Atlanta Newspapers Fabricate Black Assault Stories, Triggering Four-Day Massacre

Atlanta's four white-owned newspapers — the Atlanta News, Georgian, Journal, and Constitution — ran sensationalized and fabricated stories of Black men assaulting white women during the heated 1906 gubernatorial race. On September 22, white mobs began attacking Black residents in downtown Atlanta. Over four days at least 25 Black people were killed (some estimates run higher), hundreds were injured, and thousands fled. Black neighborhoods like Brownsville mounted armed defense. Two white attackers were killed. The riot accelerated Black out-migration and radicalized W.E.B. Du Bois.