Negrophobia: A Race Riot in Atlanta, 1906

by Mark Bauerlein

At the beginning of the twentieth century, Atlanta was regarded as the gateway to the new, enlightened and racially progressive South. White business owners employed black workers and made their fortunes, while black leaders led congregations, edited periodicals, and taught classes. But in 1906, in a bitter gubernatorial contest, Georgia politicians played the race card and white supremacists trumpeted a "Negro crime" scare. Seizing on rumors of black predation against white women, they launched a campaign based on fears of miscegenation and white subservience. Atlanta slipped into a climate of racial phobia and sexual hysteria that culminated in a bloody riot, which stymied race relations for fifty years. Drawing on new archival materials, Mark Bauerlein traces the origins, development and brutal climax of Atlanta's descent into hatred and violence in the fateful summer of 1906. "Negrophobia" is history at its best--a dramatic moment in time impeccably recreated in a suspenseful narrative, focusing on figures such as Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. DuBois; author Margaret Mitchell and future NAACP leader Walter White; and an assortment of black victims and white politicians who witnessed and participated in this American tragedy.

Genres: History

304 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 2001

About the author

Mark Bauerlein earned his doctorate in English at UCLA in 1988. He has taught at Emory since 1989, with a two-and-a-half year break in 2003-05 to serve as the Director, Office of Research and Analysis, at the National Endowment for the Arts. Apart from his scholarly work, he publishes in popular periodicals such as The Wall Street Journal, The Weekly Standard, The Washington Post, TLS, and Chronicle of Higher Education. His latest book, The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future; Or, Don’t Trust Anyone Under 30 (www.dumbestgeneration.com), was published in May 2008.

Reviews

[Colleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Negrophobia is an interesting book about the little talked about Atlanta riot of 1906. As the author demonstrates, it should more properly be called a hunt as the majority of the "race riot" was just white mobs attacking and killing any black people who got in their way. The book gets out to a slow start as Mark Bauerlein sets the stage. Segregationist politicians drawl their way across the page, spewing out obnoxious racial commentary to eagerly awaiting white ears. Then the press arrives happy to sensationalize any and all news events. The media quickly seizes on a series of assaults and rapes of white women in the Atlanta area perpetrated by black men. Exaggerating facts, the papers serve to fan the flames of already hopelessly bigoted white Atlantans who are appalled that black people have dared to sully the purity of white womanhood. As Bauerlin notes, four rapes committed by white men at the same time are not even mentioned in the newspapers' police blotters.

Eventually, lynch-happy white men decide to take justice into their own hands and descend on the city of Atlanta, beating, kicking, stabbing and shooting any black person they find. The details of the hunt are truly chilling as white men stop streetcars, cutting their cables and pulling off any black passengers to abuse. Law enforcement either stands by, joins in or feebly tries to stop the mobs. Predictably, the local government is totally ineffective, bleating that black bars and brothels need to be closed and victim blaming black sections of towns for being targeted by white people. Naturally, nobody suggests closing bordellos that cater to white men. The treatment of the black people in this book is so horrible and frustrating that by the end of the book I understood 100% why so many people were adherents of the Back-to-Africa movement. As a black person in the Jim Crow era, you couldn't live or die in peace. There was a complete double standard. Black people were not even allowed to have a weapon to defend themselves against the murderous white people. During the aftermath, all the white people went about their business as usual and Atlanta's black residents left the city in droves for presumably safer havens.

The book's cast of characters is a familiar one to anyone who knows anything about the history of this time period. W.E.B. Du Bois is teaching at Atlanta University and of course Booker T. Washington has to stick his oar in from over at Tuskegee. Alonzo Herndon's fancy barbershop makes a brief and tragic appearance and John Wesley Dobbs (grandfather of Maynard Jackson and most awesome Atlantan ever) stands guard against the white mobs. Civil rights activist Walter White is also given page time of course. His background gave him a unique perspective into the hunt. Purportedly a descendant of William Henry Harrison, White was relegated to second class citizenship by the one-drop rule. But the marauding mobs thought he was white and left him alone.

The most important event in the hunt was probably the bumbling mob of white police officers and civilians (by the way, what legitimate law enforcement group takes a furniture salesman with them on a mission?) who marched to Brownsville and started a firefight with frightened homeowners. I was glad to read elsewhere that Alex Walker, the only man convicted of the so-called Brownsville "ambush", (sentenced to life per the book) ended up getting out of prison after only 4 years and left Georgia for good. Based on this book, 1906 me would be right behind him.

If you want to find out where the United States has come from and understand where it is now, this is a great book. Based on this book, some things have not changed much, while others have. Negrophobia will help you understand the origins of both white supremacy and the civil rights movement. It is not a pleasant read, but it is an important one.

[Craven Lovelace · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this book was outstanding. It really made it clear what was "in the air" leading up to the 1906 Atlanta race riot, and in so doing, has still-pertinent lessons for our modern era.

[E Douglas Pratt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dr. Mark Bauerlein has done careful research to document this story of how institutionalized white supremacy and hatred leads to violent terrorism. In the first chapters he explains the context: how the institution of slavery was reformed, not really ended. The protections of Reconstruction were withdrawn and the former CSA were free to reconstruct slavery in other forms. Local laws were created so police could easily arrest black people; Courts were funnels for Black prisoner leasing; share cropping was indenture benefitting only white landowners; lynching was not even vigilante justice...it was a ritual of white terrorism to keep the Black community in a hopeless, powerless state.

Between 1880 and 1906, many African Americans achieved middle class status in Atlanta, and some became well-to-do. Their neighborhoods and churches expressed their pride and industry. In this complex context, white business leaders, clergy, newspaper owners and editors, and both the candidates for Governor roused white terrorism for their own benefit; secondly for the benefit of their closest cronies and other whites. But many working class and working-poor whites who did not get much trickle-down were left to envy.

The rival candidates and rival newspapers competed to be the ones the white majority could trust. Importantly, Atlanta's Klan did some dirty work but clearly were not the driving force for the 1906 massacre. From the network of Atlanta's power-elite came the proudly white supremacist rhetoric, and loudly fabricated headlines of lusty Black men and boys frightening or raping white women. It may have appeared that it was the white rabble who caused the 3-days of random beatings, lynchings, and burning of Black homes and businesses. "Negrophobia" does not let the reader buy that.

Bauerlein explains that the massacre was reported in newspapers nationwide and in Europe. Atlanta's white leaders needed damage control. Henry Grady, Managing Editor of one of the papers and trusted white supremacist, was sent on a speaking tour reassuring white Americans that racial tolerance had now returned to Atlanta and the phoenix of racial cooperation would build a thriving southern metropolis. Hence the myth that Atlanta is the city too busy to hate.

Dr. Bauerlein's misnomer, "Race Riot", accurately reflects all Atlantans' reframe of the one-sided massacre. Because of Bauerlein's excellent history, and a few other books like it, the City has now officially adopted "1906 Atlanta Race Massacre". The chief contribution of "Negrophobia" is that it does not allow the reader to see "rednecks" or Klansmen as the drivers; instead it makes plain the intricate, sticky, and very fine web of institutional racism.

("Eugene Blueshawk" is an old nom de plume that just would not delete. The author is E. Douglas Pratt, retired Behavioral Consultant, now a social justice activist in Atlanta.)

[John Noe · Rating 4 out of 5]

It feels strange to give a book like this a rating.

It's essential reading for anyone who is interested in learning about Atlanta history or about race riots of the early 20th century, a slice of American history that has only recently begun to receive widespread attention. Historical significance aside, it's painstakingly researched yet surprisingly readable, challenging subject matter notwithstanding.

I highly recommend it.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent book. I had to read this for a class I had on African-American historiography. I used this for a historiographical paper on black urban migration.