. He was Thomas
Middleton, who deserted his wife four years
ago. He is in jail awaiting trial.
2&
THE RECONSTRUCTION
CIVIC LEAGUE MOVEMENT
First appeal sent out:
Ta the Law-abiding, Peace-loving Citizens
of Atlanta:
One of the results of the recent riot has
been a rapidly growing sentiment that some
intelligent action should be taken in order to
prevent a repetition. Further loss of prestige,
injury to business, anxiety and bloodshed
should be avoided if possible.
Inspired with the belief that such measures
should be adopted as will in the future pre¬
vent similar trouble, and, in harmony with
the growing sentiment, we, the undersigned,
have consented to take the initiatory towards
an organization having but this one end in
view. This is done after conference with a
sufficient number of citizens to justify us in
the statement that the great, overwhelming
majority of law-abiding people in this county
are opposed not only to riots and lynchings,
but to any other form of injustice or viola¬
tion of the law.
It has been determined to form an associa¬
tion to be tentatively known as " The Atlanta
Civic League," and we earnestly invite you
to become a member.
The object of this association is not poli¬
tics, and no one with political ambition is
desired as a member. There are no dues,
and no demands of any character will be
made upon the members except for moral
supp'ort.
The purpose of the association will be to
take such steps, through an executive com¬
mittee, as will tend to promote peace between
the races, see that offenders of both races are
apprehended and justice impartially adminis¬
tered, and permanently secure protection to
both white and black.
We earnestly urge you to consider the im¬
portance of the questions involved, not only
as regards the present, but the future pros¬
perity of the city. If we deal with this mat¬
ter intelligently there is no reason why suc¬
cess should not be attained.
If you favor this movement, please sign
and mail the inclosed postal card.
C. B. Wilmer, Frank Hawkins,
George Muse, H. S. Johnson,
Forrest Adair, A. B. Steele,
John J. Eagan, Alex W. Stirling,
F. L. Seely, R. B. Ridley,
L. Z. Rosser, F. J. Paxon,
H. Y. McCord, W. O. Foote,
Robt. Maddox, Chas. T. Hopkins,
Walter G. Cooper, Chairman.
Rabbi David Marx, Jno. E. Murphy, _
Executive Committee.
EX-GOVERNOR W. J. NORTHEN'S
MOVEMENT
Suggested Plan for Readjustment of the
Relations of the Races Looking to the
Suppression of Crime and Violence and
the Savagery of Mobs
1. Call a mass-meeting of law-abiding citi¬
zens. Have it understood that others are not
expected to participate. Appoint an execu¬
tive committee of ten or twelve of the best
citizens who are known for large public spirit,
and put the matter of organization and gen¬
eral management into their hands.
2. To enlarge the membership, this com¬
mittee, over their signatures, should send out
circular letters to suitable people in the com¬
munity and throughout the county, asking
consent to use the names of the parties ad¬
dressed, for strengthening public sentiment
with both white people and negroes against
crime and violence. In these letters there
should be inclosed a printed self-addressed
postal card for reply.
3. The Executive Committee should then
arrange a conference with a small number of
the best, law-abiding negroes in the com¬
munity, including all the negro ministers,
and obtain their cooperation in the organiza¬
tion of a league between all the law-abiding
white people and all the law-abiding negroes,
who will agree to enter together upon some
systematic plan of education on law and or¬
der for both races, so that these elements
may leaven the bad elements of both races.
4. All the white ministers in the commu¬
nity should be ex-officio members of the Ex¬
ecutive Committee, and asked to lead in all
the efforts to awaken and strengthen publjc
sentiment upon civic righteousness.
5. The league should be kept entirely under
the control and management of the Executive
Committee. When thus organized, the min¬
isters, white and colored, should be asked to
preach to their respective congregations, the
same day, on law and order.
6. At intervals of three or four weeks,
public addresses by members of the com¬
mittee or other citizens should be delivered
in the court "house or otljpr public place, to
assemblies of white people and negroes, so
that the public mind may be kept interested,
and all the people active in maintaining high
ideals of citizenship and good order.
7. Let it be remembered that the 22d of
last September was the day of the State's
greatest dishonor and disgrace, because of
the savage riot in Atlanta, and, in order that
our people may be fully redeemed from this
27
shame, the 22d of next September will be a
law and order day throughout all parts of
of the State that may be organized at that
time. Every minister in the State being
asked to preach on law and order in the
forenoon of that day, while the Executive
Committee of each organized community will
arrange for addresses to be delivered in the
afternoon, before white people and negroes,
assembled in the court house or some suit¬
able place.
8. We need strong public sentiment on the
seven separate propositions set out in the
accompanying pamphlet. These propositions
should be .the basis of the system of the edu¬
cation entered upon.
9. Let it be understood all the way through
that in the South there can never be any so¬
cial intermingling of the races, and that the
political power of this section will remain in
present hands, but that the negroes will be
guaranteed equal protection of the law, and
that all the resources of the law will be ex¬
hausted in protecting the innocent and pun¬
ishing the guilty. There should be no aris¬
tocracy of crime. A white fiend is as much
to be dreaded as a black brute.
MOVEMENT INITIATED BY THE
REV. JOHN E. WHITE, PASTOR
OF THE SECOND BAPTIST CHURCH
OF ATLANTA
It is proposed to bring about through the
cooperation of the chief executives of the
Southern States the organization of a South¬
ern commission for the purpose of giving
crystallization to those conclusions, with re¬
gard to our Southern situation and the fu¬
ture of the two races in the South, which
represent the highest conscience and at the
same time the spirit of the Southern white
people. It is expected that this commission
shall consist, three from each State, of men
of the highest public and private character,
whose presence on the commission will be
calculated to commend the confidence of
their respective States.
The reasons which urge the importance of
such commission are as follows:
First. The present unsettled and unsatis¬
factory state of affairs in the South, with re¬
gard to the relations of the races, is not a
permanent condition, and must either result
in a better situation or a situation inde¬
scribably worse.
Second. The Southern white people owe it
to themselves to get together as far as pos¬
sible in agreement and in policy, and as the
dominant and responsible people should not
be without some programme.
Third. The white people of the South owe
it to the negroes, who are in confusion with
respect to what the Southern white people
really require at their hands, to give them
an understanding of the conditions under
which they may hope for security in progress
and in peace in their development as a race.
Fourth. The Southern white people are
under obligation to the rest of the nation,
and as Anglo-Saxons to the rest of the
world, to face this race situation with cour¬
age and with confidence, and to prove that
there is constructive statesmanship among
us sufficient to deal writh our problem in ac¬
cordance with the principles of Christian
civilization.
Fifth. The necessity that something origi¬
nating among the Southern people and
shaped in their own hands shall be done is
pressed upon us by the constant peril of
outbreak and violence. Any thoughtful man
in the South must realize that outbreaks like
the Atlanta and Mississippi riots have a ten¬
dency to destroy confidence in our ability to
control our situation, and that continuing, a
protest would soon be heard from Christian
communities in other parts of the world call¬
ing upon the United States as a nation and
holding the whole country responsible for
inhumanities. The result will inevitably be
that the Southern race situation will become
a matter of Congressional action and national
interference. When this occurs the South
will be at once plunged into a period of re¬
action and resentment on one side, and con¬
scientious support of order and national au¬
thority on the other, making a line of hot
division throughout our whole Southern so¬
ciety. ...
The pian. proposed by which the concur¬
rence and cooperation of the governors may
be secured is to have a conference of promi¬
nent Southerners at an early date, which
will canvass this matter, and as result of
their deliberation present to the governors
singly a petition* for the appointment of the
three representatives from each State to con¬
stitute the aforesaid commission. . . .
Along with this petition this conference
would present to each Governor the pledge
that the provision for all expenses of the
commissioners and the commission had been
provided by Southern men who love the
South, and who realize the injury resulting
to the South on account of our lack of pro¬
gramme, and are prepared in a sympathetic
and patriotic spirit to provide the necessary
finances attending the work of the commis¬
sion.
It is proposed that when the commissioners
are appointed and meet, their main objective
shall be after a thorough investigation of our
situation and the ascertainment of conditions
and facts that are general in the South, to
issue a proposed line of policy upon which
the Southern people should be able to agree,
in the form of an address to the people and
to the country.
The matters coming up upon which pro¬
nouncement would be expected naturally
suggest themselves.
First. The matter of the separation of the
races in the schools, in public places, and so¬
cially.
Second. The matter of race integrity for
negroes and for whites, a final and conclu-
28
sive understanding as to this on the part of
the negroes, and determined drastic, social
and political legislation against lust and co-
hah tation as regards the whites with negroes.
Th rd. The matter of the suffrage. Some
final j>olicy should be undertaken in the crea¬
tion of public sentiment based on defensible
moral grounds, with regard to the elimina¬
tion of ignorant negro voters, and also of the
ultimate application of this wise principle of
government to the unprepared of both races.
Fourth. The matter of negro labor. En¬
couragement to the negro to stay close by the
soil on the ground of increasing agricultural
opportunity in the South, and on the groun3
of a natural race evolution; encouragement
of the negro also- to thrift and industry.
Therefore, the repeal of all legislation dis¬
couraging to the freedom of labor; also en¬
couragement of a natural diffusion of labor
as the variations of opportunity may natu¬
rally permit. On the further grounds that
at many points in the South there is an over-
congestion of negro population.
Fifth. The matter of education. A recog¬
nition of two facts—of white illiteracy and
the white mark's first duty to his own chil¬
dren, and the history of our free school de¬
velopment and the difficulties attending taxa¬
tion—but at the same tkne the- negro schools
to be increased and improved a? rapidly as
possible. Probably also emphasis, on indus¬
trial education in the negro free schools.
Sixth. The matter of justice. This would
bring in the consideration of a rural police,
and also the cooperation of the negroes in the
detection of criminals, and pronouncedly we
would give a pledge of trial by jury and of
protection against all lawlessness.
For such a commission to pronounce upon
these and other matters about which at the
' present time there is much feeling' and no
crystallization of thought, would lay down a
line by which the press, the pulpit, the schools
and the people could begin to hew, and by
which also the negroes would make a better
assured progress than they are at present
making toward the adjustment of their rac§
to its environment. . . .
f REVIEW OF THE RECONSTRUCTION
MOVEMENT PUBLISHED IN THE
ATLANTA. CONSTITUTION, DE¬
CEMBER 23, 1906
The Tuail Being Blazed
Some two months ago, when Atlanta was
recovering from the semi-paralysis following
the racial disturbances in this city, the Con¬
stitution published an editorial summarizing
the chaos of the recent past, stressing the
futility with which the South had hitherto
wrestled with this forbidding problem, and
calling with all the vigor at its command for
the representative men of the community to
take the initiative in a Sensible, conservative
campaign which should look to the final ban¬
ishment of a menace of long standing.
The editorial was headed " Shall We Blaze
This Trail?"
There are ample evidences that the appeal
made in the white-heat of au exigency fell
on fertile soil, and that Atlantans whose
lifework spells earnestness and success are
bravely blazing a true trail to the solution
of a problem which has become the common
arid sinister heritage of the South and the
nation.
A pertinent illustration is the interview
with ex-Governor W. J. Northen, published
elsewhere in to-day's Constitution.
Governor Northen shows how the crusade
of the Business "Men's Gospel Union, under
his guidance, ■ is being extended into Nsuch
cities as Columbus, Macon, Augusta
Sparta. He shows that, at a sacrifice of his
time and personal interests, he will visit
within a few days Valdosta, Quitman, Thom-
asville and Albany. He testifies that in every
place yet visited he has btxurH the enthu¬
siastic cooperation of the BEST WHITE
CITIZENS, in the furtherance of a propa¬
ganda looking toward law and order, and
the vitalizing of the precepts of Cheat's re-'
ligion in the removal of frictiop between the
races.
It is Hi* inv-.tiaon-; As Tie states, to carry
this strong, tranquilizing gospel INTO THE
SOUTHERN STATES ' BROADLY, as
soon as the work of organization in Georgia
reaches an assured basis. •
Backed by the Business Men's Gospel
Union, Governor Northen stands -out as a
type of the active, aggressive patriot, whose
work should be encoyraged by the whole
South.
Of equal moment and equal promise is the
campaign of the Atlanta CivicJL,eague. En¬
listing in its ranks Tipwanls of fifteen hun¬
dred of the mest. substantial citizens of At¬
lanta, it stands pledged to exhaust human
ingenuity and patience and financial resources
in the same humanitarian task as that es¬
sayed by the Gospel Union.
The Constiftition has shown how eagerly
and loyally its suggestions have been received
by the business men approaehed; how silently,
yet effectually its plans were being material¬
ized, and what genuine credit was due to
Charles T. Hopkins, the zealous guiding
genius of the one organization as Governor
Northen is that of the other.
Pioneers—in a way—in the blazing- of a
trail criss-crossed with snarls and inevitable
discouragements, they1 are due the gratitude
and high praise the people will accord them.
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