Eye for an Eye: The Role of Armed Resistance ... - Freedom Archives

Richmond, Virginia (1899 and 1901, respectively) .49 In the 1906 Atlanta race riot,
the predominately Black neighborhoods of Darktown and Brownsville distin-
guished themselves by the stiff resistance they mustered in the face of white mobs
seeking to disarm and terrorize Black people into submission . Some of Atlanta's
more prominent Black citizens were in different ways involved in the defense of
their lives, loved ones and property. In preparation for a violent conflict, mortician
David T. Howard requested and received a shipment of weapons from Chicago in
a casket days before the riot . Armed with a shotgun, the noted scholar-then
professor at Atlanta University-W.E.B . DuBois watched for invaders from his
porch . At the instruction of his father, thirteen year old Walter White stood ready
to shoot "the first man" that "puts his foot on the lawn when his neighborhood
was invaded by a white mob."' Armed Black resistance was also utilized by
Mississippi Blacks as a response to mob violence . In 1906 Blacks and whites
exchanged over 500 rounds, after a white mob attempted to invade the Black
enclave of Wiggins, Mississippi . The white mob's intrusion into the Black com-
munity was initiated because of the belief that Blacks were organizing to protect a
Black inmate, "Dollar Bill" Smith, from a white party. This battle left one dead
with several wounded on both sides. In 1888 and 1906 the Black community of
Wahalak (in Kemper County) offered armed resistance to white terror. In each
case white mobs invaded the Black section of Wahalak to punish and terrorize the
entire Black community after an incident between an individual Black and white
citizens . After the battle of 1888, where two whites were killed, the local whites
were supported by whites from neighboring counties and state troopers . Even
though being outnumbered and outgunned, the Blacks resisted for forty-eight