Until the Atlanta Race Riot of September 22-24, 1906, the city could still tout itself as a place where blacks and whites lived peacefully, yet separately. The Riot--which exposed a web of racial, economic, and class tensions--changed all that. The culminating events of the Riot's centennial remembrance will take place in Atlanta beginning September 21.The University of Georgia Press has a number of books related to the Riot, its causes, its principal figures, and its important place in American history.
THE LAW OF THE WHITE CIRCLE
A novel by Thornwell Jacobs
Long out of print, this is the only fictional treatment of the Riot ever to be published. This edition includes supplemental readings that promote a deeper understanding of the novel and the actual events it portrays.
LIVING ATLANTA
An Oral History of the City, 1914-1948
by Clifford M. Kuhn, Harlon E. Joye, and E. Bernard West
Clifford M. Kuhn is one of the principal organizers of the Riot's centennial remembrance. This book includes memories by Atlanta residents, black and white, of the Riot and its lasting effect on the city.
A MAN CALLED WHITE
The Autobiography of Walter White
by Walter White
Includes the author's eyewitness account of the Riot. White's views on race were changed forever by the experience, leading him to take leadership roles in the NAACP.
TO BUILD OUR LIVES TOGETHER
Community Formation in Black Atlanta, 1875-1906
by Allison Dorsey
Tells how black Atlantans pursued their dreams through a network of churches, fraternal organizations, and social clubs--and how these pursuits fueled white apprehensions that came to a head during the Atlanta Race Riot.
THE HERNDONS
An Atlanta Family
by Carole Merritt
The story of a leading black Atlanta family and its business empire. Owned by the Herndons, the Crystal Palace, Atlanta's most opulent barber salon, was ransacked during the Riot.
LUGENIA BURNS HOPE, BLACK SOUTHERN REFORMER
by Jacqueline Anne Rouse
The biography of a prominent black activist with close ties to Morehouse College and an acute understanding of the social forces that collided during the Riot.
Resources:
Web site of the Coalition to Remember the Atlanta Race Riot
Article on the Atlanta Race Riot in the New Georgia Encyclopedia
Recent coverage of the Riot centennial in the Washington Post
Atlanta Race Riot segment from the PBS documentary series The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow
Contact the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site for information on the exhibit Red Was the Midnight
Above illustration of the Atlanta Race Riot from the October 7, 1906 cover of the French magazine Le Petit Journal
