The Yellow Journalism of the Atlanta Georgian
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A 1906 photograph of the Atlanta Georgian composing room. The photo was taken in the same year the newspaper began publication in Georgia's capital.
Courtesy of Georgia State University. Special Collections, Edmond Torbush Papers, Southern Labor Archives.
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An Atlanta Georgian headline published on September 24, 1906, in the midst of the Atlanta Race Riot of that year. The paper had previously printed unsubstantiated stories that inspired racially-motivated attacks, resulting in the murder of dozens of African Americans over a three-day period.
Courtesy of Georgia Newspaper Project, Georgia Historic Newspapers.
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The Leo Frank case was reported on in newspapers across Georgia between 1913 and 1915. The Atlanta Georgian, in particular, sensationalized the story with daily dramatic headlines as illustrated by this front page from the August 25, 1913, issue of the paper.
Courtesy of Georgia Newspaper Project, Georgia Historic Newspapers.
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Mildred Seydell broke gender barriers as a journalist for the Atlanta Georgian in the 1920s and 30s. This photograph of Seydell reading the hand of football player Harold "Red" Grange was taken during her coverage of the Scopes Trial in 1925.
Courtesy of the Rose Library, Emory University via the New Georgia Encyclopedia.
One of Georgia’s most notorious newspapers, the Atlanta Georgian, began publication in the early twentieth century. Along with editor John Temple Graves, Fred Loring Seely established the daily publication in 1906 to compete with the city’s two leading papers, the Atlanta Constitution and Atlanta Journal. During its first months of publication, the paper prominently featured often-unsubstantiated stories of Black men attacking white women. The coverage inflamed racial resentment among the city’s white population and resulted in the Atlanta Race Riot in September 1906. Over a three-day period, mobs of white men assaulted hundreds of Black men, murdered dozens, and vandalized Black-owned businesses and homes. Newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst purchased the paper in 1912. Under his son’s leadership, the paper adopted the practices of “yellow journalism,” including large headlines, extensive use of photography, and loose journalistic standards. The purpose of these sensationalist practices was to attract reader attention and increase sales. The Georgian employed these tactics in an attempt to commercialize the 1913 Leo Frank murder trial, sometimes publishing as many as eight editions in a single day. In 1924, the paper employed trailblazing journalist Mildred Seydell, who covered the Scopes Trial and wrote for the Georgian’s society page. James M. Cox purchased both the Georgian and the Journal in 1939 and dissolved the Georgian shortly thereafter.