![]() ![]() Rogers said when people can't take it anymore, they look for opportunities for change, and violence has been one means to achieving that change. 'Faith in the militant Black Power movement'įrustrations build. The notion of integration and civil rights, it's a 150-year story arc. And I think that's one of the issues why every 50 or so years you see this resurgence. Rogers is the historian at the Lucy Craft Laney Museum of Black History in Augusta. If this sounds familiar, Corey Rogers isn't surprised. The consensus was that jailers either killed Oatman or were willfully negligent. Not many Black Augustans believed that story. The morning of the riot, the district attorney William Barton charged two of the other juveniles, Sammy Lee Parks and Lloyd Brown, in Oatman's cell with his murder. "Foots" Atkins, promised to open an investigation. Abrams spread the word, and soon thereafter the county's sheriff, E.R. Jailers only said that he had fallen off his bunk after a card game. He had cigarette burns all over his body."Īn autopsy later found Oatman died by drowning: his lungs were filled with fluid. "He had three long gashes across his back, about a half an inch deep and about a foot long," he said. When his body arrived at Mays Mortuary, the undertaker, Carrie Mays was shocked. The city government had been putting off their infrastructure demands for nearly 20 years, according to City Council meeting minutes. Several Black neighborhoods lacked sewerage and water. Census showed only 20% of Augusta's African American adults held high school diplomas. Whereas our local officials have not seen a problem now our nation knows that Augusta has a problem," Green said. "The Black people of Augusta are tired of being told that there is no racial problem here. ![]() ![]() Green, who died in 2014, was African American. They described Black Augustans as happy and touted the good relations between Blacks and whites.īut then Augusta College's student body president, Henry Allen Green, told Atlanta's WSB-TV News in May, 1970 that Augusta's white leaders had been willfully blind. "And I don't want to say that everybody who was involved in the riot was a thug, but a lot of them were just criminals who were out stealing, that's all."Īt the time, many of the city's white leaders claimed to be flummoxed by the violence. "I don't know anyone knew why this so called riot took place," he said in a 2013 interview, prior to his death last year. Some, like former Richmond County Superior Court Judge Bill Fleming Sr., felt it was unimportant. News outlets do occasional anniversary pieces, but these are staid and seeming don't stick in anyone's mind. The Georgia Historical Society's director and staff say didn't event know about it until the committee's application for a state marker was submitted. The event went unmentioned and at present remains omitted from the Georgia Encyclopedia of History. Police killed six Black men.īut, until earlier this year as a result of a podcast and the 1970 Augusta Riot Observation Committee's efforts to raise awareness, most people in Augusta weren't aware this happened. More than 100 blocks of neighborhoods and businesses - about 7 miles - were ransacked and vandalized. They happened in 1970 in Augusta, Ga.įor two days, starting on May 11, 1,000 Black residents rebelled against the city's systemic oppression. In response, people protest in the streets and, violence erupts. Law enforcement's explanation of what happened doesn't line up with the boy's injuries. The story is all too familiar: a Black teenager suspiciously dies in a county jail. Approximately 300 people attended and 25–30 police officers stood watch. Protestors held a rally at a municipal building prior to the riot in Augusta, Ga., in 1970. ![]()
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