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Rage in the Gate City: The Story of the 1906 Atlanta Race Riot
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Rage in the Gate City: The Story of the 1906 Atlanta Race Riot
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by Rebecca Burns
Sales Rank : 198786
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Paperback: 240 pages
Publisher: Emmis Books August 8, 2006
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1578602688
ISBN-13: 978-1578602681
Product Dimensions:
8.9 x 6.2 x 0.7 inches
Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
From Booklist
In 1906, white Atlantans, enraged by the prosperity of the city's black residents, rioted, killing African Americans and destroying their businesses, churches, and homes. Nearly all of Atlanta's black residents were descendants of slaves, making their progress to that point even more remarkable in a city that was beginning to savor its reputation as the metropolis of the South. Custom and Jim Crow laws kept the prosperity--and poverty--of black Atlanta and white Atlanta separate in parallel universes, but resentment crossed the barrier as a gubernatorial campaign placed race squarely in the public discourse. Candidates played on racial fears and hatred, with lurid coverage of alleged sex crimes by black men against white women, until they whipped whites into a fury that ended with 24 dead black Atlantans and 1,000 fleeing the city. In this detailed and riveting account, supplemented with photographs of the time, journalist Burns explores the social and economic factors that led to the riot, which has been downplayed in the history of a city that prides itself on racial harmony. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Product Description
In September 1906, triggered by sensational newspaper accounts accusing black men of sexually assaulting white women, Atlanta’s simmering racial tension exploded. Over four days of rioting, mobs of violent whites killed at least 10 blacks, looted black-owned businesses, and ransacked homes and neighborhoods. In the days immediately following the riot, black and white leaders came together in an unprecedented move, setting the stage for Atlanta’s emergence as the “city too busy to hate” decades later. But while their business-first attitude may have quelled the most overt rhetoric and raging violence, it also reinforced class prejudices that existed in both the black and white communities.
Released on the 100-year anniversary of the riots, Rage in the Gate City provides a compelling narrative of the events during the month that shaped Atlanta and explores questions of race and class prejudice that are as relevant today as they were a century ago.
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