The race riots lasted for three days that September. Over 90 Black people were injured and more than 25 killed; 10 white people were injured and two killed. Leading up to the riots, The Constitution ran a daily column featuring conservative voices that demanded police and greater authorities act to save their white women and other property. Moreover, local papers, including both The Journal and The Constitution, also published numerous articles regularly calling for more policing in or the complete destruction of "negro dives," referring to bars where Black residents gathered to enjoy drink and food. These establishments were criminalized by the voice of the press, with the papers using the words "crime," "criminal," and "negro," practically interchangably—not dissimilar to how activities such as street racing, selling water during the summer, protest, and other activities continue to be demonized by local conservatives and the press that coddles their voices.
In 1906, a group of Black men shot at a car, causing no injuries. This was declared "one of the worst incidents of [the] night's horror," while at the same time, Black people were maimed in the streets. Articles highlighted property damage over the languishing of Black lives. In the midst of all the chaos and bloodshed, coverage continued to criminalize "negro dives" while calling for more surveilling and overpolicing of Black communities. Police murders of Black residents were commended as police were portrayed as heroes and the state militia as the city's saviors. Letters from politicians and the wealthy elite called on more police to protect women and children and to police the dives that "create" crime. These narrative accounts of the massacre justified white violence while faulting the marginalized, claiming that Black people caused the madness that engulfed the city.
After the violence of the 1906 riots dissipated, Black people who weren't murdered were detained, fined, and incarcerated—many for practicing the Second Amendment right of owning firearms. The city remained occupied by state and local law enforcement, as fleets of police were hired and put on the streets. Black men who were falsely accused and charged with raping white women before the riots were convicted and incarcerated. Everyday activities in Black communities were criminalized. But there was one event that has been particularly formidable for the City of Atlanta, a turning point from which its governance, both in politics and the press, has never looked back. As national guardsmen patrolled the city, a thousand "law-abiding" Atlanta citizens gathered together in the Chamber of Commerce superior court room. It was perhaps their conversations and resolutions—including the establishment of the city's heralded biracial elite governance coalition—that imprinted the city with a dynamic that shows up time and time again: the incestuous relationship between the white corporate class, Black elite leadership, the police, the city government, and daily papers, which would later merge to become The Atlanta Journal-Constitution—or what is more commonly referred to as "The Atlanta Way."