Danver Steven L. (Edited). Revolts, Protests, Demonstrations, and Rebellions in American History: An Encyclopedia (ENG)
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by the brutal torture and lynching of Sam Hose (or Holt) in Newman, Georgia, in
April 1899, for in May, he contacted Bishop Henry M. Turner to become a sub-
scription agent for his magazine Voice of Missions, which advocated the cause of
a return to Africa, something Charles had long shown an interest in.
While his motivations for his actions on Dryades Streets on July 23, 1900, must
remain a mystery, it seems Charles was agitated about the increasing attack on
African American civil rights in the South. When questioned by three policemen
while he waited for friends at 11:00 p.m., a struggle developed, resulting in Patrol-
man August T. Mora using his billy club against Charles. Charles pulled out his
pistol, and in the exchange, both Charles and Mora were wounded. Having made
his escape, Charles returned to his residence o n Fourth Street, where another
attempt to arrest him res ulted in the death of Captain John T. Day and Patrolman
Peter J. Lamb. Again escaping arrest, Charles’s actions sparked a four-day riot in
New Orleans. Finally cornered in the rented residence of the Jackson family on
Saratoga Street, Charles engaged in a gun battle with the police, special consta-
bles, and vigilantes on July 27. After the house was set on fire, smoke drove
Charles from his hiding place, and while attempting to escape, he was shot and
killed by Charles A. Noiret.
Charles’s body was horribly mutilated after his death, his autopsy recording 34
bullet holes and multiple other wounds to the body. His death did not initially end
the violence in New Orleans, but on July 29, 1900, his body was finally buried in
Holt’s Cemetery.
—Rory T. Cornish
Further Reading
Hair, William Ivy. Carnival o f Fury: R obert Charles and t he New Orlea ns Race Rio t of
1900. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1976.
Somers, Dale A. “Black and White in New Orleans: A Study in Urban Race Relations,
1865–1900.” Journal of Southern History 60 (February 1974): 19–42.
Synnestvedt, Sig. The White Response to Black Emancipation. New York: Macmillan and
Company, 1972.
Jim Crow Laws
Jim Crow is the common name used to describe the racial segregation and disfran-
chisement inflicted upon African Americans in the postbellum South. The term
“Jim Crow” was the name of a p opular, black-face minstrel show charac ter that
originated in the 1830s. This character represented the ignorant, goofy, and
676 New Orlean s Race Riot (1900)
inferior stereotype applied to African Americans during that period in Ameri can
history. Jim Crow restrictions and laws became popular in the south during the
post-Reconstruction era and continued well into the 20th century.
The Compromise of 1876 ended the Reconstruction era in the South. To secure
the 1876 presidential election, Republican presidential candidate Rutherford B.
Hayes promised to former Confederate states the withdrawal of Union troops as
wel l as not to enforce the Fifteenth Amendment. This negoti ation, known a s the
Compromise of 1876, led to the reestablishment of politi cal power for southern
Democrats. As southern Democrats regained their political power, they began to
reign in control over the political and economic opportunities and the social free-
doms that African Americans had so recently won through Jim Crow.
Racial segregation was first implemented through railway travel. By 1890, four
states—Tennessee, Florida, Texas, and Loui siana—had enacted railroad segrega-
tion laws. These laws required railroad companies to provide “separate but equal”
travel accommodations for African American travelers. However, black passen-
gers did not receive the same accommodations as white passengers. In many cases,
black passengers w ere required to sit in the smoking car or in a car with uncom-
fortable seating near the engine car, which emitted sooty smoke and where prison-
ers or disruptive, often drunk passengers were seated—nothing like the clean and
comfortable cars reserved for white passengers. Plessy v. Ferguson, the 1896
Supreme Court case challenging the 1890 Louisiana railway segregation act,
solidified the legality of railway seating segregation based on race, and it provided
a legal precedent for further forms of segregation.
By the turn of the century, Jim Crow segregation had spread throughout the
southern landscape—restaurants, hotels, hospitals, parks, theaters, churches,
cemeteries—any and all public spaces. Schools and universities wer e segregated,
severely limiting educational opportunities for African American children. Jim
Crow had also infiltrated the electoral process. Politicians imposed voting qualifi-
cations on African American men, including the grandfather clause and a literacy
test—neither of which were applied to white male voters. The regulation and
enforcement of Jim Crow became widespread and increasingly violent. Intimida-
tion tactics by both politicians and terrorist groups like the Ku Klux Klan (KKK)
instilled fear in the African American community. Black male voters who did
qualify under the grandfather clause and passe d the literacy test were threatened
with violence, which often resulted in low African American voter turnout. Lynch-
ing became the most prominent form of violence against African Americans who
were found guilty of violating Jim Crow. Under the Wilson administration,
government offices and the military also became subject to Jim Crow.
Although they faced incredible violence, the African American community did
not sit idly by and simply accept their second-class-citizen status. Leaders such as
New Orleans Race Riot (1900) 677
Booker T. Washington, W. E. B. Du Bois, Marcus Garvey, Ida B. Wells, Mary
McLeod Bethune, Medger Evers, Martin Luther King Jr., and many others organ-
ized their communities and took action. They formed groups such as the National
Association for the Advancement of Colored Peo ple (NAACP), the Congress of
Racial Equality (CORE), the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC),
and numerous other organizations aimed at achieving racial equality.
Jim Crow remained a staple of southern culture and society until the mid-20th
century when justic e finally breached the callous nature of white supremacy and
racism through judicial decisions such as the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education
Supreme Court decision that reversed the “separate but equal” statute and legisla-
tion such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
—Dawn M. Sherman
Further Reading
Gilmore, Glenda Elizabeth. Defying Dixie: The Radical Roots of Civil Rights, 1919–1950.
New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2008.
Klarman, Michael J. From Jim Crow to Civil Rights: The Supreme Court and the Struggle
for Racial Equality. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2004.
Ortiz, Paul. Emancipation Betrayed: The Hidden H istory of Black Organizing and White
Violence in Florida from Reconstruction to the Bloody Election of 1920.Berkeley:
University of California Press, 2005.
Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
On June 7, 1892, Homer Plessy intentionally violated the “Separate Car Act,” an
1890 Louisia na statute that, by law, segrega ted railway cars on the basis of race.
This act of defiance was a planned r esponse to years of post-Reco nstruction dis-
crimination aimed at African Americans. Members of the New Orleans Citizens’
Committee organized this act of civil disobedience with the intention of taking
the case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, exposing the racial inequality
existing in the South, and legally enforcing a halt to such practices.
At the close of the Reconstruction era, in 1876, Republicans began to lose their
political hold throughout the South. Southern Democrats once again gained politi-
cal power and reinst ituted political and social discrimination in the form of Jim
Crow laws—racially segregating society by applying the “separate but equal”
standard to all people of color. S egregation a pplied to public schools, church es,
restaurants, transportation, parks, and even cemeteries. By no means did equal
678 New Orlean s Race Riot (1900)
accommodations mean identical accommodations—certainly schools did not
receive the same funding. Railcars reserved for black travelers were filled w ith
uncomfortable seats and often used for prisoner transport or disruptive, drunk,
and disorderly passengers. “Separate but equal” was simply a ploy to placate
Republicans who might challenge the legality. In reality, Jim Crow laws did not
provide equal accommodations or services but deprived African American of their
newly found freedoms.
Fed up with the masked discrimination, the Citizens’ Committee of New
Orleans recruited Homer Plessy, a shoemaker living in the integrated middle-
class neighborhood of Faubourg Treme in New Orlea ns. Homer was a bl ack
Creole—a descendant of French or Spanish and African liaisons. He had a light
complexion and was able to pass as white, which enab led him to easily purchase
a train ticket and board the “ white only” section of the East Louisiana Railroad
Company railcar. He then announced to the conductor that he was a black man
and was in violation of the 1890 statute prohibiting blacks to sit in white railcars.
Plessy refused the conductor’s request to move to the “black only” railcar and
was arrested for his crime. Plessy’s attorney, presiding in front of district court
judge John Ferguson, argued that the “Separate Car A ct” viola ted both the Thir-
teenth and Fourteenth Amendments. Judge Ferguson ruled against Plessy’s claim.
Plessy appealed his case to the Louisiana State Supreme Court, which also
ruled against him. Plessy and his attorney, Albion Tourgee, took their final appeal
to the Supreme Court of t he United States. In 1896, the Supreme Court ruled
against Plessy, finding him guilty of violating the “Separate Car Act.” Plessy chose
to pay the $25 fine rather than go to jail for up to 20 days.
Plessy v. Ferguson opened the flood gates for southern states to legally segre-
gate societ y according to race and marginalize the African Ameri can people by
depriving them of their constitutional rights as U.S. c itizens. Legalized segrega-
tion remained part of the southern landscape well into the 20th century, until the
1954 landmark case Brown v. Board of Education overturned Plessy v. Ferguson,
which the Court found to violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth
Amendment.
—Dawn M. Sherman
Further Reading
Fireside, Harvey. Separate and Unequal: Homer Plessy and the Supreme Court Decision
that Legalized Racism. New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers, 2004.
Lobel, Jules. Success without Victory: Lost Legal Battles and the Long Road to Justice in
America. New York: New York University Press, 2003.
New Orleans Race Riot (1900) 679
Atlanta Race Riot (1906)
The Atlanta race riots occurr ed from September 22 to September 24, 1906.
Murder, property damage, and indiscriminate violence did not make this event
unusual. However, the timing of the event, not long after the demise of
Reconstruction, had a residue of anger and hostility, providing the energy that
ignited the city’s population.
Atlanta was a growing city; it was becoming the r ail hub of the “New South”
and attracted men and women, white and black, to potential jobs and upward
mobility. The population increased fr om 89,000 in 1900 to 150,000 in 1910. The
black population grew from 9,000 in 1880 to 35,000 in 1900. Intense competition
for employment above the subsistence level existed. The atmosphere caused the
municipal government to use its police powers; it sought to control the working
classes through restrictions, one of which segregated the races. Fears of intermin-
gling and intermarriage dominated the new urban center, where opportunities for
social freedom existed.
Mixed with Jim Crow laws, the intellectual remains of racial politics, the with-
drawal of civil rights, and the perceived los s of opportunity aided the press in its
yellow journalism and jingoism for the war of the races. Hoke Smith, former pub-
lisher of the Atlanta Journal, and Clark Howell, editor of the Atlanta Constitution,
both sought the Georgia governorship. Both played upon the fears of a rising black
class with money and power. Both used their power to influence the general popu-
lation to acquire support for the coming election.
Smith, who had the support of populist Thomas E. Watson, inflamed racial ten-
sions by advocating blacks should be disenfranchised to keep them in their
“place.” He argued that blacks threatened the social, economic, and political order.
Howell, his opponent in the race, believed the Democratic White primary and poll
tax contained the political methods of control over the blacks of Atlanta. The
means used included alleged and unsubstantiated “information” about black
assaults against white women. The media, v iolating its mission, provoked the
whites against blacks in any way possible to garner the gubernatorial vote.
The candidates used America’s new international image to support their use of
racism. Pr esident McKinley and his secretary of the navy Theodore Roosevelt,
the politicians most instrumental in causing the Spanish-American War and occu-
pation of many areas throughout the world, used terms such as “little brown/black
681
brother” to justify American expansion. With the Brownsville, Texas, convictions,
black anger rose as the news of this inequity spr ead. A regiment of black solders
whohadfoughtintheSpanish-AmericanWarwasgarrisonedinBrownsville.
Their compounds allowed them entry into the city and race rioting occurred.
Roosevelt, then president, tried the black segregated unit unfairly, and his actions
gained notoriety for racial c onduct, which may have affected the a tmosphere in
and for the Atlanta Race Riot. Many in the unit were discharged without honor
on November 9, 1906.
This was unfortunate, since the peoples of Atlanta had, at least superficially,
resolved their statuses in the city. Parks, transpo rtation, recre ational centers, and
neighborhoods throughout Atlanta had many integrated areas. Unfortunately,
“Jim Crow” came to Atlanta at t he beginning of the 20th century. Ra cial restric-
tions, violence, and hysteria became common all over the South; growing and
prosperous municipalities endured the civil brutality leading to the riot of 1906.
Segregation returned with the demise of Reconstruction, and the justifications
offered by the theory of “scientific racism” segregation returned. The black com-
munity, like the white, created its own worlds. Since the dominant social and
political forces were white, they instituted policies that affected housing, cemeter-
ies, intermarriage, and transportation, the last having been granted legal sanction
by Plessy v. Ferguson. This case, decided by the Supreme Court of the United
States on May 18, 1896, established the doctrine of “separate but equal.”
The politicians offered methods of controlling the black population’s “violent”
conduct. The more charitable whites suggested alcohol as the cause. Hence,
prohibition b ecame part of the state’s program, which the nation eventually fol-
lowed. The saloons were centers for black violence against white women. Taverns
became the meeting place for planning crimes of all sorts. After the Civil War,
temperance segments allied with politicians wished to make it illegal for emanci-
pated blacks to drink alcohol. Such a belief was in keeping with the temperance
movement gaining strength throughout the region, and voting support was
forthcoming.
Atlanta, as part of the New South, had a developing black population. The city
witnessed the first black insurance company and many other businesses servi ng
their community. Financially, black elites emerged, threatening the white view of
the relationship of the two races. The se blacks were called “uppity,” and their
growing voice in Atlanta was a course for concern to the establishment. Black
elites usually allied themselves with wealthy whites when a political challenge
occurred between rich and poor. The wealthier segments of society—white and
black—banded together against the wishes of their poorer brethren.
The political desires of the gubernatorial candidates, failure of the fourth estate,
the newspapers after repeated and unsubstantiated race batting, and human nature
682 Atlanta Race Riot (1906)
all contributed to the riot of 1906 in a growing and prosperous city. On Saturday,
September 22, the local newspapers continued their repeated statements about
racial violence and discourse. This day, however, was different. The newspapers
published several extra editions with language intended to incite viole nce. The
newspapers were distributed throughout the city, in the center of which men and
women gathered.
Atlanta mayor James G. Woodward urged calm, but indignant mobs refused to
listen. The mobs attacked blacks in all parts of the city. Vandalism accompanied
the rioting. Blacks on public conveyances were pulled off and beaten. As the situa-
tion worsened and the local police could not control the situation, the state militia
was called into action to prevent the escalation of violence and civil disor der. The
militia was only able to quell the chaos because of a deluge. The Atlanta newspa-
pers reported that the mili tia came to secure the city because the blacks allegedly
were no longer a problem. The media’s reason for this allegation was that white
mobs had driven the bl ac ks off the s treet s. However, vigi lante gangs roamed the
city streets as the armed militia patrolled them. This peaceful mirage was a hiatus
in the storm. Some blacks secreted weapons for self-defense as white mobs invaded
their neighborhoods. Blacks did fight back, protecting family and property.
September 24 became a pivotal day. Blacks held a mass meeting near the down-
town area. The police responded, fearing more violence, a nd attacked the meet-
ing’s participants. Violence ensued, and an officer was killed; three militia
companies reinforced the police in Atlanta and seized weaponry while arresting
250 blacks. This action only inflamed the situation.
Eventually, all concerned and/or interested parties pleaded for a cessation of
violence. Whether the competing gubernatorial candidates accepted responsibility
for their contributions to the riot or the key city to the New South was irreparably
harmed, no one can answer with certainty. The obvious hostility and violence gave
way to efforts of reconciliation, dialogue, and hope. It appeared that one way to
resolve the potential for continued conflict was de facto segregation in all avenues
of life. Booker T. Washington’s policies of accommodation in education and civil
life suffered from statewide white reaction against the black population. He called
upon whites to provide jobs, train blacks, and forget civil liberties and social
equality. His nonviolent philosophy garnered funds for black colleges. His Up
from Slavery s poke of self-help and self- reliance, but he wanted blacks to gain
the tools with which to compete.
Washington’s opponent, W. E. B. Dubois, proposed a different, and more popu-
lar solution to the racial impasse destroying Atlanta. He opted for more aggressive
tactics pursuing racial justice and equality. His Souls of Black Folk advocated
direct and political action and a college education. His “Talented Ten,” college
graduates, were intended to lead.
Atlanta Race Riot (1906) 683
While a modus vivendi was accomplished, the city became more segregated.
A literacy test was imposed on black residents and racial polarization became
the rule with each race establishing its own social structure. The Ku Klux Klan,
ever present in moments of racial tension, ma de its appearance in Atlanta and
served as a method of controlling the white and black population in the competi-
tion for jobs in the South’s fastest-growing city.
—Arthur K. Steinberg
See also all entries under Stono Rebellion (1739); New York Slave Insurrection (1741);
Antebellum Suppressed Slave Revolts (1800s–1850s); Nat Turner’s Rebellion (1831);
New Orleans Riot (1866); New Orleans Race Riot (1900); Springfield Race Riot (1908);
Houston Riot (1917); Red Summer (1919); T ulsa Race Riot (1921); Civil Rights Movement
(1953–1968); Watts Riot (1965); Detroit Riots (1967); Los Angeles Uprising (1992).
Further Reading
Bauerlein, Mark. Negrophobia: Race Riot in Atlanta in 1906. San Francisc o: Encounter
Books, 2001.
Burnes, Rebecca, et al. Race in the Gate City. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2009.
Dorsey, Allison. To Build Our Lives Together: Community Formation in Black A tlanta,
1875–1906. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2004.
Godshalk, David Fort. Veiled Visions: The 1906 A tlanta Race Riot and the Reshaping of
American Race Relations. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2005.
684 Atlanta Race Riot (1906)
Economic Competition
A large, though underinvestigated, part of the motivation for racial violence such as
the Atlanta Race Riot is the economic competition that African Americans posed to
white sou therners. Before the Civil War, sl avery prevented economic competition
between the races, as whites wer e the sole beneficiari es of the labor of their black
slaves. Even f ree black s were s o marginalize d, and so small in number, as not to
pose an economic th reat. Feeli ngs about sl avery among n ortherners before th e
Civil War were ambivalent, largely because of the perceived threat that free blacks
might pose to the free labor and free land ideals of northern white America.
Although the motive given by white Atlantans for the violence that erupted on
September 22, 1906, was that African Americans were harassing white women,
“uppity” behavior on t he part of African American Atlantans could con sist of
any attempt by blacks to escape their st ation in life, both socially and economi-
cally. The larger context for the Atlanta riot is the gubernatorial campaign that
was taking place that year. Democratic candidate Hoke Smith was a champion of
improving the South’s economic standing, but he was equally a champion of the
suppression of the state’s African American population. To him, and to many
Atlantans, the issues were inextricably connected. The issues were also connected
to Booker T. Washington, whose argument that white southerners were beginning
to see that their lives would improve with the progress of African Americans was
utterly shattered by the violence wrought by white Atlantans (Godshalk 2005, 3).
Around the turn of the 20th century, Atlanta seemed to be one of the least likely
places to see racial violence. Black-owned businesses were springing up through-
out the South, as African Americans were able to experience the general economic
good times on a limited basis. It was home to six African American colleges. How-
ever, white politicians, playing to the economic concerns of their white constituen-
cies, avoided true progressivism’s emphasis on economic opportunity, instea d
encouraging racial rivalries that found their expressions in groups like the Ku Klux
Klan and events like the Atlanta Race Riot (Godshalk 2005, 9). Race relations,
always tense, became even more contentious as the rhetoric of the gubernatorial
race began to heat up. Atlanta’s phenomenal growth had increased job competition
between the races, as well as class distinctions. Upper-class whites fear ed the
social mixing of the races that increased prosperity for African Americans might
bring. The backlash to the economic competition posed by Atlanta’s rising African
American community, thus, has to be seen as the cause b oth of legal maneuvers,
such as the increasing the stringency of Jim Crow laws, and of popular mob vio-
lence, such as the three-day Atlanta riot in 1906.
—Steven L. Danver
685