45-599: The Atlanta Life Financial Group was founded by Alonzo Herndon in Atlanta, Georgia . Born into slavery, he started in Atlanta as a young barber, eventually owning three shops. He became Atlanta 's richest African American and a highly successful businessman. For many years, the life insurance company was one of the most prominent African-American businesses in the United States. The demolished public housing project Herndon Homes
90-483: A Democrat, was asked as to the measures taken to prevent a race riot, he replied: The best way to prevent a race riot depends entirely upon the cause. If your inquiry has anything to do with the present situation in Atlanta then I would say the only remedy is to remove the cause. As long as the black brutes assault our white women, just so long will they be unceremoniously dealt with. On September 28, The New York Times reported, The Fulton County Grand Jury today made
135-416: A disregard for the proper administration of the law and to promote the organization of citizens to act outside of the law in the punishment of crime; ... Resolved , That the sensationalism of the afternoon papers in the presentation of the criminal news to the public prior to the riots of Saturday night... deserves our severest condemnation..." An unknown and disputed number of black people were killed in
180-566: A failing mutual aid association in 1905, when the state of Georgia increased capital requirements for such businesses. He had been approached by a couple of ministers in the community to acquire the company as something for the black community. He incorporated it as the Atlanta Mutual Insurance Association. By 1916, the Association was reorganized as a stock company capitalized at $ 25,000, most of which Herndon bought. In 1922,
225-510: A farmhand; here he started to learn the barbering trade, considered a good one at the time. Many white men have used African-American barbers in recent years. Later, Herndon -- known familiarly by the name "Lon" -- opened up his first barbershop in Jonesboro, Georgia . His barbering business thrived, and he expanded it over the years. After starting in the shop of another black man in Atlanta, Herndon later owned three barbershops in Atlanta, including
270-405: A large one at 66 Peachtree Street that he fitted out with luxurious furnishings. Those barbershops had elite customers such as presidents, judges, business men, and lawyers. One of his large, refined, barbershops serving white customers was damaged by white rioters during the 1906 Atlanta race riot . Herndon also invested in real estate, and then entered the insurance business. He began by buying
315-538: A very young age, Herndon worked as a laborer, and a peddler, to help support his family, as only his mother could work in the early years. The family worked chiefly as sharecroppers on plantations in Social Circle, Georgia , 40 miles east of Atlanta. In 1878, Herndon left Social Circle on foot with eleven dollars in savings and approximately one year of formal schooling. He eventually settled in Senoia, Georgia to work as
360-564: The 1906 Atlanta Race Riot , was an episode of mass racial violence against African Americans in the United States in September 1906. Violent attacks by armed mobs of White Americans against African Americans in Atlanta , Georgia , began after newspapers, on the evening of September 22, 1906, published several unsubstantiated and luridly detailed reports of the alleged rapes of 4 local women by black men. The violence lasted through September 24, 1906. The events were reported by newspapers around
405-799: The Atlanta Family Life Insurance Company (Atlanta Life) . Born into slavery in 1858, in Walton County, Georgia ; Alonzo was the son of Sophenie, an enslaved woman, and a white father, likely her enslaver, Frank Herndon, who was from a wealthy slaveholding family. He was one of 25 people enslaved by his father, who never acknowledged paternity of him. In 1865, following the American Civil War , Alonzo, then seven, and his family were emancipated, including his mother, her parents, and his younger brother. He took his presumed father's surname. The family entered freedom in destitution. From
450-508: The First Congregational Church in Atlanta. It had been closely associated with supporting Clark University and other AMA schools. Herndon died in Atlanta on July 21, 1927 at the age of 69 and was honored by his fraternity, Alpha Phi Alpha . His son, Norris B. Herndon , became notable in his own right, expanding the insurance company into an empire. 1906 Atlanta race riot The 1906 Atlanta Race Massacre , also known as
495-505: The Five Points section of downtown. After extra editions of the paper were printed, by midnight estimates were that 10,000 to 15,000 white men and boys had gathered through downtown streets and were roaming to attack black people. By 10 pm, the first three blacks had been killed and more were being treated in the hospital (at least five of whom would die); among these were three women. Governor Joseph M. Terrell called out eight companies of
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#1732844903107540-468: The " Talented Tenth ", purchased a shotgun after rioting broke out in the city. He said in response to the carnage, "I bought a Winchester double-barreled shotgun and two dozen rounds of shells filled with buckshot. If a white mob had stepped on the campus where I lived I would without hesitation have sprayed their guts over the grass." As his position solidified in later years, circa 1906–1920, Du Bois argued that organized political violence by black Americans
585-532: The "rail hub" of the South: workers from all over the country began to flood the city. This resulted in a dramatic increase in both the African-American population (9,000 in 1880 to 35,000 in 1900) and the overall city population (from a population of 89,000 in 1900 to 150,000 in 1910) as individuals from rural areas and small towns sought better economic opportunities. With this influx and the subsequent increase in
630-888: The Atlanta Mutual Insurance Association, adding two other firms, the Royal Mutual Insurance Company, and the National Laborer's Protective Union. In 2008, William A. Clement, Jr. was appointed as President & CEO of the Atlanta Life Financial Group, Inc., and served for three years in that capacity. He was also an outside director of ALFG in 1992, and in 2001. In 2014, Atlanta Life Financial Group's Board of Directors appointed Roosevelt Giles as Chairman and William J. Stanley III, as Vice Chairman. Alonzo Herndon Alonzo "Lon" Franklin Herndon (June 26, 1858 Walton County, Georgia – July 21, 1927)
675-485: The Fifth Infantry and one battery of light artillery. By 2:30 am, some 25 to 30 blacks were reported dead, with many more injured. The trolley lines had been closed before midnight to reduce movement, in hopes of discouraging the mobs and offering some protection to the African-American neighborhoods, as whites were going there and attacking people in their houses, or driving them outside. Alonzo Herndon 's barbershop
720-459: The accommodationist position of Booker T. Washington at Tuskegee Institute , believing that they had to be more forceful about protecting their communities and advancing their race. Some black Americans modified their opinions on the necessity of armed self-defense, even as many issued explicit warnings about the dangers of armed political struggle. Harvard-educated W. E. B. Du Bois , who was teaching at Atlanta University and supported leadership by
765-466: The black elite, helping establish a tradition of communication between these groups. But for decades the massacre was ignored or suppressed in the white community, and left out of official histories of the city. The New York Times noted on September 30 that a letter writer to the Charleston News and Courier wrote in response to the riots: Separation of the races is the only radical solution of
810-608: The city by train and other means, seeking safety at a distance. On Sunday a group of African Americans met in the Brownsville community south of downtown and near Clark University to discuss actions; they had armed themselves for defense. Fulton County police learned of the meeting and raided it; an officer was killed in an ensuing shootout. Three militia companies were sent to Brownsville, where they arrested and disarmed about 250 blacks, including university professors. The New York Times reported that when Mayor James G. Woodward ,
855-401: The company was reorganized as Atlanta Life Insurance Company, and became one of five African-American insurance companies at the time to achieve legal reserve status. Atlanta Life's business thrived, and they expanded their business into Florida , Kansas , Kentucky , Missouri , Tennessee , and Texas . Through his enterprises, Herndon became Atlanta 's first black millionaire . Herndon
900-409: The conflict. At least two dozen African Americans were believed to have been killed. It was confirmed that there were two white deaths, one a woman who died of a heart attack after seeing mobs outside her house. On the following Monday and Tuesday, leading citizens of the white community, including the mayor, met to discuss the events and prevent any additional violence. The group included leaders of
945-570: The corner of Piedmont Avenue , is part of the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park . In 1905, a slave-born barber Alonzo Franklin Herndon founded Atlanta Life Insurance Company. Herndon bought a small self-help association known as the Atlanta Benevolent and Protective Association for $ 140, which Reverend Peter Bryant of Wheat Street Baptist Church had established the year before. Herndon then consolidated his investments into
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#1732844903107990-531: The demand for resources, race relations in Atlanta became increasingly strained in the crowded city. Whites expanded Jim Crow segregation in residential neighborhoods and on public transportation. Freedmen and their descendants had gained the franchise during Reconstruction, and whites increasingly feared and resented their exercise of political power. African Americans had established prosperous businesses and developed an elite who distinguished themselves from working-class blacks. Some whites resented them. Among
1035-496: The fear that whites may not maintain the current social order. These papers and others attacked saloons and bars that were run and frequented by black citizens. These "dives", as whites called them, were said to have nude pictures of women. The Atlanta Georgian and the Atlanta News publicized police reports of white women who were allegedly sexually molested and raped by black men. "Historians and contemporary commentators cite
1080-499: The fever for rioting. The events were quickly publicized the next day, Sunday, as violence continued against black people, and the massacre was covered internationally. Le Petit journal of Paris reported, "Black men and women were thrown from trolley-cars, assaulted with clubs and pelted with stones." By the next day, the New York Times reported that at least 25 to 30 black men and women were killed, with 90 injured. One white man
1125-413: The following presentment: "Believing that the sensational manner in which the afternoon newspapers of Atlanta have presented to the people the news of the various criminal acts recently committed in this county has largely influenced the creation of the spirit animating the mob of last Saturday night; and that the editorial utterances of The Atlanta News for some time past have been calculated to create
1170-685: The gubernatorial election of 1906, in which M. Hoke Smith and Clark Howell competed for the Democratic primary nomination. Smith had explicitly "campaigned on a platform to disenfranchise black voters in Georgia." Howell was also looking to exclude them from politics. Smith was a former publisher of the Atlanta Journal and Howell was the editor of the Atlanta Constitution . Both candidates used their influence to incite white voters and help spread
1215-554: The late 1960s. After World War I, Atlanta worked to promote racial reconciliation and understanding by creating the Commission on Interracial Cooperation in 1919; it later evolved into the Southern Regional Council. But most institutions of the city remained closed to African Americans. For instance, no African-American policemen were hired until 1948, after World War II. The massacre was not covered in local histories and
1260-514: The legislature included provisions for grandfather clauses to ensure whites were not excluded because of lack of literacy or the required amount of property, and for the Democratic Party to have a white primary , another means of exclusion. These provisions were passed by constitutional amendment in 1908, effectively disfranchising most blacks. Racial segregation was already established by law. Both systems under Jim Crow largely continued into
1305-608: The massacre. According to the Atlanta History Center , some black Americans were hanged from lampposts; others were shot, beaten or stabbed to death. They were pulled from street cars and attacked on the street; white mobs invaded black neighborhoods, destroying homes and businesses. The immediate catalyst was newspaper reports of four white women raped in separate incidents, allegedly by African American men. A grand jury later indicted two African Americans for raping Ethel Lawrence and her niece Mabel Lawrence. An underlying cause
1350-573: The negro problem in this country. There is nothing new about it. It was the Almighty who established the bounds of the habitation of the races. The negroes were brought here by compulsion; they should be induced to leave here by persuasion. The New York Times analyzed the populations of the ten states in the South with the most African Americans, two of which were majority black, with two others nearly equal in populations, and African Americans totaling about 70% of
1395-484: The stage production of The Clansman [by Thomas Dixon, Jr. ] in Atlanta as a contributing factor to that city's race riot of 1906, in which white mobs rampaged through African-American communities." In Savannah , where it opened next, police and military were on high alert, and present on every streetcar going toward the theater. Authorities in Macon , where the play was next to open, asked for it not to be permitted, and it
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1440-647: The successful black businessmen was Alonzo Herndon , who owned and operated a large, refined barber shop that served prominent white men. This new status brought increased competition between blacks and whites for jobs and heightened class distinctions. The police and fire department were still exclusively white, as were most employees in the city and county governments. State requirements from 1877 limited black voting through poll taxes , record keeping and other devices to impede voter registration, but many freedmen and descendants could still vote. But both major candidates played on racial tensions during their campaigning for
1485-447: The total white population. It noted practically the difficulties if so many workers would be lost, in addition to their businesses. As an outcome of the massacre, the African-American economy suffered, because of property losses, damage, and disruption. Some individual businesses were forced to close. The community made significant social changes, pulling businesses from mixed areas, settling in majority-black neighborhoods (some of which
1530-407: The voting franchise which led to political power and representation. Having former slaves become equals was threatening to their ideals of racial supremacy. Increased tension also resulted from whites competing with blacks for wages, and the idea of paying for labor which had been free for centuries. Atlanta had developed rapidly, attracting workers for its rebuilding and, particularly from the 1880s as
1575-776: The world, including the French Le Petit Journal which described the "lynchings in the USA" and the " massacre of Negroes in Atlanta," the Scottish Aberdeen Press & Journal under the headline "Race Riots in Georgia," and the London Evening Standard under the headlines "Anti-Negro Riots" and "Outrages in Georgia." The final death toll of the conflict is unknown and disputed, but officially at least 25 African Americans and two whites died. Unofficial reports ranged from 10–100 black Americans killed during
1620-617: Was among the first targets of the white mob, and the fine fittings were destroyed. Individual black men were killed on the steps of the US Post Office and inside the Marion Hotel, where a crowd chased one. During that night, a large mob attacked Decatur Street , the center of black restaurants and saloons. It destroyed the businesses and assaulted any black people within sight. Mobs moved to Peters Street and related neighborhoods to wreak more damage. Heavy rain from 3 am to 5 am helped suppress
1665-446: Was an African-American entrepreneur and businessman in Atlanta, Georgia . Born into slavery, he became one of the first African American millionaires in the United States, first achieving success by owning and operating three large barber shops in the city that served prominent white men. In 1905 he became the founder and president of what he built to be one of the United States' most well-known and successful African-American businesses ,
1710-492: Was enforced by discriminatory housing practices into the 1960s), and changing other social patterns. In the years after the massacre, African Americans were most likely to live in predominately black communities, including those that developed west of the city near Atlanta University or in eastern downtown. Many black businesses dispersed from the center to the east, where the thriving black business district known as " Sweet Auburn " soon developed. Many African Americans rejected
1755-718: Was featured in The Crisis Magazine ' s “Men of the Month” in March 1921. The article emphasizes his competence and success as a businessman. In 1893, Herndon married Adrienne Elizabeth McNeil , a professor at Atlanta University who helped him gain an education and refinement. They had one son together, Norris B. Herndon . After Adrienne died in 1910, Herndon married Jessie Gillespie of Chicago. His son Norris attended Atlanta University and Harvard Business School before entering his father's company full time. Herndon and his family attended
1800-538: Was folly. Still, in response to real-world threats on black people, Du Bois "was adamant about the legitimacy and perhaps the duty of self-defense, even where there [might be a] danger of spillover into political violence." Elected in 1906, Governor Hoke Smith fulfilled a campaign promise by proposing legislation in August 1907 for a literacy test for voting, which would disenfranchise most blacks and many poor whites through subjective administration by whites. In addition,
1845-562: Was named for Herndon. In 1905 Herndon purchased The Atlanta Benevolent and Protective Association (later called Atlanta Mutual) for $ 140, depositing $ 5000 (equivalent to $ 170,000 in 2023) with the state under their requirement for a kind of guarantee fund. In 1922 this was renamed the Atlanta Life Insurance Company. Herndon expanded the company with branches in numerous other Southern states. The Atlanta Life Insurance Company building (built 1920) at 148 Auburn Avenue, near
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1890-528: Was not until 2006 that the event was publicly marked – on its 100th anniversary. The next year, the Atlanta massacre was made part of the state's curriculum for public schools. After the end of the American Civil War and during the Reconstruction era , there was violence of whites against blacks throughout the South, as whites reacted to emancipation of blacks, accusations of black criminality, and political empowerment of freedmen , specifically gaining
1935-624: Was not. On Saturday afternoon, September 22, 1906, Atlanta newspapers reported four sexual assaults on local white women, allegedly by black men, including brutal attacks on Ethel Lawrence and her niece, Mabel Lawerence. Mabel, an Englishwoman visiting her brother in Atlanta, and her niece were picking ferns or wildflowers when they were attacked. She was hospitalized with severe injuries and lost an eye. Following this report, several dozen white men and boys began gathering in gangs, and began to beat, stab, and shoot black people in retaliation, pulling them off or assaulting them on streetcars, beginning in
1980-462: Was reported killed, and about 10 injured. An unknown and disputed number of black people were killed on the street and in their shops, and many were injured. In the center of the city, the militia was seen by 1 am. But most were not armed and organized until 6 am when more were posted in the business district. Sporadic violence had continued in the late night in distant quarters of the city as small gangs operated. On Sunday hundreds of black people left
2025-552: Was the growing racial tension in a rapidly changing city and economy, competition for jobs, housing, and political power. The violence did not end until after Governor Joseph M. Terrell called in the Georgia National Guard , and African Americans accused the Atlanta Police Department and some Guardsmen of participating in the violence against them. Local histories by whites ignored the massacre for decades. It
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