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| Booker T. Washington |
September 22 - 24, 1906 - A Race Riot took place in Atlanta. Mobs of whites killed dozens of blacks. Race relations were already especially testy and when Atlanta newspapers reported alleged assaults by black men on white women, everything came to a head. Though unsubstantiated, the inflammatory newspaper accounts resulted a mob of white men and boys. They went down Decatur Street, Pryor Street, Central Avenue, and throughout the main business district, attacking hundreds of blacks and their businesses. One such business was the barbershop of Adrienne Herndon's husband, Alonzo. The mob also descended on streetcars and trolley cars.
On September 24, a group of heavily armed blacks held a meeting near downtown Atlanta where Clark College (now Clark Atlanta U) and Gammon Seminary were then located. When police found out about the meeting, they raided it. There was a shootout and an officer was killed. Three companies of armed militia were dispensed to the area to seize weapons and more than 250 black men were arrested.
The riot weakened support of Booker T. Washington's accommodationist tactics for addressing race relations and it fueled the aggressive strategies of Adrienne's colleague and friend, W.E. B. DuBois. After the riot, DuBois' thoughts were captured in his poem "The Litany of Atlanta." A few months later as spring approached, Adrienne penned her perspectives in a letter to Booker T. Washington. He had invited her to be featured among certain other Black women in a magazine article. She refused to participate and instead wrote a letter declining his invitation:
Atlanta Feb 12 1907
My dear Mr. Washington: Last year we broke up our home, took our little son to Philadelphia, put him in school there and since my return we have been occupying rooms in the Univ. dormitory.
The house we occupied for ten years was Dr. Bumstead's home so that I feel we have never had a real home.
The riot and the unsettled conditions here make us feel that we can never hope to have one in this ungodly section. Sometimes I
doubt if there is any spot in this country where one with Negro blood can plant a home free from prejudice scorn & molestation.
The sanctity of the Negro home is to the majority (the vast majority) of the white race a thing unrecgonized.
I thank you for the honor you confer upon me by selecting me among the women for your magazine article.
I appreciate it most highly, but I have come to feel that I should like to hide form the eyes of the white man, or any rate the Southern
white man the things, I, as a Negro woman hold most sacred for fear they pause & look to jeer and ridicule.
You'll say I am growing pessimistic. Perhaps so, I was born and reared in Ga you know and I live in Atlanta.
My kind regards to Mrs. Washington and my best wishes for the success of your great work there. Gratefully yours,
Adrienne McNeil Herndon
Adrienne Herndon was an influential and important African-American woman. She used her command of the dramatic arts to educate others, exemplify excellence, and for social upliftment. Her name and contributions belong alongside other historical figures that are well-known. Her life story must be told, written about, and shown in the history of which she was a viable part.
* Atlanta native Kupenda Auset (Joette Harland Crosby) began her research on Adrienne Herndon while working on her Master's degree in Africana Women’s Studies / History at Clark Atlanta University. Her research and writing on Adrienne Herndon builds on the seminal work of Dr. Carole Merritt, author of The Herndons: An Atlanta Family.
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