WEBVTT - Ep 1: Atlanta 0:00:06.519 --> 0:00:15.400 Novel. Before we begin, a content warning. The following episode 0:00:15.440 --> 0:00:23.200 contains difficult themes and violence. The Manhattan Courthouse is surrounded. 0:00:27.320 --> 0:00:29.880 There were over one thousand people who showed up outside 0:00:29.880 --> 0:00:33.479 the courtroom. They had snipers on the roofs in Foley Square. 0:00:34.200 --> 0:00:37.760 They had police officers with riot guns in the hallway. 0:00:37.920 --> 0:00:42.160 Inside Courtroom one forty eight, smoke stained shades do all 0:00:42.159 --> 0:00:46.400 they can to block out the sun and any industrious 0:00:46.440 --> 0:00:49.879 lucky loose hoping to get a peek inside, and who 0:00:49.960 --> 0:00:51.239 could blame them. 0:00:51.479 --> 0:00:54.639 At the time, it was called the Trial of the Century. 0:00:55.120 --> 0:00:57.240 It really was national news. 0:00:58.040 --> 0:01:01.440 Men in dark suits crowded every available seat. 0:01:01.920 --> 0:01:03.840 The entire gallery during the trial was full. 0:01:03.720 --> 0:01:07.000 Of press their hats, rest on their knees or turn 0:01:07.120 --> 0:01:12.920 in their hands. Some fidget, some slouch, others sit ramrod straight. 0:01:13.720 --> 0:01:17.080 Everyone is focused on the scene in front of them, 0:01:18.040 --> 0:01:22.240 a man with a carefully groomed mustache walking confidently toward 0:01:22.319 --> 0:01:22.800 the stand. 0:01:23.080 --> 0:01:25.960 He was very aggressive and very ambitious. 0:01:26.120 --> 0:01:30.480 That was his personality. Dewey loved being in the spotlight. 0:01:31.120 --> 0:01:35.759 Thomas E. Dewey, famed investigator of the crime syndicates, casting 0:01:35.800 --> 0:01:38.000 a menacing shadow across America. 0:01:38.560 --> 0:01:42.280 How do you take this random mayhem of violence and 0:01:42.400 --> 0:01:44.000 bring it under the law. 0:01:44.480 --> 0:01:48.520 Thomas Dewey enters the picture on that platform. 0:01:48.400 --> 0:01:53.960 His assistant attorney's shuffle papers. The courtroom leans closer towards 0:01:53.960 --> 0:01:58.160 the main attraction. The man facing Dewey on the stand 0:01:58.800 --> 0:01:59.440 he is. 0:01:59.520 --> 0:02:02.360 Called sometimes the boss of bosses. 0:02:03.040 --> 0:02:07.960 Slender, slightly darker skin tone of Sicilian extraction. 0:02:08.720 --> 0:02:13.160 A suit jacket covers tattoos on the defendant's forearms. 0:02:12.919 --> 0:02:17.960 All symbols of luck. He took great effort to keep 0:02:18.040 --> 0:02:21.680 those tattoos out of the public light. At the time, 0:02:21.919 --> 0:02:26.920 tattoos were not exactly the upstanding citizen kind of thing. 0:02:27.960 --> 0:02:30.640 A silk shirt and gold watch mark him as a 0:02:30.720 --> 0:02:35.120 man with expensive taste. He wipes a handkerchief over his 0:02:35.240 --> 0:02:39.840 brow and meets the eyes of the courtroom. Everyone can 0:02:39.840 --> 0:02:45.120 see it. Charles Lucky Luciano, one of the most feared 0:02:45.240 --> 0:02:51.440 mafia leaders anyone ever knew, is sweating. Maybe he was flustered. 0:02:51.639 --> 0:02:54.960 Maybe the government really did put him on edge. 0:02:55.240 --> 0:02:58.360 He used to be so sure of himself, but now 0:02:58.720 --> 0:03:00.600 things don't seem so certain anymore. 0:03:00.960 --> 0:03:03.720 Luciano really never stands a chance. 0:03:04.240 --> 0:03:06.640 He never should have taken the stand. That was the 0:03:06.720 --> 0:03:08.160 nail in Lucky's. 0:03:07.800 --> 0:03:15.119 Coffin a few blocks from the courthouse, on the fourteenth 0:03:15.160 --> 0:03:19.200 floor of Manhattan's gothic Woolworth Building, there is an office 0:03:20.200 --> 0:03:26.200 serviceable tidy inside sits the woman responsible for putting Lucky 0:03:26.240 --> 0:03:32.600 Luciano on trial, Eunice Hunting Carter, thirty six years old 0:03:32.639 --> 0:03:36.880 in nineteen thirty six, bright eyes the kind of quietly 0:03:36.960 --> 0:03:39.680 amused expression that makes you think she's laughing at a 0:03:39.760 --> 0:03:44.920 joke she can't share. She's New York's first black female 0:03:44.960 --> 0:03:49.920 prosecutor for the District Attorney's Office in Manhattan. This is 0:03:50.280 --> 0:03:54.720 the biggest case of her career. But as Lucky Luciano 0:03:54.840 --> 0:03:58.920 squirms on the stand, Eunice Hunting Carter is not there 0:03:59.120 --> 0:04:06.480 on center stage. Her name never appears in court transcripts. 0:04:06.840 --> 0:04:10.400 Why not. There would be no trial of the century 0:04:10.400 --> 0:04:14.680 without her. But Unice's work on this case is far 0:04:14.720 --> 0:04:18.440 from over. Destiny has more in store for the trial's 0:04:18.480 --> 0:04:27.320 key players, uniting them forever in unexpected ways. Lucky, Dewey 0:04:27.520 --> 0:04:30.960 and Unice, all born within five years of each other, 0:04:31.480 --> 0:04:35.520 similar ages, similar ferocious ambitions, and. 0:04:35.480 --> 0:04:38.280 Their lives intersect in a courtroom for one month in 0:04:38.360 --> 0:04:39.480 nineteen thirty six. 0:04:39.880 --> 0:04:42.760 But only two we're given the opportunity to stand out. 0:04:43.600 --> 0:04:47.200 Lucky and Dewey will go down in history. Eunice was 0:04:47.360 --> 0:04:51.320 kept from the spotlight. Maybe it's not surprising that in 0:04:51.360 --> 0:04:53.760 nineteen thirty six a black woman was not given room 0:04:53.800 --> 0:04:57.880 to share the stage, But nearly ninety years later, Eunice 0:04:57.920 --> 0:05:01.560 Hunting Carter still isn't the hose household name. And that 0:05:01.800 --> 0:05:07.159 is surprising, or at least I think it should be, 0:05:07.160 --> 0:05:10.160 because recently I've come to learn about Unice Hunting Carter 0:05:10.839 --> 0:05:13.560 and she wasn't just the engineer of this one defining 0:05:13.640 --> 0:05:18.160 moment in mob history. Eunice was a pioneer across all 0:05:18.279 --> 0:05:22.279 kinds of spheres that have come to shape America. Eunice 0:05:22.400 --> 0:05:27.440 was there navigating worlds designed to hold her back, often 0:05:27.560 --> 0:05:32.320 leaving them transformed. So I've been talking to some people 0:05:32.320 --> 0:05:35.240 who have remembered her name, people who can help me 0:05:35.320 --> 0:05:36.320 tell her story. 0:05:38.440 --> 0:05:41.640 Unice Carter was the spark that started the. 0:05:41.640 --> 0:05:44.159 Fire, a black woman who took on one of the 0:05:44.160 --> 0:05:48.560 country's most notorious mobsters. I want more people to hear 0:05:48.640 --> 0:05:52.600 what she did, even more than her achievements. I want 0:05:52.640 --> 0:05:54.320 to understand who she was. 0:05:55.240 --> 0:05:59.000 It's not even just that not everyone remembers Unis, but 0:05:59.080 --> 0:06:01.840 that people don't even believe she could have existed. 0:06:02.480 --> 0:06:05.120 She was really active in the Harlem Renaissance. 0:06:05.480 --> 0:06:08.720 Eunis ran for office. People thought she was going to win. 0:06:09.320 --> 0:06:11.000 She didn't back down in an argument. 0:06:11.240 --> 0:06:14.279 This is a straight shooter who will say something and 0:06:14.400 --> 0:06:17.240 mean it. But I think she was guarded. 0:06:17.760 --> 0:06:22.760 I did wonder if she felt stifled. All around us today, 0:06:23.160 --> 0:06:27.400 from school rooms to halls of legislation, Black American history 0:06:27.720 --> 0:06:34.400 is being erased. Remembering Eunice Hunting Carter feels more urgent 0:06:34.600 --> 0:06:39.039 than ever. But is that even possible when so many 0:06:39.120 --> 0:06:43.920 years of erasure and forgetting lie in our way. I 0:06:43.960 --> 0:06:47.119 want to find out to try to put Eunice Hunting 0:06:47.240 --> 0:06:49.200 Carter back in the spotlight. 0:06:52.960 --> 0:06:56.440 And I'm going to ask first Missus Eunice Carter to 0:06:56.560 --> 0:06:59.680 tell us some of the things that she has on 0:06:59.680 --> 0:07:00.000 our mind. 0:07:00.440 --> 0:07:04.080 This is awesome, Well, Missus Roosevelt, I have to agree, 0:07:04.839 --> 0:07:08.680 and our association agrees with what doctor Malack just said. 0:07:09.360 --> 0:07:13.520 We are concerned more though, with the implementation of human 0:07:13.600 --> 0:07:15.840 rights for all mankind. 0:07:17.360 --> 0:07:21.320 I'm Nicole Perkins and from the teams at iHeartRadio and Novel, 0:07:21.640 --> 0:07:59.480 this is the Godmother Episode one, Atlanta, nineteen twenty four 0:08:00.280 --> 0:08:03.200 replica by Eunice ROBERTA. 0:08:03.000 --> 0:08:10.680 Hunting noonday sun scorched a treeless ribbon of brick red road. 0:08:12.360 --> 0:08:17.200 A breeze, hot and languid, stirred, fitfully angry, red dust 0:08:17.360 --> 0:08:20.640 rose in great puffs, only to settle back heavily on 0:08:20.760 --> 0:08:27.080 all who dared the road. And then impasse for the 0:08:27.080 --> 0:08:32.000 way ended quite suddenly in according of vehicles, a ford, 0:08:32.280 --> 0:08:35.720 shining anew rubbed shoulders, with a road mender's pitch cart. 0:08:37.240 --> 0:08:43.520 They were all there, these and dozens of others, barricading 0:08:43.520 --> 0:08:46.320 the entrance to a grove of Georgia oaks. 0:08:52.840 --> 0:08:55.160 Long before I moved to New York and became a writer, 0:08:55.800 --> 0:08:59.160 I grew up in Nashville, Tennessee. This was during the 0:08:59.160 --> 0:09:01.840 eighties and nineties, and when it came time for me 0:09:01.880 --> 0:09:04.520 to go to college, I knew I wanted to stay 0:09:04.600 --> 0:09:09.360 in the South. I wanted the familiar, soupy heat, the 0:09:09.400 --> 0:09:13.960 magnificent magnolia and oak trees. Schools in Atlanta were some 0:09:14.000 --> 0:09:17.440 of the first I applied to. The city was the 0:09:17.640 --> 0:09:21.800 place to be for American black folks. Atlanta was about 0:09:21.840 --> 0:09:26.040 four hours away, the perfect destination for weekend trips and 0:09:26.160 --> 0:09:29.680 date nights for the black bourgeoisie and those who wanted 0:09:29.760 --> 0:09:32.680 to be It was where we went to shop for 0:09:32.760 --> 0:09:36.040 luxury brands that hadn't made it to Nashville yet. It 0:09:36.120 --> 0:09:38.040 was one of the top places in the country for 0:09:38.080 --> 0:09:41.800 black people who wanted wealth and education without leaving the South. 0:09:42.800 --> 0:09:45.840 The Atlanta I knew about a city that held so 0:09:46.000 --> 0:09:48.880 much promise for black people was shaped by the lives 0:09:48.920 --> 0:09:53.560 of those who arrived over one hundred years before. In 0:09:53.600 --> 0:09:58.120 eighteen sixty five, the Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery, but the 0:09:58.200 --> 0:10:01.199 Jim Crow laws of the late eighteen hundred It's established 0:10:01.240 --> 0:10:05.800 a new form of segregation, and so to foster their 0:10:05.840 --> 0:10:11.119 own success, black people began creating communities like in Nicodemus, Kansas, 0:10:11.440 --> 0:10:18.160 or Greenwood, Tulsa. And in Atlanta. 0:10:18.440 --> 0:10:24.360 Hundreds, if not thousands, of African Americans migrated from rural 0:10:24.400 --> 0:10:29.920 areas of the state and elsewhere to Atlanta. They saw 0:10:29.960 --> 0:10:32.120 it as a place where they could make a life 0:10:32.160 --> 0:10:35.600 for themselves. That was really the first phase of Atlanta 0:10:35.760 --> 0:10:38.760 being viewed as a mecca for Black America. 0:10:41.400 --> 0:10:47.520 The Huntings are among those drawn to Atlanta. William Alfaez 0:10:47.600 --> 0:10:51.560 Hunting Senior and Addie Waite Hunting met in Norfolk, Virginia 0:10:51.640 --> 0:10:55.760 before moving there. William is thirty six Atty twenty four. 0:10:56.600 --> 0:10:59.360 It's eighteen ninety nine and they've just had a daughter. 0:11:00.360 --> 0:11:04.680 This was ADDIE's third pregnancy, and a difficult one. They've 0:11:04.720 --> 0:11:08.959 already lost two babies. They aren't sure this child will survive. 0:11:10.640 --> 0:11:13.480 For the first few weeks of her life, William and 0:11:13.559 --> 0:11:19.400 Addie just call her Sugar. But she's strong, healthy, and 0:11:19.480 --> 0:11:27.160 once her parents are sure she'll survive, they name her Unice. 0:11:27.320 --> 0:11:31.280 As Unice's childhood begins, the Hunting's are part of a thriving, 0:11:31.440 --> 0:11:35.400 regenerated Atlanta. They lived in the Auburn Avenue neighborhood. 0:11:35.920 --> 0:11:39.160 Auburn Avenue would be come by near twentieth century what 0:11:39.360 --> 0:11:43.400 Fortune magazine called the richest Negro street in the world, 0:11:43.520 --> 0:11:45.200 not just in the country, but in the world. 0:11:45.760 --> 0:11:48.839 It's close to the white part of town and near Peachtree, 0:11:49.160 --> 0:11:53.360 the Lively business district. I try to imagine Unice as 0:11:53.360 --> 0:11:57.600 a child, watching brick buildings go up around her, holding 0:11:57.600 --> 0:12:01.079 her mother ADDIE's hands as they walk downly paved streets. 0:12:02.160 --> 0:12:12.559 Units probably sees people from all walks of life, postal workers, seamstresses, accountants, reporters, bakers, tailors, 0:12:12.880 --> 0:12:13.680 hat makers. 0:12:14.240 --> 0:12:19.240 Whatever business that was needed by the black community was 0:12:19.280 --> 0:12:23.120 provided by black business people who catered to the needs 0:12:23.160 --> 0:12:26.840 of black residents and also in many cases, catered to 0:12:26.880 --> 0:12:27.880 the needs of whites. 0:12:28.360 --> 0:12:32.199 Off Peachtree, her family can do all their shopping knowing 0:12:32.240 --> 0:12:35.719 they're supporting black businesses and that the money remains in 0:12:35.760 --> 0:12:39.760 this community, lifting some families out of poverty. 0:12:40.080 --> 0:12:43.880 In the city, the majority of black people lived in poverty, 0:12:44.000 --> 0:12:46.440 as was the case in much of the South, but 0:12:46.480 --> 0:12:51.880 you had a strong emerging black middle class and upper 0:12:51.920 --> 0:12:56.400 middle class, and Atlanta became a magnet that drew these 0:12:56.440 --> 0:13:00.080 people who wanted to, of course find wealth, but I 0:13:00.080 --> 0:13:04.320 also wanted to aid in the uplift of the black community. 0:13:05.080 --> 0:13:07.960 The house that the Hunting's live in, it's big enough 0:13:07.960 --> 0:13:11.720 to require a maid, a cook, and a gardener. I'd 0:13:11.720 --> 0:13:13.640 love to have a maid and a cook right now. 0:13:14.640 --> 0:13:18.040 The Hunting family had a very nice home, like twelve 0:13:18.040 --> 0:13:22.400 to fifteen room home on Houston Street. Houston Street's where 0:13:22.440 --> 0:13:24.760 you had many prominent African Americans. 0:13:25.240 --> 0:13:29.480 I think they liked to have pleasant surroundings. But the 0:13:29.520 --> 0:13:33.760 most important thing to them was learning about the world. 0:13:34.400 --> 0:13:38.199 I get the impression that you would be surrounded by books, 0:13:38.320 --> 0:13:41.840 you'd be surrounded by bookcases. 0:13:41.480 --> 0:13:44.760 Unlike literally ninety nine percent of the Black community at 0:13:44.760 --> 0:13:47.840 that time. Unice's parents have been to college. 0:13:48.000 --> 0:13:51.760 Her father, William, was really active in his job, traveling 0:13:51.800 --> 0:13:55.199 through the South in the United States. He was gone 0:13:55.200 --> 0:13:55.680 a lot. 0:13:56.120 --> 0:14:00.319 William Huntson is the first Black Secretary of the International. 0:13:59.720 --> 0:14:05.360 YA, trying to integrate and establish the YMCA for Black People. 0:14:05.600 --> 0:14:09.280 And Addie hunting She was a social activist in her 0:14:09.280 --> 0:14:12.920 own right, one of the founders of the National Association 0:14:13.280 --> 0:14:17.559 of Colored Women and then eventually one of the founding 0:14:17.600 --> 0:14:20.640 members of the Council of Negro Women. 0:14:21.040 --> 0:14:24.280 Addie writes long articles and gives speeches in front of 0:14:24.440 --> 0:14:28.680 packed crowds, and her audience hears a message of responsibility, 0:14:29.440 --> 0:14:32.320 how the first duty of black women is to their 0:14:32.360 --> 0:14:36.440 homes to focus on their families and children, and their 0:14:36.480 --> 0:14:41.360 next duty was to uplift the race. But Addie isn't 0:14:41.440 --> 0:14:45.920 really practicing what she preaches, just like her husband, her 0:14:45.960 --> 0:14:48.920 career often takes her away from Unice and her home, 0:14:49.520 --> 0:14:52.840 and as she begins to work with the National Association 0:14:53.000 --> 0:14:56.760 for the advancement of colored people. She starts taking even 0:14:56.840 --> 0:14:58.640 more trips away from her family. 0:15:00.960 --> 0:15:05.720 She alone, black woman would travel to various cities in 0:15:05.760 --> 0:15:08.840 which there have been unrest, attacks on the black community, 0:15:09.120 --> 0:15:13.000 attacks on those who attempted to establish branches of the NAACP. 0:15:13.680 --> 0:15:17.920 These trips were dangerous journeys, especially for a black woman. 0:15:18.760 --> 0:15:21.600 I can only imagine the kind of responses she got 0:15:21.600 --> 0:15:27.280 from strangers. To me, it speaks to her determination and dedication, 0:15:28.240 --> 0:15:31.560 her passion to be more than what society expects. 0:15:31.880 --> 0:15:35.360 She went to explore, to find out, to gather evidence, 0:15:35.440 --> 0:15:39.760 to talk to those to encourage individuals in those cities 0:15:39.800 --> 0:15:43.000 to establish the branches, and she was quite successful of it. 0:15:43.080 --> 0:15:44.280 She did so without fear. 0:15:45.440 --> 0:15:48.520 This makes me think of my own mother, because she 0:15:48.760 --> 0:15:52.640 sacrificed her own ambitions for our family. She made sure 0:15:52.680 --> 0:15:54.760 to tell my older sister and I to do more 0:15:54.840 --> 0:15:59.800 with our lives. As much as she loved us, she 0:15:59.840 --> 0:16:03.720 wanted us to pursue our dreams. I wonder if Addie 0:16:03.760 --> 0:16:08.440 had similar talks with unus. Addie seemed to sacrifice her 0:16:08.480 --> 0:16:12.360 home life for her larger ambitions at such a young age. 0:16:12.520 --> 0:16:16.640 Did Yunus understand that sacrifice or was she resentful of it. 0:16:22.440 --> 0:16:25.320 Eunice's parents are trying to help build a world where 0:16:25.600 --> 0:16:29.040 black people have rights and opportunities, a South where they 0:16:29.040 --> 0:16:35.240 can thrive racial uplift, but not everyone is thrilled by 0:16:35.280 --> 0:16:39.680 that vision. As a small child, perhaps staring wide eyed 0:16:39.720 --> 0:16:42.840 at a city being built around her, at her parents 0:16:42.920 --> 0:16:47.280 making waves in Black America, Unice cannot possibly know that 0:16:47.400 --> 0:16:50.760 she is standing in the middle of a tinder box. 0:17:05.440 --> 0:17:09.760 In July nineteen oh six, Eunice Hunting is seven years old, 0:17:10.160 --> 0:17:12.040 and she's got a younger brother to keep her busy. 0:17:12.080 --> 0:17:16.760 Now al Faeus, they're about four years apart. But you know, 0:17:17.160 --> 0:17:21.080 she's doing what little girls do, probably wanting toys or 0:17:21.440 --> 0:17:25.639 trips to the candy store, maybe even the library. She's 0:17:25.800 --> 0:17:28.480 definitely not thinking about who's going to be elected governor, 0:17:28.960 --> 0:17:31.800 which is a campaign happening around her in Atlanta that year. 0:17:33.000 --> 0:17:36.200 That election is just a few months away. Both candidates 0:17:36.200 --> 0:17:37.639 are Democrats. 0:17:37.359 --> 0:17:41.159 Pake Smith and Clark Howell. These were the owners publishers 0:17:41.160 --> 0:17:45.359 of Atlanta Journal and Atlanta Constitution newspapers, two separate newspapers 0:17:45.400 --> 0:17:49.840 at that time, and each of those newspapers wrote sensational 0:17:50.160 --> 0:17:53.520 and largely false stories on a daily basis. 0:17:54.359 --> 0:17:56.720 So these two white men are stirring up a lot 0:17:56.760 --> 0:18:00.800 of racist unrest and flat out lying in order to 0:18:00.840 --> 0:18:04.000 make white Georgians afraid of the power of the black vote, 0:18:04.320 --> 0:18:08.040 which across America is still just a few decades old. 0:18:08.440 --> 0:18:12.080 African Americans were also granted the right of citizenship. The 0:18:12.160 --> 0:18:16.320 fourteenth Amendment and the fifteenth Amendment guaranteed voting rights for 0:18:16.400 --> 0:18:20.520 African American men, and so when African American men were 0:18:20.560 --> 0:18:24.040 given the right to vote declared citizens, it signaled to 0:18:24.160 --> 0:18:28.640 them a new day in terms of opportunities. 0:18:28.400 --> 0:18:32.760 And that threatened Smith and Howell, especially because when black 0:18:32.760 --> 0:18:35.399 men did turn out to vote, they were not voting 0:18:35.400 --> 0:18:39.600 for men like them, men whose families had defended slavery. 0:18:40.080 --> 0:18:45.199 African Americans were able to garner a degree of political power. 0:18:46.000 --> 0:18:50.359 White democrats like Smith and Howell were afraid of black 0:18:50.480 --> 0:18:51.199 voting power. 0:18:51.920 --> 0:18:57.480 They considered African Americans an economic threat because they felt 0:18:57.480 --> 0:19:01.200 they were in competition against these black businesses that were 0:19:01.240 --> 0:19:02.320 doing very well. 0:19:04.200 --> 0:19:07.520 At this point. As Atlanta heads into the twentieth century, 0:19:08.080 --> 0:19:12.320 black businesses are thriving, which is not what the country 0:19:12.400 --> 0:19:15.840 is used to. There are wealthy black people in places 0:19:15.880 --> 0:19:19.080 like Tulsa and Charleston, but you have to go looking 0:19:19.080 --> 0:19:24.600 for them. In Atlanta, segregation is still everywhere, but those 0:19:24.680 --> 0:19:29.640 black businesses exist side by side, So the growing prosperity 0:19:29.640 --> 0:19:34.320 of the black community is unavoidable. Why should black people 0:19:34.400 --> 0:19:38.359 have the same or better lives than the white citizens 0:19:38.400 --> 0:19:39.040 of Atlanta. 0:19:39.480 --> 0:19:43.000 It was during that time that the newspapers began to 0:19:43.880 --> 0:19:48.680 literally create stories that black men were assaulting white women 0:19:49.160 --> 0:19:52.840 in an attempt to really fan the flames of racism. 0:19:53.280 --> 0:19:57.600 The leadership of the white power structure really pulling the 0:19:57.600 --> 0:20:00.120 strings and manipulating their constituency. 0:20:02.600 --> 0:20:06.359 Meanwhile, at the Hunting home, letters arrive from both Addie 0:20:06.400 --> 0:20:09.200 and William Hunting from their work travels on the road. 0:20:10.160 --> 0:20:13.800 William revels and news of Unice. How smart she is 0:20:14.280 --> 0:20:19.880 even as a little girl, but still just seven years 0:20:19.920 --> 0:20:22.639 old in that summer of nineteen oh six. I wonder 0:20:22.680 --> 0:20:26.159 if she's picking up on the rising tensions. Does her 0:20:26.200 --> 0:20:28.760 mother hold her hand tighter when white men come by 0:20:28.840 --> 0:20:31.560 on the street. Do they have a cold word in 0:20:31.640 --> 0:20:35.359 case they need to run? Whether or not Yunus understands 0:20:35.400 --> 0:20:39.600 what's happening around her. William and Addie have a crystal 0:20:39.640 --> 0:20:41.000 clear read of the situation. 0:20:41.960 --> 0:20:45.560 Black people were highly aware that something was about to happen. 0:20:46.359 --> 0:20:50.800 The black community in Atlanta is now preparing for the worst. 0:20:52.119 --> 0:20:57.919 They clandestinely ship in on train's weapons arms guns so 0:20:57.960 --> 0:21:00.280 they could protect themselves. 0:21:03.280 --> 0:21:06.200 It's the evening of September twenty second, nineteen oh six, 0:21:07.240 --> 0:21:09.600 a week and a half before the Smith Howell election. 0:21:11.480 --> 0:21:16.720 A Saturday evening. People were leaving work. People were coming 0:21:16.760 --> 0:21:21.720 into the downtown area to go to restaurants or the theater. 0:21:22.359 --> 0:21:25.080 People were going into the city to start work if 0:21:25.080 --> 0:21:26.520 they had night shifts or whatever. 0:21:29.560 --> 0:21:32.679 It may be the end of September, but summer in 0:21:32.720 --> 0:21:36.800 the South likes to linger, and Atlanta is a bowl 0:21:36.920 --> 0:21:37.639 of humidity. 0:21:38.440 --> 0:21:41.640 The streets were crowded and the street cars were crowded. 0:21:42.280 --> 0:21:45.119 It's also time for the latest edition of the evening 0:21:45.200 --> 0:21:47.679 newspapers to unleash their new fictions. 0:21:48.320 --> 0:21:52.200 The Atlanta Evening News on that day had just published 0:21:52.200 --> 0:21:56.920 an edition that screamed headlines about more texts on white women, 0:21:57.520 --> 0:22:01.080 newspaper boys out in the street, going extra, extra extra. 0:22:01.160 --> 0:22:04.960 This was an extra edition of the Atlanta Evening News. 0:22:05.440 --> 0:22:09.879 It was timed to really spark the animosity that was 0:22:09.920 --> 0:22:13.280 already building up they knew that there would be a 0:22:13.359 --> 0:22:15.280 number of people in the streets. 0:22:16.359 --> 0:22:21.240 Everybody black and white are crowded together on the street cars, 0:22:21.280 --> 0:22:24.480 bumping against each other on the sidewalk. It's hot. 0:22:25.320 --> 0:22:29.200 These newspaper boys yelling out black men, rapes, white women. 0:22:29.600 --> 0:22:31.280 People are irritated. 0:22:31.960 --> 0:22:34.800 The street cars were supposed to be segregated. You could 0:22:34.840 --> 0:22:37.280 imagine at the end of a day, when it's crowded, 0:22:37.600 --> 0:22:39.440 you got a long day at work, you don't really 0:22:39.440 --> 0:22:41.760 want to get up and give up your seat to somebody. 0:22:42.000 --> 0:22:44.760 People are getting in each other's faces. 0:22:45.200 --> 0:22:49.440 The animosity, that sense of urgency had been building. 0:22:49.160 --> 0:22:59.000 Up, and then the violence starts on the street. Things 0:22:59.040 --> 0:23:00.720 get ugly fast. 0:23:01.560 --> 0:23:04.480 People said we're gonna kill every black person in sight. 0:23:05.080 --> 0:23:07.040 Then they say every black person. They used the N word, 0:23:08.000 --> 0:23:10.040 whether it's a man, whether it's a woman, whether it's 0:23:10.080 --> 0:23:15.000 a child. They did not care whether that person was 0:23:15.119 --> 0:23:16.960 just simply trying to get home and get away from 0:23:16.960 --> 0:23:19.320 the crowd, or that person was taking a stand and 0:23:19.359 --> 0:23:22.400 said I'm not gonna let anybody intimidate me. They would 0:23:22.440 --> 0:23:25.320 grab that person, pull them off the street cars, first 0:23:25.320 --> 0:23:27.679 of all, run them down if they were walking in 0:23:27.720 --> 0:23:31.040 the streets. And now it's time to essentially rid ourselves 0:23:31.520 --> 0:23:34.400 of as many black people as possible. 0:23:35.840 --> 0:23:39.240 Mobs of white men are now roaming around downtown Atlanta. 0:23:40.359 --> 0:23:43.960 The mob of terrorists grew to about ten thousand men 0:23:44.000 --> 0:23:46.920 and boys. They knew exactly where. 0:23:46.720 --> 0:23:47.040 To go. 0:23:48.520 --> 0:23:52.719 Across the Peachtree Business District. Straining with rush hour, they 0:23:52.760 --> 0:23:53.399 wreak havoc. 0:23:54.359 --> 0:23:57.120 There was a young black man named Frank Smith who 0:23:57.200 --> 0:24:01.399 was a messenger, and he was trying to get back 0:24:01.440 --> 0:24:04.439 to wherever his office was in the business district. They 0:24:04.480 --> 0:24:10.680 grabbed him, they murdered him. They threw one man off 0:24:10.720 --> 0:24:16.920 the for Side Street bridge onto the railroad track. They 0:24:16.960 --> 0:24:28.280 pulled people off street cars and beat them, killed them. 0:24:28.320 --> 0:24:29.600 It's nightfall now. 0:24:30.320 --> 0:24:37.160 This assault, this murder, this pillage continued. They dragged bodies 0:24:37.760 --> 0:24:42.240 of their victims to the base of the statue that 0:24:42.320 --> 0:24:45.960 still exists on for Syde Street of Henry Grady. 0:24:46.680 --> 0:24:49.280 Grady was another white supremacist journalist. 0:24:49.720 --> 0:24:54.919 He was revered by white citizens in Atlanta, particularly. 0:24:54.240 --> 0:24:56.479 A precursor to Smith and Howell. 0:24:56.760 --> 0:25:00.560 He was a symbol of what they were a to 0:25:00.760 --> 0:25:04.879 achieve in terms of leadership, in terms of dominance of 0:25:05.359 --> 0:25:09.719 white Atlantas in the city of Atlanta and really Georgia 0:25:09.760 --> 0:25:10.639 and throughout the South. 0:25:11.840 --> 0:25:15.560 In the Atlanta night, the vicious crowd spreads out from 0:25:15.640 --> 0:25:18.320 downtown towards residential areas of the city. 0:25:20.680 --> 0:25:25.520 The terrorists were actually headed to the Auburn Avenue community. 0:25:25.600 --> 0:25:29.080 That's Eunice's neighborhood. Her home is right on the border 0:25:29.119 --> 0:25:36.240 between white and black Atlanta. There the Hunting's wait trapped inside. 0:25:36.400 --> 0:25:39.560 They were in their home looking out the window, and 0:25:39.680 --> 0:25:43.399 mister Hunting, who was ready to defend his family, defend 0:25:43.400 --> 0:25:46.119 his home against the rioters if necessary. 0:25:46.840 --> 0:25:50.040 I wonder where Unice is at this time. Are she 0:25:50.160 --> 0:25:53.760 and her brother hiding someplace? Does she hear the crowd 0:25:53.800 --> 0:26:00.520 of angry men? Is she peeping through the shutters? At 0:26:00.560 --> 0:26:04.080 the last minute, the mob suddenly stops a few houses 0:26:04.119 --> 0:26:08.520 before her home. The ringleaders declare that homes in this 0:26:08.560 --> 0:26:11.719 part of town seem too nice for negroes to live in, 0:26:12.640 --> 0:26:17.280 and so the mob moves on, bringing destruction and violence 0:26:17.359 --> 0:26:18.520 to someone else's door. 0:26:20.240 --> 0:26:23.800 So it moved east to what's called the Fourth War 0:26:24.000 --> 0:26:27.360 in Atlanta that's populated by working class and poor blacks. 0:26:28.800 --> 0:26:33.479 This is thousands of attackers moving into that community to 0:26:33.600 --> 0:26:39.080 essentially destroy homes kill people. The residents repel the angry mob. 0:26:40.600 --> 0:26:45.000 They were also in their homes, weapons in hand, ready 0:26:45.040 --> 0:26:49.000 to defend themselves if the mob should get to them. 0:26:49.359 --> 0:26:54.560 The terror in Atlanta lasts for another three full days. 0:26:54.960 --> 0:26:56.520 Many many more were killed. 0:27:00.560 --> 0:27:05.119 Eventually, Georgia's governor calls in the militia and the violence 0:27:05.160 --> 0:27:07.640 in the center of the city starts to die down. 0:27:08.440 --> 0:27:12.000 No one really knows how many African Americans died. The 0:27:12.200 --> 0:27:15.840 estimate is between fifty to one hundred, and perhaps even more, 0:27:16.680 --> 0:27:20.199 and in many cases the bodies were spirited away, they disappeared. 0:27:21.680 --> 0:27:25.119 People did not want their dead to be associated with 0:27:25.280 --> 0:27:28.280 the riot because even though they were the victims, they 0:27:28.400 --> 0:27:30.919 feared that there would be consequences. 0:27:33.720 --> 0:27:37.040 The fallout of the attacks in Atlanta went well beyond 0:27:37.160 --> 0:27:39.040 those three days in late September. 0:27:39.680 --> 0:27:44.399 Even after the carnage and the murders, you still had 0:27:44.480 --> 0:27:48.760 the repercussions of the trauma of having experienced. 0:27:48.080 --> 0:27:51.960 That Atlanta could rebuild, It could become the place I 0:27:51.960 --> 0:27:56.080 would excitedly visit as a teenager many years later. But 0:27:56.200 --> 0:28:00.080 what about the idea of Atlanta. It had become a 0:28:00.080 --> 0:28:04.399 place that was no longer safe. It's clear Atlanta and 0:28:04.440 --> 0:28:07.080 its Black community would never be the same. 0:28:07.680 --> 0:28:10.960 Most people think about the Great Migration as being a 0:28:11.040 --> 0:28:14.840