[2] The events were reported by newspapers around the world, including the French Le Petit Journal which described the "lynchings in the USA" and the "massacre of Negroes in Atlanta,"[3] the Scottish Aberdeen Press & Journal under the headline "Race Riots in Georgia,"[4] and the London Evening Standard under the headlines "Anti-Negro Riots" and "Outrages in Georgia.

The immediate catalyst was newspaper reports of four white women raped in separate incidents, allegedly by African American men.

An underlying cause was the growing racial tension in a rapidly changing city and economy, competition for jobs, housing, and political power.

Among the successful black businessmen was Alonzo Herndon, who owned and operated a large, refined barber shop that served prominent white men.

But both major candidates played on racial tensions during their campaigning for the gubernatorial election of 1906, in which M. Hoke Smith and Clark Howell competed for the Democratic primary nomination.

[12] "Historians and contemporary commentators cite 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.

[17] 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.

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.

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.

Le Petit journal of Paris reported, "Black men and women were thrown from trolley-cars, assaulted with clubs and pelted with stones.

[22] 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.

[25]On September 28, The New York Times reported, The Fulton County Grand Jury today made 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 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..."[26]An unknown and disputed number of black people were killed in the conflict.

[citation needed] 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.

[citation needed] 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 the negro problem in this country.

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.

[29] Many African Americans rejected 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.

Du Bois, who was teaching at Atlanta University and supported leadership by the "Talented Tenth", purchased a shotgun after rioting broke out in the city.

"[28] As his position solidified in later years, circa 1906–1920, Du Bois argued that organized political violence by black Americans 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.

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.