Peachtree Center in Atlanta in Fulton County, Georgia — The American South (South Atlantic)
Lynching in America ⎯⎯⎯ 1906 Atlanta Race Massacre
Community Remembrance Project
Photographed by Duane and Tracy Marsteller, June 11, 2023
1. Lynching in America side of marker
Inscription.
Lynching in America, also, 1906 Atlanta Race Massacre. Community Remembrance Project.
Lynching in America . Racial terror lynching between 1865 and 1950 claimed the lives of thousands of African Americans and created a legacy of injustice that can still be felt today. During this era, lynching emerged as the most notorious form of resistance to emancipation and equal rights for Black people. As a tool of racial terror, lynching was used to intimidate Black people and enforce racial hierarchy and segregation. Denied equal protection and justice under the law, many Black people were lynched for violating perceived social customs, resisting economic exploitation, or being accused of crimes, even when there was no evidence tying the accused to any offense. Nearly 25 percent of documented lynchings were sparked by charges of sexual assault, at a time when Black men were considered dangerous threats to white womanhood. Law enforcement and white officials routinely failed to intervene to prevent lynchings and tolerated mobs by granting them impunity despite their lawlessness and violence against Black people. Mob terrorism often expanded beyond a specific person accused of an offense to target entire Black communities with indiscriminate and arbitrary violence. In most cases, Black communities devastated by this violence never received any assistance or resources to repair the harm. The names of many lynching victims remain unknown, but at least 36 racial terror lynchings have been documented in Fulton County and at least 595 in Georgia.,
1906 Atlanta Race Massacre . On September 22, 1906, thousands of white men and boys gathered in downtown Atlanta screaming, Get them all! Kill the Negroes! Over four days, white mobs terrorized Black people in Atlanta's Five Points area and nearby Black neighborhoods, burning homes, destroying Black-owned businesses, and attacking any Black person in their path. Reports indicate that hundreds of Black people filled Grady Hospital's segregated ward for medical treatment before the violence ended on September 25. At least 25 Black men and women were lynched in the 1906 Atlanta Race Massacre. Months prior, racist gubernatorial campaigning and sensational news reporting about alleged assaults against white women by Black men had deepened racial animosity in white communities against Black Georgians. When white mob violence erupted on the 22nd, law enforcement failed to intervene and at least 12 Black people were lynched before midnight. Left to defend themselves on the 23rd, one Black neighborhood on present-day John Wesley Dobbs Avenue successfully repelled an attack by turning out the streetlights and firing on the mob. On the 24th, Black Atlantans in Brownsville stopped a mob attack on their neighborhood, but county police arrested them and left them in streetcars that were attacked by white mobs. At least one of the Black people detained was killed. Of the thousands of white mob participants, only two were ever convicted for their role in the massacre.
Lynching in America
Racial terror lynching between 1865 and 1950 claimed the lives of thousands of African Americans and created a legacy of injustice that can still be felt today. During this era, lynching emerged as the most notorious form of resistance to emancipation and equal rights for Black people. As a tool of racial terror, lynching was used to intimidate Black people and enforce racial hierarchy and segregation. Denied equal protection and justice under the law, many Black people were lynched for violating perceived social customs, resisting economic exploitation, or being accused of crimes, even when there was no evidence tying the accused to any offense. Nearly 25 percent of documented lynchings were sparked by charges of sexual assault, at a time when Black men were considered dangerous threats to white womanhood. Law enforcement and white officials routinely failed to intervene to prevent lynchings and tolerated mobs by granting them impunity despite their lawlessness and violence against Black people. Mob terrorism often expanded beyond a specific person accused of an offense to target entire Black communities
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with indiscriminate and arbitrary violence. In most cases, Black communities devastated by this violence never received any assistance or resources to repair the harm. The names of many lynching victims remain unknown, but at least 36 racial terror lynchings have been documented in Fulton County and at least 595 in Georgia.
1906 Atlanta Race Massacre
On September 22, 1906, thousands of white men and boys gathered in downtown Atlanta screaming, Get them all! Kill the Negroes! Over four days, white mobs terrorized Black people in Atlanta's Five Points area and nearby Black neighborhoods, burning homes, destroying Black-owned businesses, and attacking any Black person in their path. Reports indicate that hundreds of Black people filled Grady Hospital's segregated ward for medical treatment before the violence ended on September 25. At least 25 Black men and women were lynched in the 1906 Atlanta Race Massacre. Months prior, racist gubernatorial campaigning and sensational news reporting about alleged assaults against white women by Black men had deepened racial animosity in white communities against Black Georgians. When white mob
Photographed by Duane and Tracy Marsteller, June 11, 2023
2. 1906 Atlanta Race Massacre side of marker
violence erupted on the 22nd, law enforcement failed to intervene and at least 12 Black people were lynched before midnight. Left to defend themselves on the 23rd, one Black neighborhood on present-day John Wesley Dobbs Avenue successfully repelled an attack by turning out the streetlights and firing on the mob. On the 24th, Black Atlantans in Brownsville stopped a mob attack on their neighborhood, but county police arrested them and left them in streetcars that were attacked by white mobs. At least one of the Black people detained was killed. Of the thousands of white mob participants, only two were ever convicted for their role in the massacre.
Erected 2022 by Fulton County Remembrance Coalition · Equal Justice Initiative.
Location. 33° 45.438′ N, 84° 23.05′ W. Marker is in Atlanta, Georgia, in Fulton County. It is in Peachtree Center. It is at the intersection
Photographed by Duane and Tracy Marsteller, June 11, 2023
3. 1906 Atlanta Race Massacre / Lynching in America Marker
of Courtland Street Northeast and John Wesley Dobbs Avenue Northeast, on the left when traveling south on Courtland Street Northeast. Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 105 Courtland St NE, Atlanta GA 30303, United States of America. Touch for directions.
Regionally, this marker is in Georgia’s Piedmont. It is also in the American South and specifically in the Deep South. Globally, it is in the North Atlantic Region, North America, the Western Hemisphere, the Western World, and the Anglosphere. Historically, it finds itself in what was once the territory of the Mississippian Culture, one of the original Thirteen Colonies, one of the Confederate States of America, and the Antebellum South.
Also see . . . The 1906 Atlanta Race Massacre: How Fearmongering Led to Violence. As African Americans achieved economic success in Atlanta in the early 1900s, the city simmered with racial strife that was further inflamed by yellow journalism. (Nadra Kareem Nittle, The History Channel, posted Sept. 14, 2021)) (Submitted on July 3, 2023, by Duane and Tracy Marsteller of Murfreesboro, Tennessee.)
Photographed by Brandon D Cross
5. 1906 Atlanta Race Massacre Marker
A Replica marker of one side is located at the Equal Justice Initiatives' National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama. The Equal Justice Initiative supports efforts to locally memorialize documented victims of racial violence and to educate communities about the history of racial injustice. Mark Hilton
Credits. This page was last revised on October 16, 2024. It was originally submitted on July 3, 2023, by Duane and Tracy Marsteller of Murfreesboro, Tennessee. This page has been viewed 604 times since then and 70 times this year. Photos:1, 2, 3, 4. submitted on July 3, 2023, by Duane and Tracy Marsteller of Murfreesboro, Tennessee. 5. submitted on October 16, 2024, by Brandon D Cross of Flagler Beach, Florida.
