A new mural commemorating the 1906 Atlanta Race Massacre in South Atlanta is drawing criticism from residents and historians, who say the artwork was developed with limited community input and misrepresents the historical trauma it seeks to address.
The mural, located on the side of a building managed by Focused Community Strategies and across the street from Carver High School, depicts the stoic faces of Black citizens reconstructing a home, and a white and Black person shaking hands. But at the center of a piece is an angry white mob. A white man is seen choking a Black man — an image based on a 1906 cover from the French publication Le Petit Journal.
While the mural, which was created by the artist Fabian Williams and commissioned by the National Center for Civil and Human Rights, was intended to provoke historical reflection, it has left some community members unsettled due to the violent imagery and the lack of resident involvement during the process…