Rage In The Gate City

During the hot summer of 1906, anger simmered in Atlanta, a city that outwardly savored its reputation as the Gate City of the New South, a place where the races lived peacefully, if apart, and everyone focused more on prosperity than prejudice. But racial hatred came to the forefront during a heated political campaign, and the city's newspapers fanned its flames with sensational reports alleging assaults on white women by black men. The rage erupted in late September, and, during one of the most brutal race riots in the history of America, roving groups of whites attacked and killed at least twenty-five blacks. After four days of violence, black and white civic leaders came together in unprecedented meetings that can be viewed either as concerted public relations efforts to downplay the events or as setting the stage for Atlanta's civil rights leadership half a century later.

Rage in the Gate City focuses on the events of August and September 1906, offering readers a tightly woven narrative account of those eventful days. Fast-paced and vividly detailed, it brings history to life. As June Dobbs Butts writes in her foreword, "For too long, this chapter of Atlanta's history was covered up, or was explained away. . . . Rebecca Burns casts the bright light of truth upon those events."

In September 1906, triggered by sensational newspaper accounts accusing black men of sexually assaulting white women, Atlanta’s simmering racial tension exploded. Over four days of rioting, mobs of violent whites killed at least 10 blacks, looted black-owned businesses, and ransacked homes and neighborhoods. In the days immediately following the riot, black and white leaders came together in an unprecedented move, setting the stage for Atlanta’s emergence as the “city too busy to hate” decades later. But while their business-first attitude may have quelled the most overt rhetoric and raging violence, it also reinforced class prejudices that existed in both the black and white communities.
Released on the 100-year anniversary of the riots, Rage in the Gate City provides a compelling narrative of the events during the month that shaped Atlanta and explores questions of race and class prejudice that are as relevant today as they were a century ago.

Rebecca Burns is editor in chief of Atlanta Magazine, which has won numerous regional and national awards under her direction.