Race riots in Smyrna, Georgia 1938...Subsequent trials...Judge...dates

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Clarification of Question by prissie-ga on 17 Jul 2006 18:58 PDT

Information with some details on Race riots in Smyrna, Georgia, 1938

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Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 17 Jul 2006 19:29 PDT

prissie-ga,

The race riots in Smyrna in 1938 were percipitated by the killing of a
white couple by a black man, who was arrested and tried and found
guilty.

But the event led to "anti negro" riots in the area, which were
quickly suppressed by the authorities.  A number of the rioters were
arrested, and appeared before the court of Judge Hawkins, who
reputedly dealt with them sternly but fairly.  Hawkins was also
instrumental in urging the Governor to respond promptly to the race
riots when they occured.

I have not found a good start-to-finish overview of the incidents, nor
is there any biographical information that I could see on Superior
Court Judge Hawkins.

However, there are bits and pieces of information from newspaper
articles at the time.  I can show you how to access them through an
online subscription database (though it may be available at no charge
through your library).

Would that meet your needs as an answer to your question?

pafalafa-ga

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Clarification of Question by prissie-ga on 18 Jul 2006 15:11 PDT

I received your answer and it gave me some information I needed. I
would like to have the procedure you mentioned about more information
on the net for pay. I would like to know how to do this to compare it
with traveling 450 miles round trip to the library.  Hope I can find a
place to do the good rating.David

prissie-ga,

Thanks to the miracles of modern technology, it's possible to visit a
wealth of historical materials from the comfort of one's keyboard.


As I mentioned, there is a subscription service that is particularly
valuable in this regard.  But before subscribing, you should note that
many public libraries have access to online historical archives, and
can make them available to you free of charge.  Better yet, the
libraries may be able to offer remote access...that is, you can access
the archives from your home computer!


First things first, though.  The service in question is newspaperarchive.com:



http://newspaperarchive.com



I use this extensively as an historical resource; you can read a bit
more about them here:


http://web-owls.com/2006/05/13/and-a-few-more-history-research-resources/



Note that newspaperarchive.com is offering free access to public
libraries!  So if your local library doesn't already have it, you may
want to encourage them to give it a try.


At the main newspaperarchive.com site, I conducted a search on:


smyrna superior court judge hawkins AND range:1938-1939



This search looks for the key words likely to appear in the article,
though you may want to play around with other combinations.  The use
of the [ AND range: ] (with the AND in caps, please) restricts the
dates to 1938-39, though again, you may want to play around with other
dates.


The search above retrieves a number of articles related to the murder,
subsequent riots and the trial of the rioters.  Because the articles
are copyright, I cannot reporduce them here.  But I can offer a brief
excerpt from one such article, so you can get a feel for what is
available:



http://www.esnips.com/doc/05ca3eab-7e92-4ce6-bc9e-9f15f2f1e234/smyrna.rtf
Mob Action is Fast Quelled



There are other newspaper archives besides newspaperarchive.com -- be
sure to check with your librarian to see what's available to you.


I trust this answer provides you the information you were seeking. 
But if there's anything more I can do for you, feel free to let me
know, and I'm at your service.


Cheers,

pafalafa-ga

Most helpful. Would like to use same researcher again in the future if possible.