Nearly 100 years after the 1906 Atlanta Race Massacre, a mural depicting the riot by artist Fabian Williams was revealed in South Atlanta, across from Carver High School.
The 1906 Atlanta Race Massacre, a four-day-long onslaught where white mobs attacked Black communities, resulted in at least 25 Black men, women and children dead, hundreds missing or injured and businesses of the community demolished. The mural was painted this year in remembrance of this event.
“I applied for the project through the Center for Civil and Human Rights, and I was selected,” Williams said, whose mural was unveiled Sept. 27. “I really just wanted to tell the story correctly, and I feel like I may have been the best person to tell the story because my work over the years has been about reconciling history and reframing things that are not well-known.”
Williams was confident in his ability to tell the story and excited to bring his vision to life after being chosen for the project.
“I feel like the solution to our problems is present in nature,” Williams said. “I feel like all the answers that we seek to get on the right course come from the creative field, and I do believe that it will eventually heal the world.”
Williams presented many redesigns throughout the process, some which he felt strongly about but had to let go. Before he started designing, he fully researched the massacre.
“When designing it, I felt like the most important parts were: ‘How did it happen? Why did it happen? What happened during it? and How was it stopped?’” Williams said. “Those are the things I tried to answer while designing the concept, and I went through 19 different revisions to get to the one that got painted.”
A French newspaper, Le Petit Journal, which featured an illustration of the massacre, was one his muses for the design. At first, violence was a small part of the mural because Williams didn’t want violence to be the mural’s main focus. However, it came to be a very large part of the mural in the end.
“I wanted to make the violence sort of small because it was more important to look at how it happened and why it ended,” Williams said. “But, it ended because 256 Black men stood between the rest of the Black township and the white mob. They shot one guy dead, and then the mob stopped.”
While most reactions to the mural were positive, some people didn’t like the violence it depicted.
“I think the mural tells a story that needs more recognition,” Peyton Pines, a community member, said. “But, I did not like how graphic the violence because I feel like the resolution should be a bigger part of the mural.”
One factor that started the massacre was The Atlanta Journal and The Atlanta Constitution, the afternoon and morning dailies running stories about Black men pursuing White women, according to Williams.
“I just don’t want it to happen again; so, I just feel like it was my vision to tell people what the truth is,” Williams said. “Nobody really benefits from lies.”
Williams felt very deeply about depicting the story of the massacre accurately. However, painting the mural strained him.
“Painting a subject like this has a toll on you mentally, spiritually and, eventually, physically,” Williams said. “How you feel manifests in your body. I got very sick, but, if I had to go back, I would’ve taken myself to the hospital the second day I was feeling bad.”
Additionally, a Midtown art teacher, Brina Hargo, believes that the mural will be a learning opportunity for many artists because it shows symbolization and gives every person their own interpretation.
“When I first saw the mural I felt very sad,” Hargro said. “Racial violence is always disturbing – especially through my lens as a black woman. But, I appreciate him showing a victim of violence as well as the two figures on the right who are staring at the viewer because those two figures are symbols of strength and defiance in the midst of violence.”
Hargo admires how the mural brings up an often forgotten event. She says it would be a great learning opportunity for students. However, some community members had differing opinions on the mural.
“I wish the community had more input on what was included in the mural, since we are the ones seeing it more frequently,” Pines said. “Some of my neighbors feel the same way, even some that like the mural.”
However, Williams feels like it would be a great learning experience for students.
“It keeps these painful events in the forefront. When black history is erased in the school setting, it gives it a platform in the community setting,” Hargo said. “It will definitely spark the question: “Did that really happen?”; I hope the victims will always be remembered.”
Williams wants the next generation of big artists to focus on what they want to see in the world.
“This generation does not need to hide from the truth,” Williams said. “If anything, you guys need to really double down and tell the truth, but also you guys need to show people how it should be because ideas are powerful, and they turn into real stories.”
