This particular riot was not isolated or rare. It does speak to the state of constant violence which much of black America lived under for decades - backed by the state. I’d say it was a constant state of war against African Americans (and for a while their post-Civil War Republican allies) from Reconstruction on. The main reason the US government classified the Klan as a terrorist organization was because of their constant violence against Republicans and especially African American politicians during that time. The end of reconstruction and the rise of the Jim Crow regime was what prompted the Great Migration. It was not economics (well, not only) but safety that was the root of that movement of people north.
It was events like this which reinforced the new order of segregation. I think for many African Americans segregation was seen as a war against themselves, their families, and their communities. I would have viewed it that way. It was not rare incidents of violence, it was a near constant state of violence. The Atlanta Riot was but a single example in a sea of similar examples.
If you think that’s not a war, that’s fine, but I think it probably qualifies.
