Remembering 115 years since Atlanta’s race massacre

ATLANTA - Dozens of people across Atlanta, including Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms reflected Wednesday on a race massacre that left more than 25 Black people dead 115 years ago this week.

The event that took place at the Russell Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship looked forward to the ways artists will soon honor those dark days in history.

"There were Whites who attacked, Black bodies, Black property, we want to remember those so we don't forget," Dr. Rachanice Candy Tate said.

Mobs of white people attacked African-Americans in what are now well-known Atlanta neighborhoods on September 22, 1906.

"This started downtown it moved to Sweet Auburn," she said.

The attacks lasted through September 24.

Newspaper headlines from that time said the riots were in response to violence from Black people, although history proves innocent, prosperous Black homeowners lost their lives and much of the accused violence were unfounded.

Now, 115 years later, a coalition has put on a series of events to remember the past, acknowledge the present and change the future.

Dr. Tate is one of the organizers of Wednesday evening's event. It focused on artists who honor the 25 plus people who died those violent days more than a century ago.

"We’re using the arts to open up dialogue and racial reconciliation," she said.

"As we watch people of color beaten with whips at the border that our history is something that needs to be remembered and carried in our hearts lest we repeat it," Mayor Bottoms said. "As we often hear of the Tulsa race riots... Atlanta experienced the very same thing."

The event included a panel of historians and previewed a play that's based on the massacre itself while acknowledging the strides the people of Atlanta have made to make it one of America's most diverse and booming cities.

The event is put on in part by members of the Fulton Remembrance Coalition. That's the group that takes soil from lynching victim's gravesites whose bodies were dragged to the base of the Henry Grady statue on Marietta Street. 

Many of the event organizers also marched around the Sweet Auburn neighborhood Wednesday -- that's where much of the violence took place 115 years ago. There are other events to honor massacre victims taking place this week. 

To learn how you can participate, click here. 

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