Putnam County Arson Attack

People

Five Black churches; Two Black lodges

Outcome

unknown

On the night of May 27, 1919, continuing into the morning of May 28, white arsonists burned down at least six Black churches and multiple Black community buildings in and around Eatonton, Georgia. In a span of approximately five hours, five Black churches and two Black lodges were destroyed. The attack was part of the Red Summer of 1919, a period of widespread racial violence across the United States. According to the Wheeling Intelligencer, the arson attacks were triggered by a "minor racial clash at Dennis Station," reportedly when a Black man was refused a bottle of soda water. During this period of heightened tension, armed Black and white mobs patrolled the area in fear of each other. A few miles away in Milledgeville, Georgia, white and Black mobs armed themselves and roamed the town after an argument broke out when the white and Black schools chose the same colors. Despite the scale of the destruction, authorities did not charge anyone with arson. The community raised a $1,100 reward (equivalent to approximately $19,900 in 2024) for information about the people responsible for the fires, but no one was ever held accountable. The arson attack, combined with the broader context of racial terror in Georgia—which led the nation in lynchings of African Americans by 1918—contributed to a mass exodus of Black residents from Putnam County. Beginning in 1920, thousands of African Americans fled the area as part of the Great Migration. Putnam County's population dropped by 45% between 1920 and 1930, from 15,150 to 8,367, with over 7,000 African Americans leaving the county. Some 250 or more relocated to Lincoln County, North Carolina by 1930, where they established new churches including Indian Creek Primitive Baptist Church and Mount Olive Primitive Baptist Church.