Black Residents of Brownsville Mount Armed Defense During Atlanta Riot

As white mobs attacked Black Atlanta for four days, residents of Brownsville, a Black suburb, armed themselves and defended their community. When police arrived and demanded they surrender their arms, residents refused. Two officers were shot. The state militia was called. The coordinated defense of Brownsville demonstrated that organized Black armed resistance could repel mob violence, a lesson that would be applied in subsequent riots and explicitly theorized in the New Negro movement.