"Mark Bauerlein's Negrophobia will serve as a catalyst for discussing the problems of race in the past, and hope for the future. The many issues presented are just as relevant today as they were at the turn of the 20th century. This book should be read in order to avoid replicating the mistakes of the past."

?Bill Campbell, Atlanta Mayor

Prelude to a Riot

?8 December 1905, Atlanta

At 12:00 A.M., John Nelms, high sheriff of Fulton County, Georgia, paces down the blank corridors of the Atlanta jail, called the Tower, and follows the turnkey into a cell block known as Murderer's Row. They pause and the turnkey swings open a door, revealing a small twenty-five-year-old black man lying quietly on his cot.

Nelms mutters, "Let's go, Jim."

The prisoner glances at the sheriff with a sigh, and the small party makes its way to a darkened, cavernous room where several grim white men mill around a noose hanging above a trap door in the floor. Nelms and his prisoner step forward. The onlookers scan the condemned man's face as he eyes the rope. Sheriff and prisoner position themselves in the middle of the room, the noose but a few inches from their heads. The others arrange themselves in a circle, a sober gathering of Atlanta officials, newspaper reporters, priests, and Mr. George Moore.
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