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REVIEWS
| Veiled Visions: The 1906 Atlanta Race Riot and the Reshaping of American Race Relations. By David Fort Godshalk (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2005. xvi plus 365 pp.).
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| At first glance, Veiled Visions, David Fort Godshalk's treatment of the 1906 Atlanta Race Riot, seems to retread a familiar set of stories. The causes of the riot itself traced a predictable pattern: white-on-black violence borne out of hatred and social anxiety, fanned by fears of black mobility, and shot through with themes of manhood under threat. Moreover, there is little surprising in the way that Atlanta responded to the carnage; in a city that has become famous for its commercial-mindedness and civic boosterism, local leaders quickly understood that angry white mobs, a terrorized black working class, and blood in the streets made both for bad business and bad publicity. Godshalk shows that although Atlanta did not start billing itself as "the city too busy to hate" until the Civil Rights Era, the inspiration for the slogan derived from the riot's immediate aftermath. |
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But if the contours of Godshalk's narrative are familiar, his treatment is never facile. He builds from the experience of Atlanta in 1906 to discuss civil rights activism later in the 20th century and posits the city's response to the riot as a template, albeit a flawed and regrettable one, for the subsequent management of racial tensions throughout the United States. In an even more important contribution, Godshalk looks closely at the struggles, priorities and inner conflicts of the riot's black protagonists and the style of black leadership that emerged from this crucible. In so doing, he provides a complex and nuanced account of interclass tension in the black community. Drawing on an impressive array of sources, he argues that elite blacks' decision to cooperate with whites prevented further violence, "but only at the cost of veiling promising black visions of America's future." (p. 290) |
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