Great Atlanta Fire of 1917
VMS 304: Mapping History with GIS
On May 21st, 1917, Atlanta's east side went up in flames.
Over the course of eleven hours, the fire, originating somewhere around the intersection of Fort and Decatur streets in the heart of Atlanta's vice district, consumed more than fifty blocks, caused over $100,000,000 in damages, and left 10,000 people homeless — most of whom were Black residents of the city's poorest neighborhoods. Though deemed an accident, decades of municipal neglect by city authorities produced systemic inequality and primed the city for destruction. Equally significant, the Fire took place amidst a segregationist moment where white residents sought to reconfigure the racial geography of the city.
Atlanta's Great Fire wasn't just another natural disaster. It was part and parcel of a heated battle over the city's future.
Part I: Setting Deadlines: Residential Segregation in Atlanta’s Neighborhoods, 1910-1917
Jim Crow and the City
The Atlanta Race Riot of 1906, a series of racial terror lynchings in response to false accusations of Black-on-white sexual assault, left dozens of Black Atlantans dead and transformed racial politics in the city. White Atlantans placed the blame for urban disorder on Black residents and introduced increasingly draconian Jim Crow measures, beginning with political disenfranchisement in 1908. Racial segregation in public spaces and neighborhoods soon became a new front in the white supremacist assault on Black Atlanta.
Removing Morris Brown
In early 1910, white residents of Jackson Hill, in Atlanta's Fourth Ward, attempted to make way for greater "white development" of their neighborhood by forcing out Morris Brown College, a Black educational institution founded by the African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1881. President E. W. Lee held firm, however, and held out in the face of pressure by city authorities.
The Fourth Ward Progressive Club
Frustrated by Morris Brown's refusal to move, Jackson Hill residents formed the Fourth Ward Progressive Club, threatening Black families, like that of dentist J. T. Holsey, to avoid buying homes in their neighborhood or face reprisal. The Club drew boundary lines defining their neighborhood's whiteness, and they convinced 50 real estate agents to publicly commit to not renting or selling to Black people within those boundaries.
Ashley's Segregation Ordinance
In 1913, Councilman Claude Ashley of Jackson Hill proposed Atlanta's first segregation ordinance, modeled after a similar law passed in Baltimore. Supporters hailed the legislation as a firm step in stopping the “encroachment” and “invasion” of Black residents. The law passed, but was overturned by the Georgia Supreme Court in 1915. Fourth Warders took matters into their own hands, fixing self-enforced "dead" lines to repel the "Black Tide."
Response by Black Atlantans
In the columns of the Black-owned Atlanta Independent, Ben Davis, Sr. mocked the "race haters" who sought to deprive Black families of their property. At different points, Black preachers and businessman joined committees with white Fourth Warders, attempting to defuse racial tensions via interracial cooperation. Some challenged residential segregation in court, winning key victories in Carey v. Atlanta (1915) and Buchanan v. Warley (1917).
Territorial battles over who could live where made 1910s Atlanta a tumultuous era. By 1917, the city's racial geography had just begun to shift, and white residents threatened violent consequences if Black people transgressed neighborhood boundaries. A hot, dry day in late May would exacerbate the Fourth Ward's long simmering crisis.
Part II: The Fire
Part III: The Fire's Legacy
What caused the fire?
While most considered the fire an accident, a clear pattern of municipal neglect certainly made possible its extensive destruction. As early as 1909, the Committee on Fire Prevention of the National Board of Fire Underwriters warned the city that shingle-roofed frame dwellings, which predominated in slum districts, were especially vulnerable to fire. The city was warned again in 1914, and even though an ordinance was passed to remove shingle roofs, it wouldn’t go into effect until July 1st, 1917 – and even that legislation appropriated inadequate funding to replace all roofs. A report on the fire’s aftermath urged the city to motorize its fire department, improve streets, and implement more extensive alarm systems. In addition, the city possessed a faulty waterworks system forced to operate at full capacity without backups, a potentially catastrophic situation if any part of the system had failed. While no arson was committed in May 1917, the city’s systemic neglect of its municipal infrastructure, disproportionately in Black communities, made the Great Fire of 1917 all but inevitable. [1]
[1] Travelers Insurance records of the 1917 Atlanta fire, MSS 688f, James G. Kenan Research Center at the Atlanta History Center.
Consequence I: Migration to Atlanta's west side
As a result of the fire's displacement, Atlanta's First Ward becomes a hub for the city's Black communities.
In 1910, the First Ward was 64% Black and the Fourth Ward was 57%
In 1920, the First Ward was 77% Black, and the Fourth Ward was 65% Black
In 1930, the First Ward was 95% Black and the Fourth Ward was 60% Black.
Percentage of Black residents in each ward, 1910
Percentage of Black residents in each ward, 1930
Consequence II: White Atlanta attempts to use rebuilding efforts to once again re-inscribe racial segregation. This map shows the proposed park area separating Black and white people in the Fourth Ward. Source: Atlanta Constitution, June 10th, 1917.
Consequence III: Racialized city planning
Finally, fire taught white Atlanta about the absolute necessity of comprehensive city planning, a Progressive Era innovation which had yet to fully make its way to the urban South. Without an increase in the city’s policing and regulatory power, it could not hope to control Atlanta’s built environment or socially engineer the city to ensure racial segregation. In 1921, Mayor James Key appointed a City Planning Commission which included Hoke Smith, Joel Hurt, and nationally-renowned consultant Robert Whitten who collaborated to issue Atlanta’s first comprehensive plan in 1922.
The Report’s detailing of its own inception stated that “soon after the big fire of 1917,” the Real Estate Board, headed by Robert R. Otis, sought to establish a planning commission “mainly for the purpose of taking steps toward converting a portion of the fire swept area into an esplanade to separate the two races.” Seeking to promote homeownership and clear out tenement areas, the report also urged passage of the city’s first zoning ordinance, which created two residential class districts for “White” and “Colored,” intended to promote “public peace, order, safety and general welfare.”
On January 1st, 1922, the city released a zoning map denoting “Colored Districts,” which largely mapped onto existing Black neighborhoods. The racial zoning map informally set the terms for where Black and white people could live. A 1938 map created by the Atlanta Housing Authority showed that Atlanta’s racial distribution was mostly unchanged – and that Black Atlantans still disproportionately lived in the city’s low-quality housing stock.
Atlanta Housing Authority Land Use Map, 1938
