December 23, 2022.  

Whereas the horrific act of lynching impacted race relations in the United States and shaped the geographic, political, social, and economic conditions of Black people in ways that are still relevant today;

Whereas more than 4,400 Black people were lynched across 20 States between 1877 and 1950, 594 of whom were Black victims in Georgia and 36 of those documented victims were killed in Fulton County;

Whereas, until 1906, Atlanta, Georgia, was home to more than 50,000 Black residents, many of whom owned homes and businesses in the city;

Whereas, on September 22, 1906, at 9 p.m., 10,000 White men and boys gathered at the corner of Pryor and Decatur Streets, an area known as Five Points in downtown Atlanta;

Whereas the mob was motivated by the media’s false coverage of Black men brutalizing White women;

Whereas city officials, which included Mayor James G. Woodward, attempted to calm the crowds but failed to do so;

Whereas, going through Decatur Street, Pryor Street, Central Avenue, and throughout the central business district, assaulting hundreds of Black people, the mob of White men and boys continued to hunt and kill Atlanta’s Black residents into the night;

Whereas, in an attempt to control the mob, Mayor Woodward called the fire department out to disperse the mob using large streams of water, but the mob quickly regathered and continued to shoot and stone Atlanta’s Black residents;

Whereas, by Monday, September 24, 1906, what is now known as Downtown Atlanta, was under military rule;

Whereas the massacre continued, with plans to move outside of the city and into Brownsville, a Black community south of downtown with about 1,500 residents;

Whereas the community gathered to prepare and fight back, and with great fear of a counterattack they were disarmed by State Troops, and more than 250 African-American men were arrested;

Whereas, through the duration of the massacre, armed Black residents defended their neighborhoods, both in Brownsville and in Dark Town;

Whereas at least 25 Black residents were murdered, 2 White men were killed, hundreds of Black residents were wounded, and thousands of Black businesses and homes were burned or destroyed;

Whereas the story of the Atlanta race massacre is only 1 of many such atrocities and horrific incidents, and shows the lasting impact of White supremacy in the United States; and

Whereas the theft of property from Black landowners as well as the displacement caused by the terrorizing of the Black community in Atlanta, Georgia, shows how historic racism and injustice have significantly contributed to persistent wealth inequality between Black and White Americans in the United States: Now, therefore, be it

Resolved,

Attest:

Clerk.