Negrophobia

by Mark Bauerlein

"At the beginning of the twentieth century, Atlanta was regarded as the gateway to the new, enlightened and racially progressive South. Whites and blacks were still separate and regarded as unequal by all but an elite of African-American intellectuals, yet an atmosphere of respect and cooperation mitigated the pain of segregation and made it seem like a transitory social arrangement. White business owners employed black workers at wages that gave them access to the new black middle class. Black leaders led congregations, edited periodicals and taught classes, building a rich civic culture in the midst of Jim Crow. A new world was being born.". "But Atlanta's dream of escaping the haunting memory of civil war and human bondage was shattered in 1906 when, in the middle of a bitter gubernatorial contest, Georgia politicians played the race card and white supremacist newspapers trumpeted a "negro crime" scare. Seizing on rumors of black predation against white women, they launched a campai