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2 The Nadir of Black Political Influence, 1909–1932 The period in Atlanta politics from 1909 to the New Deal has been called the nadir of black political interest and influence. The Georgia legislature, in 1908, passed a statewide act that disfranchised blacks, except in “general, open, and special elections.” With little or no interference on the part of the national Republican Party or the federal government, black Atlantans faced a new era of political helplessness,except,perhaps,in“general,open,and special elections.” This new nadir had been foreshadowed by the disastrous race riot of 1906, which, while it eventually led to at least a temporary improvement in race relation in Atlanta, did little in itself to change the rabid negrophobia that now characterized Georgia politics.1 The genesis of the riot lay in the vituperative racist gubernatorial campaign of 1906. The two principal candidates, Hoke Smith and Clark Howell, seemed to try to outdo each other in their race-baiting.2 Already negative white public opinion had been aroused by a series of unconfirmed reports in the city newspapers of physical assaults on white women by black men.Additional racial tensions had surfaced because of increased competition between black and white men for jobs during a period of economic recession.3 As tensions grew, both races began to fear an open confrontation. The black mortician David T. Howard, for example, smuggled a box of weapons into the city from Chicago in a casket. The actual riot began on the evening of September 22, 1906, in the red-light district of Decatur Street near downtown Atlanta. This was an area frequented by both poor blacks and whites, lured by bars,gambling,prostitution,and other vices.On that evening,a mob of whites paraded through the streets attacking unsuspecting blacks who were either shopping or traveling through the area. The riot continued for three days, eventually spreading to black residential sections in the southeast, northeast, and southwest quadrants of the city.4 When the mob approached the“Darktown” portion of northeast Atlanta, near the black business district on Auburn Avenue, George White—a black postman and the father of the future NAACP leader Walter White—secured weapons and waited in anxious anticipation with his family. As the 29 The Nadir of Black Political Influence, 1909–1932 mob stopped at the White home, the son of a white grocer with whom the black family had done business shouted:“That’s where the nigger mail carrier lives! Let’s burn it down! It’s too nice for a nigger to live in!” George White then turned to his thirteen-year-old son, Walter, and told him:“Don’t shoot until that man puts his foot on the lawn and then, don’t you miss.” But as the mob moved toward the house, the Whites’ neighbors fired and drove them away. The white mob retreated toward downtown.5 On their way toward “Darktown,” the rioters had passed the black First Congregational Church at Houston and Courtland streets. The church’s pastor ,the Reverend Hugh Proctor,saw the mob as it came into the church yard. A number of children were sheltered in the parsonage nearby. But the whites scattered when some of the black residents“shot out the street lights.”6 In southeast Atlanta, in an area called Brownsville, a panic developed as a white mob approached. Several of the residents sought refuge in the Gammon Theological Seminary. On the first night there, many sat up all night praying. The school’s president, John W. E. Bowen, later said that he had not been able to sleep for several days in anticipation of the arrival of the mob.On Sunday, he called for police protection, but none was provided. On Monday evening, however, a squad of county police did arrive, and, even though there had been no trouble reported at the time,they arrested,with the aid of several white citizens, blacks for carrying weapons illegally. During one of these incidents , one white policeman was killed, another wounded, and several blacks were killed or injured. Although the blacks contended that they had fired on the officers because they mistook them for the mob in the darkness, some were charged with murder. At least two were shot in police custody.7 Because of the riot in Brownsville, Clark University delayed its fall opening , which probably served to prevent a dangerous altercation between the mob and black college students. Similarly, on the city’s west...

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