History of Atlanta

Atlanta timeline
Seal of the City of Atlanta
History
Before 1820 1762 Standing Peachtree, Native American trading post first mentioned
1820 1821 Creek Indians cede land that is now Metro Atlanta 1823 Decatur founded 1826 Land lottery to distribute lots in the area which is now Atlanta
1830 1830 Whitehall Tavern built at today's West End 1836 Western & Atlantic Railroad approved 1839 John Thrasher builds settlement at terminus
1850 pop. 2,572 1850 Oakland Cemetery founded 1851 Western & Atlantic Railroad connects Atlanta to The Midwest 1854 Atlanta and La Grange Railroad connects Atlanta towards the southwest; Atlanta becomes rail hub for entire South
1860 pop. 9,554 1861-1865 American Civil War 1864 Atlanta Campaign, burning of Atlanta 1865 Civil War ends; slaves freed; Atlanta University, 1st Atlanta black college , founded 1868 Atlanta made state capital
1870 pop. 21,879 1871 Horse-drawn streetcars appear, enabling city expansion
1880 pop. 37,409 1880 Atlanta surpasses Savannah as Georgia's largest city 1881 International Cotton Exposition 1885 Georgia Tech founded 1886 Atlanta goes "dry"; Coca-Cola first sold; Henry Grady's "New South" speech in New York City 1887 Piedmont Exposition; Inman Park, first garden suburb, founded; Coca-Cola invents the coupon 1889 First electric streetcars enable further expansion of city; State Capitol building opens
1890 pop. 65,533 1895 Cotton States Expo; Booker T. Washington gives "Atlanta Compromise" Speech
1900 pop. 89,872 - metro 419,375 1906 1906 Atlanta race massacre kills 27; Black businesses move to Sweet Auburn and west side
1910 pop. 154,839 - metro 522,442 1910 Restaurants segregated; other Jim Crow laws follow 1913 Leo Frank lynching; Georgia Tech starts "evening college", now Georgia State 1914 Coca-Cola president Asa Griggs Candler donates land for Emory University campus in Druid Hills 1917 Great Atlanta fire
1920 pop. 200,616 - metro 622,283 1923 Spring Street Viaduct opens, downtown rises above train tracks
1930 pop. 270,366 - metro 715,391 1936 William B. Hartsfield elected mayor; Techwood Homes built, first public housing in US 1939 Gone with the Wind premiere draws 300,000 to streets
1940 1946 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) founded 1949 Last streetcar line converted to trolleybus
1950 pop. 331,314 - metro 997,666 1950 Transit strike, Atlanta Transit Co. takes over transit from Georgia Railway and Power 1952 Buckhead annexed 1958 Civil Rights Movement 1959 Trolleybuses, buses, public library desegregated; Metro population hits 1 million
1960 pop. 487,455 - metro 1,312,474 1960 Sit-ins at Civil Rights Movement 1961 Ivan Allen Jr. becomes mayor; Public schools begin token desegregation; Rich's desegregates restaurant; John Portman opens Merchandise Mart, kicking off transformation of downtown 1962 106 Atlanta art patrons die in Paris air crash 1963 Trolleybuses converted en masse to buses 1966 Major League Baseball's Braves play first season in Atlanta after moving from Milwaukee National Football League's Falcons play first season 1968 Martin Luther King Jr. assassinated National Basketball Association's Hawks play first season in Atlanta after moving from St. Louis 1969 Perimeter freeway opens
1970 pop. 496,973 - metro 1,763,626 1973 Maynard Jackson becomes first black mayor 1979 Child murders begin
1980 pop. 425,022 - metro 2,233,324 1980 CNN launches, Turner empire takes off 1982 Andrew Young becomes mayor 1988 Democratic Convention
1990 pop. 394,017 - metro 2,959,950 1992 Bank of America Plaza completed, tallest US building outside of NYC and Chicago 1996 Summer Olympics
2000 pop. 416,474 - metro 4,112,198 2005 Airport becomes world's busiest; BeltLine plan adopted, adding 40% to city's green space 2008 Delta becomes world's largest airline; Downtown tornadoes
2010 pop. 420,003 - metro (CSA) 5,729,304 2011 Atlanta first US city to demolish all public housing projects 2013 Atlanta Public Schools supervisor Beverly Hall convicted in cheating scandal 2017 Interstate 85 bridge collapse
See also: Timeline of Atlanta
v t e

The history of Atlanta dates back to 1836, when

From the mid-1960s to mid-'1970s, nine suburban malls opened, and the downtown shopping district declined, but just north of it, gleaming office towers and hotels rose, and in 1976, the new Georgia World Congress Center signaled Atlanta's rise as a major convention city. In 1973, the city elected its first black mayor, Maynard Jackson, and in ensuing decades, black political leaders worked successfully with the white business community to promote business growth, while still empowering black businesses. From the mid-1970s to mid-1980s most of the MARTA rapid transit system was built. While the suburbs grew rapidly, much of the city itself deteriorated and the city lost 21% of its population between 1970 and 1990.

In 1996, Atlanta hosted the

As part of the systematic removal of Native Americans from northern Georgia from 1802 to 1825,[3] the Creek ceded the area that is now metro Atlanta in 1821. Four months later, the Georgia Land Lottery Act created five new counties in the area that would later become Atlanta.^[4] Dekalb County was created in 1822, from portions of Henry, Fayette, and Gwinnett Counties, and Decatur was created as its county seat the following year.^[5] As part of the land lottery, Archibald Holland received a grant for District 14, Land Lot 82: an area of 202.5 acres near the present-day Coca-Cola headquarters.^[6][7] Holland farmed the land and operated a blacksmith shop. However, the land was low-lying and wet, so his cattle often became mired in the mud. He left the area in 1833 to farm in Paulding County.^[8]

In 1830, an inn was established that became known as Whitehall due to the then-unusual fact that it had a coat of white paint, when most other buildings were of washed or natural wood. Later, Whitehall Street was built as the road from Atlanta to Whitehall. The Whitehall area was renamed

In 1835, some leaders of the Cherokee Nation ceded their territory to the United States without the consent of the majority of the Cherokee people in exchange for land out west under the Treaty of New Echota, an act that led to the Trail of Tears.^{[citation needed]}

From railroad terminus to Atlanta: 1836–1860

In 1836, the

In 1839, John Thrasher built homes and a general store in this vicinity, and the settlement was nicknamed Thrasherville. A marker identifies the location of Thrasherville at 104 Marietta Street, NW, in front of the State Bar of Georgia Building, between Spring and Cone Streets.^[14] (33°45.409′N 84°23.542′W / 33.756817°N 84.392367°W / 33.756817; -84.392367 (Thrasherville marker))^[15] At this point, Thrasher built the Monroe Embankment, an earthen embankment to carry the Monroe Railway to meet the W&A at the terminus. This is the oldest existing man-made structure in downtown Atlanta.^[10]

In 1842, the planned terminus location was moved, four blocks southeast (two to three blocks southeast of Five Points), to what would become

Meanwhile, settlement began at what became the Buckhead section of Atlanta, several miles north of today's downtown. In 1838, Henry Irby started a tavern and grocery at what became the intersection of Paces Ferry and Roswell Roads.

In 1842, when a two-story brick depot was built, the locals asked that the settlement of Terminus be called Lumpkin, after

AN ACT to change the name of Marthasville, in DeKalb County, to that of Atlanta; also, to change the election precinct now held at the house of Charner Humphries, known as the Whitehall precinct, to Atlanta.

• SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Georgia, in General Assembly met, and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the same, That from and after the passage of this act, the name of Marthasville, in DeKalb county, shall be changed to that of Atlanta.
• SEC. 2. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That the election precinct now established by law at the house of Charner Humphries, known as the Whitehall precinct, be and the same is hereby changed to Atlanta.
• SEC. 3. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That all laws and parts of laws militating against this act, be and the same are hereby repealed.
• Approved, December 26, 1845
  — Georgia General Assembly^[19]

Growth and development into a regional rail hub

The first Georgia Railroad freight and passenger trains from Augusta (to the east of Atlanta), arrived in September 1845 and in that year the first hotel, the Atlanta Hotel, was opened.^[20] The railroad was the chief stimulus to the town's growth, with several lines being added.^[21]

In 1846, a second railroad company, the

In 1851, a third rail line, the

Fulton County was established in 1853 from the western section of DeKalb, and in 1854, a combination Fulton County Court House and Atlanta City Hall was built– which would be razed 30 years later to make way for today's State Capitol building. (After the Civil War, the Georgia General Assembly decided to move the state capital from Milledgeville to Atlanta.)^[10]: 370

In 1854, a fourth rail line, the Atlanta and LaGrange Rail Road (later

By 1855, the town had grown to 6,025 residents[23]^: 86 and had a bank, a daily newspaper, a factory to build freight cars, a new brick depot, property taxes, a gasworks, gas street lights, a theater, a medical college, and juvenile delinquency.

Manufacturing and commerce

The first true manufacturing establishment was opened in 1844, when Jonathan Norcross, who later became mayor of Atlanta, arrived in Marthasville and built a sawmill. Richard Peters, Lemuel Grant, and John Mims built a three-story flour mill, which was used as a pistol factory during the Civil War. In 1848, Austin Leyden started the town's first foundry and machine shop, which was later the Atlanta Machine Works.^[24]

The

By 1860, the city had four large machine shops, two planing mills, three tanneries, two shoe factories, a soap factory, and clothing factories employing 75 people.[24]

Slavery in antebellum Atlanta

In 1850, out of 2,572 people, 493 were enslaved

Civil War: 1861–1865

During the

After a plea by the Bishops of the Episcopal and Catholic churches in Atlanta, Sherman did not burn the city's churches or hospitals. The remaining war resources were then destroyed in the aftermath in Sherman's March to the Sea. The fall of Atlanta was a critical point in the Civil War. Its much publicized fall gave confidence to the Northerners. Together with the Battle of Mobile Bay, the fall of Atlanta led to the re-election of Abraham Lincoln and the eventual surrender of the Confederacy.

Reconstruction: 1865–1871

The city emerged from the ashes – hence the city's symbol, the phoenix – and was gradually rebuilt, as its population increased rapidly after the war. Atlanta received migrants from surrounding counties and states: from 1860 to 1870 Fulton County more than doubled in population, from 14,427 to 33,446. In a pattern seen across the South after the Civil War, many freedmen moved from plantations to towns or cities for work, including Atlanta; Fulton County went from 20.5% black in 1860 to 45.7% black in 1870.^[32][33]

Food supplies were erratic due to poor harvests, which were a result of the turmoil in the agricultural labor supply after emancipation of the slaves. Many refugees were destitute without even proper clothing or shoes; the AMA helped fill the gap with food, shelter, and clothing, and the federally sponsored Freedmen's Bureau also offered much help, though erratically.^[34]

The destruction of the housing stock by the Union army, together with the massive influx of refugees, resulted in a severe housing shortage. Some 1⁄8-acre (510 m²) to 1⁄4-acre (1,000 m²) lots with a small house rented for $5 per month, while those with a glass pane rented for $20. High rents rather than laws led to

A smallpox epidemic hit Atlanta in December 1865, with few doctors or hospital facilities to help. Another epidemic hit in fall, 1866; hundreds died.[34]

Construction created many new jobs, and employment boomed. Atlanta soon became the industrial and commercial center of the South. From 1867 until 1888, U.S. Army soldiers occupied McPherson Barracks (later renamed

Starting in 1871,

As Atlanta grew, ethnic and racial tensions mounted. Late 19th- and early 20th-century immigration added a very small number of new Europeans to the mix. After Reconstruction, whites had used a variety of tactics, including militias and legislation, to re-establish political and social supremacy throughout the South. Starting with a poll tax in 1877, by the turn of the century, Georgia passed a variety of legislation that completed the disfranchisement of black people. Not even college-educated men could vote.^{[citation needed]} Nonetheless, African Americans in Atlanta had been developing their own businesses, institutions, churches, and a strong, educated middle class. Meanwhile, the 2nd Ku Klux Klan era, (1915–1944) headed by William J. Simmons, and the 3rd Ku Klux Klan era, (1946–present) headed by Dr. Samuel Green, both started off in Atlanta.

Coca-Cola

The identities of Atlanta and

Cotton States Expo and Booker T. Washington speech

In 1895, the Cotton States and International Exposition was held at what is now Piedmont Park. Nearly 800,000 visitors attended the event. The exposition was designed to promote the region to the world and showcase products and new technologies, as well as to encourage trade with Latin America. The exposition featured exhibits from several states, including various innovations in agriculture and technology. President Grover Cleveland presided over the opening of the exposition, but the event is best remembered for the both hailed and criticized "Atlanta Compromise" speech given by Booker T. Washington in which Southern black people would work meekly and submit to white political rule, while Southern whites guaranteed that black people would receive basic education and due process in law.

Streetcar suburbs and World War II: 1906–1945

1906 race riot

Competition between working-class whites and black for jobs and housing gave rise to fears and tensions. In 1906, print media fueled these tensions with hearsay about alleged sexual assaults on white women by Black men, triggering the

In the same year, Atlanta's streetcars were segregated, with black patrons required to sit in the rear. If not enough seats were available for all white riders, the black people sitting furthest forward in the trolley were required to stand and give their seats to whites. In 1913, the city created official boundaries for white and black residential areas. In 1920, the city prohibited black-owned salons from serving white women and children.^[42]

Beyond this, black people were subject to the South's "racial protocol", whereby, according to the New Georgia Encyclopedia:^[43]

[A]ll blacks were required to pay obeisance to all whites, even those whites of low social standing. And although they were required to address whites by the title "sir," blacks rarely received the same courtesy themselves. Because even minor breaches of racial etiquette often resulted in violent reprisals, the region's codes of deference transformed daily life into a theater of ritual, where every encounter, exchange, and gesture reinforced black inferiority.

In 1913, Leo Frank, a Jewish supervisor at a factory in Atlanta, was put on trial for raping and murdering a 13-year-old white employee from Marietta, a suburb of Atlanta. After doubts about Frank's guilt led his death sentence to be commuted in 1915, riots broke out in Atlanta among whites. They kidnapped Frank from the State Prison Farm in the city of Milledgeville, with the collusion of prison guards, and took him to Marietta, where he was lynched. Later that year, the Klan was reborn in Atlanta.^[44]

Country music scene

Many Appalachian people came to Atlanta to work in the cotton mills and brought their music with them. Starting with a 1913 fiddler's convention, Atlanta became the center of a thriving country-music scene. Atlanta was an important center for country music recording and talent recruiting in the 1920s and 1930s, and a live music center for an additional two decades after that.

Growth

In 1914,

In 1916, Candler was elected mayor of Atlanta (taking office in 1917). As mayor he balanced the city budget and coordinated rebuilding efforts after the Great Atlanta fire of 1917 destroyed 1,500 homes. He also made large personal loans in order to develop the water and sewage facilities of the city of Atlanta, in order to provide the infrastructure necessary to a modern city.^[45]

Candler was also a philanthropist, endowing numerous schools and universities (he gave a total of $7 million to Emory University,^[46]) and the Candler Hospital in Savannah, Georgia. Candler had paid to relocate Emory University from Oxford, Georgia, to Atlanta.^[47]

Great Atlanta Fire of 1917

On May 21, 1917, the

In the 1930s, the Great Depression hit Atlanta. With the city government nearing bankruptcy, the Coca-Cola Company had to help bail out the city's deficit. The federal government stepped in to help Atlantans by establishing Techwood Homes, the nation's first federal housing project in 1935.

On the political scene, between March and May 1930, the police arrested six communist leaders, who became known as the Atlanta Six, under a restoration-era insurrection statute. These leaders were Morris H. Powers, Joseph Carr, Mary Dalton,

In 1932, the city began to deny the Black Shirts permits for parades and charters. In 1932, Angelo Herndon was arrested and charged under the insurrection statute for being in possession of communist literature. Herndon's defense team, including attorney Benjamin J. Davis Jr., countered that by systemically excluding Black Americans from the jury pool, the criminal justice system was violating Herndon's civil rights, making the verdict invalid. The defense team appealed the decision to the Supreme Court twice and secured a decision against the insurrection statute in 1937.^[48]

Gone with the Wind premiere

On December 15, 1939, Atlanta hosted the premiere of

In 1941, Delta Air Lines moved its headquarters to Atlanta. Delta became the world's largest airline in 2008 after acquiring Northwest Airlines.

World War II

With the entry of the United States into World War II, soldiers from around the Southeastern United States went through Atlanta to train and later be discharged at Fort McPherson. War-related manufacturing such as the Bell Aircraft factory in the suburb of Marietta helped boost the city's population and economy. Shortly after the war in 1946, the Communicable Disease Center, later called the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was founded in Atlanta from the old Malaria Control in War Areas offices and staff.

Suburbanization and Civil Rights: 1946–1989

In 1951, the city received the All-America City Award due to its rapid growth and high standard of living in the southern U.S.

Annexation was the central strategy for growth. In 1952, Atlanta annexed Buckhead as well as vast areas of what are now northwest, southwest, and south Atlanta, adding 82 square miles (210 km²) and tripling its area. By doing so, 100,000 new affluent white residents were added, preserving white political power, expanding the city's property tax base, and enlarging the traditional white upper middle class leadership. This class now had room to expand inside the city limits.

Federal court decisions in 1962 and 1963 ended the county-unit system, thus greatly reducing rural Georgia control over the state legislature, enabling Atlanta and other cities to gain proportional political power. The federal courts opened the Democratic Party primary to black voters, who surged in numbers and became increasingly well organized through the Atlanta Negro Voters League.^[54]

Blockbusting and racial transition in neighborhoods

In the late 1950s, after forced-housing patterns^[

Efforts to stop transition in Cascade failed too. Neighborhoods of new black homeowners took root, helping alleviate the enormous strain of the lack of housing available to African Americans. Atlanta's western and southern neighborhoods transitioned to majority black — between 1960 and 1970 the number of census tracts that were at least 90% black, tripled.

Center Hill, and Cascade Heights underwent an almost total transition from white to black. The black proportion of the city's population rose from 38 to 51%. Meanwhile, during the same decade, the city lost 60,000 white residents, a 20% decline.^[57]

White flight and the building of malls in the suburbs triggered a slow decline of the central business district. Meanwhile, conservatism grew rapidly in the suburbs, and white Georgians were increasingly willing to vote for Republicans, most notably Newt Gingrich.^[58]

Civil Rights Movement

In the wake of the landmark

a Reform Jewish temple on Peachtree Street was bombed. A group of white supremacists calling themselves the "Confederate Underground" claimed responsibility. The temple's leader, Rabbi Jacob Rothschild, actively spoke out in support of the burgeoning Civil Rights Movement and against segregation, which is likely why the congregation was targeted.^[59]

In January 1956,

Blake Van Leer and its players to not participate in this racially integrated game. Griffin was widely criticized by news media leading up to the game, and protests were held at his mansion by Georgia Tech students. After delivering a commencement speech at the all-Black Morris Brown College, Van Leer was summoned by the board of regents where he was quoted

Either we're going to the Sugar Bowl or you can find yourself another damn president of Georgia Tech.

.^[60][61] Despite the governor's objections, Georgia Tech upheld the contract and proceeded to compete in the bowl. In the game's first quarter, a pass interference call against Grier ultimately resulted in Yellow Jackets' 7-0 victory. Grier stated that he has mostly positive memories about the experience, including the support from teammates and letters from all over the world.^[62]

In the 1960s, Atlanta was a major organizing center of the Civil Rights Movement, with Martin Luther King Jr., and students from Atlanta's historically black colleges and universities playing major roles in the movement's leadership. On October 19, 1960, a sit-in at the lunch counters of several Atlanta department stores led to the arrest of Dr. King and several students. This drew attention from the national media and from presidential candidate John F. Kennedy.

Despite this incident, Atlanta's political and business leaders fostered Atlanta's image as "the city too busy to hate". While the city mostly avoided confrontation, minor race riots did occur in 1965 and 1968.

Desegregation

Desegregation of the public sphere came in stages, with buses and trolleybuses desegregated in 1959,^[63] restaurants at Rich's department store in 1961,^[64] (though Lester Maddox's Pickrick restaurant famously remained segregated through 1964),^[65] and movie theaters in 1962–3.^[66][67] While in 1961, Mayor Ivan Allen Jr. became one of the few Southern white mayors to support desegregation of his city's public schools, initial compliance was token, and in reality desegregation occurred in stages from 1961 to 1973.^[68]

1962 air crash and influence on art scene

Main article: Orly Air Crash of 1962: Impact on Atlanta

In 1962, Atlanta in general and its arts community in particular were shaken by the deaths of 106 people on

Atlanta Art Association had sponsored a month-long tour of the art treasures of Europe. 106^[69] of the tour members were heading home to Atlanta on the flight. The group included many of Atlanta's cultural and civic leaders. Atlanta mayor Ivan Allen Jr. went to Orly, France, to inspect the crash site where so many important Atlantans perished.^[70] The loss was a catalyst for the arts in Atlanta and helped create the Woodruff Arts Center, originally called the Memorial Arts Center, as a tribute to the victims, and led to the creation of the Atlanta Arts Alliance. The French government donated a Rodin sculpture, The Shade, to the High in memory of the victims of the crash.^[71]

The crash occurred during the Civil Rights Movement and affected it, as well. Martin Luther King Jr., and Harry Belafonte announced cancellation of a sit-in in downtown Atlanta as a conciliatory gesture to the grieving city, while Nation of Islam leader Malcolm X gained widespread national attention for the first time by expressing joy over the deaths of the all-white group.^[72]

Freeway construction and revolts

Atlanta's freeway system was completed in the 1950s and 1960s, with the

Virginia Highland to Inman Park in 1973, but pushing hard in the 1980s for a "Presidential Parkway" between downtown, the new Carter Center, and Druid Hills/Emory

.

Urban renewal

In the 1960s, slums such as

Bedford Pine. The African-American community east of downtown suffered as the center of the black economy moved squarely to southwestern Atlanta. During the 1960s, African-American citizens'-rights groups such as U-Rescue emerged to address the lack of housing for poor black people.^{[citation needed}

]

Shoppers move to new malls as Downtown gains new roles

The first major mall built in Atlanta was

South Downtown area around it.^{[citation needed}

]

On the north side of Five Points, Downtown continued as the

Five Points area towards Peachtree Center.^{[citation needed}

]

Atlanta's convention and hotel facilities also grew immensely. John C. Portman Jr. designed and opened what is now the AmericasMart merchandise mart in 1958; the Sheraton Atlanta, the city's first convention hotel, was built in the 1960s; the Atlanta Hilton opened in 1971; as did two Portman-designed hotels: the Peachtree Plaza Hotel now owned by Westin in 1976, and the Marriott in 1985. The Omni Coliseum opened in 1976, as did the Georgia World Congress Center (GWCC). The GWCC expanded multiple times in succeeding decades and helped make Atlanta one of the country's top convention cities.^{[citation needed]}

Black political power and Mayor Jackson

In 1960, whites comprised 61.7% of the city's population.^[74] African Americans became a majority in the city by 1970, and exercised new-found political influence by electing Atlanta's first black mayor, Maynard Jackson, in 1973. In 1974, the Board of Aldermen was officially overhauled into the Atlanta City Council.

During Jackson's first term as mayor, much progress was made in improving race relations in and around Atlanta, and Atlanta acquired the motto "A City Too Busy to Hate". As mayor, he led the beginnings and much of the progress on several huge public-works projects in Atlanta and its region. He helped arrange for the rebuilding of the airport's huge terminal to modern standards, and this airport was renamed the

Maynard Holbrook Jackson Jr. International Terminal which opened in May 2012. He also fought against the construction of freeways through intown neighborhoods

.

Construction of MARTA rail system

In 1965, an act of the Georgia General Assembly created the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority, or MARTA, which was to provide rapid transit for the five largest metropolitan counties: DeKalb, Fulton, Clayton, Gwinnett, and Cobb, but a referendum authorizing participation in the system failed in Cobb County. A 1968 referendum to fund MARTA failed, but in 1971, Fulton and DeKalb Counties passed a 1% sales tax increase to pay for operations, while Clayton and Gwinnett counties overwhelmingly rejected the tax in referendum, fearing the introduction of crime and "undesirable elements".^[75] In 1972, the agency bought the existing, bus-only Atlanta Transit Company.^[76]

Construction began on the new rail system in 1975. Service started in June 1979, running east–west from

station inside the airport terminal.^[76] A line originally envisioned to run to Emory University is still under consideration.^[77]

Child murders

Further information: Atlanta murders of 1979–1981

Atlanta was rocked by a series of murders of children from the summer of 1979 until the spring of 1981. Over the two-year period, at least 22 children, and 6 adults were killed, all of them black. Atlanta native Wayne Williams, also black and 23 years old at the time of the last murder, was convicted of two of the murders and sent to prison for life. The rest of the crimes remain unsolved today.^{[citation needed]}

Mayor Andrew Young

In 1981, after being urged by a number of people, including Coretta Scott King, the widow of Martin Luther King Jr., Democratic Congressman Andrew Young ran for mayor of Atlanta. He was elected later that year with 55% of the vote, succeeding Maynard Jackson. As mayor of Atlanta, he brought in $70 billion of new private investment.^{[citation needed]} He continued and expanded Maynard Jackson's programs for including minority and female-owned businesses in all city contracts.

The Mayor's Task Force on Education established the Dream Jamboree College Fair that tripled the college scholarships given to Atlanta public school graduates. In 1985, he was involved in privatizing the Atlanta Zoo, which was renamed Zoo Atlanta. The then-moribund zoo was overhauled, making ecological habitats specific to different animals.^{[citation needed]}

Young was re-elected as Mayor in 1985 with more than 80% of the vote. Atlanta hosted the

term limits from running for a third term. He was succeeded by Maynard Jackson who returned as mayor from 1990 to 1994. Bill Campbell

succeeded Jackson as mayor in 1994 and served through 2002.

Campbell mayorship and failure of Atlanta Empowerment Zone

In November 1994, the Atlanta Empowerment Zone was established, a 10-year, $250 million federal program to revitalize Atlanta's 34 poorest neighborhoods including

Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Georgia Department of Community Affairs revealed corruption, waste, bureaucratic incompetence, and specifically called out interference by mayor Bill Campbell.^[78][79]

In 1993-1996 about 250,000 people attended Freaknik, an annual Spring Break gathering for African Americans which was not centrally organized and which resulted in much traffic gridlock and increased crime. After a 1996 crackdown annual attendance dissipated and the event moved to other cities.

Olympic and World City: 1990–present

1996 Summer Olympics

Main article: 1996 Summer Olympics

In 1990, the

St. Louis (1904 Summer Olympics) and Los Angeles (1932, 1984, and 2028

).

The games themselves were notable in the realm of sporting events, but they were marred by numerous organizational inefficiencies. A dramatic event was the

Eric Robert Rudolph

was later convicted of the bombing as an anti-government and pro-life protest.

Shirley Franklin mayorship

Shirley Franklin's 2001 run for mayor was her first run for public office. She won, succeeding Mayor Bill Campbell after winning 50 percent of the vote. Facing a massive and unexpected budget deficit, Franklin slashed the number of government employees and increased taxes to balance the budget as quickly as possible.^[80]

Franklin made repairing the Atlanta sewer system a main focus of her office. Prior to Franklin's term, Atlanta's combined sewer system violated the federal Clean Water Act and burdened the city government with fines from the Environmental Protection Agency. In 2002, Franklin announced an initiative called "Clean Water Atlanta" to address the problem and begin improving the city's sewer system.^[81]

She has been lauded for efforts to make the City of Atlanta "

LEED

certified buildings to one of the highest.

In 2005, Time magazine named Franklin of the five best big-city American mayors.^[80] In October of that same year, she was included in the U.S. News & World Report "Best Leaders of 2005" issue.^[82] With solid popular support and strong backing from the business sector, Franklin was reelected mayor in 2005, garnering more than 90 percent of the vote.^[83]

2008 tornado

Main article: 2008 Atlanta tornado outbreak

On March 14, 2008, a

Oakland Cemetery

were also damaged.

BeltLine

Main article: BeltLine

In 2005, the $2.8 billion BeltLine project was adopted, with the stated goals of converting a disused 22-mile freight railroad loop that surrounds the central city into an art-filled multi-use trail and increasing the city's park space by 40%.^[84]

Gentrification

Main article: Gentrification of Atlanta

Since 2000, Atlanta has undergone a profound transformation culturally, demographically, and physically. Much of the city's change during the decade was driven by young, college-educated professionals: from 2000 to 2009, the

Tony Award; and numerous art galleries were established on the once-industrial Westside.^[87][88]

Racial transition

Main article: Demographics of Atlanta

The black population in the Atlanta area rapidly suburbanized in the 1990s and 2000s. From 2000 to 2010, the city of Atlanta's black population shrunk by 31,678 people, dropping from 61.4% to 54.0% of the population.^[89] While black people exited the city and DeKalb County, the black population increased sharply in other areas of Metro Atlanta by 93.1%.^[90] During the same period, the proportion of whites in the city's population grew dramatically - faster than that of any other major U.S. city between 2000 and 2006.^[91]

Between 2000 and 2010, Atlanta added 22,763 whites, and the white proportion of the population increased from 31% to 38%. In 2009, a white mayoral candidate, Mary Norwood, lost by just 714 votes, out of over 84,000 cast, to Kasim Reed. This represented a historic change from the perception until that time that Atlanta was "guaranteed" to elect a black mayor. Other areas, like Marietta and Alpharetta, are seeing similar demographic changes, with huge increases of middle and upper income black people and Asian people—mostly former residents of Atlanta.^[91]

Recent events

In 2009, the Atlanta Public Schools cheating scandal began, which ABC News called the "worst in the country",^[92] resulting in the 2013 indictment of superintendent Beverly Hall.

Starting in October 2011,

AT&T

to protest alleged greed by those companies.

Significantly, in March 2020, Atlanta went to the national lockdown and social economic problems, where the city was impacted by COVID-19 pandemic. Following the approval of the first COVID-19 vaccines in Georgia, free and voluntary vaccination against the disease began in the city on December 14, 2020. However, many COVID-19 restrictions in the city were lifted up by June 2021.^{[citation needed]}

In late May 2020 following George Floyd's murder, protests that developed into riots and looting occurred across Atlanta; mainly in the Downtown and Buckhead neighborhoods. Notable buildings and museums such as The CNN Center^[93] and The College Football Hall of Fame^[94] were vandalized.

In 2021, a series of mass shootings struck massage parlors in Atlanta and the surrounding area. Eight people were killed and a ninth person was wounded. A suspect was arrested on the same day as the incidents in Crisp County, south of Atlanta.^[95]

In 2021, a police training center that critics have called Cop City became controversial. The controversy attracted international attention after a protestor, Manuel Esteban Paez Teran was killed by police in January 2023.^[96]

See also

• Atlanta
• 1956 Sugar Bowl
• History of Georgia Tech
• Historic bridges of the Atlanta area
• Historic ferries of the Atlanta area
• Historic mills of the Atlanta area

References

1. ^ Carson, O.E., The Trolley Titans, Interurban Press, Glendale, CA, 1981, p.xi
2. ^ ^{a b} "Georgia's Forts". Our Georgia History. Archived from the original on May 1, 2007. Retrieved June 26, 2007.
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Further reading

See also: Timeline of Atlanta § Bibliography

• Allen, Frederick. Atlanta Rising: The Invention of an International City from 1946-1996 (Atlanta: Longstreet. 1996).
• Basmajian, Carlton Wade. Planning Metropolitan Atlanta? The Atlanta Regional Commission, 1970--2002 (ProQuest, 2008).
• Bayor, Ronald H. Race and the shaping of twentieth-century Atlanta (U of North Carolina Press, 2000).
  • Bayor, Ronald H. "The Civil Rights Movement as Urban Reform: Atlanta's Black Neighborhoods and a New 'Progressivism'." Georgia Historical Quarterly 77.2 (1993): 286-309. online
• Burns, Rebecca. Rage in the Gate City: The Story of the 1906 Atlanta Race Riot (U of Georgia Press, 2009).
• Davis, Harold E. Henry Grady's New South: Atlanta, A Brave Beautiful City. (U of Alabama Press, 1990).
• Dittmer, John. Black Georgia in the Progressive Era, 1900-1920 (1977)
• Dorsey, Allison. To Build Our Lives Together: Community Formation in Black Atlanta, 1875-1906 (U of Georgia Press, 2004).
• Dyer, Thomas G. (1999). Secret Yankees: The Union Circle in Confederate Atlanta. The Johns Hopkins University Press.
  ISBN 0-8018-6116-0
  .
• Egerton, John. "Days of Hope and Horror: Atlanta After World War II." Georgia Historical Quarterly 78.2 (1994): 281-305. online
• Ferguson, Karen. Black Politics in New Deal Atlanta (2002)
• Garrett, Franklin M. (1954). Atlanta and Environs, A Chronicle of its People and Events. Lewis Historical Publishing, Inc.
  ISBN 978-0820309132
  .
• Godshalk, David Fort. Veiled Visions: The 1906 Atlanta Race Riot and the Reshaping of American Race Relations (2006).
• Harvey, Bruce, and Lynn Watson-Powers. "The eyes of the world are upon us: A look at the Cotton States and International Exposition of 1895." Atlanta History 39#1 (1995): 5-11.
• Hanley, John. The Archdiocese of Atlanta. A History (2006), The Roman Catholics
• Hein, Virginia H. "The Image of a City Too Busy to Hate": Atlanta in the 1960s". Phylon 33, (Fall 1972), pp. 205–221; A Black perspective
• Henderson, Alexia B. Atlanta Life Insurance Company: Guardian of Black Economic Dignity (University of Alabama Press, 1990).
• Hickey, Georgina. Hope and Danger in the New South City: Working Class Women and\ Urban Development in Atlanta, 1890-1940 (U of Georgia Press, 2005).
• Hobson, Maurice J. The Dawning of the Black New South: A Geo-Political, Social, and Cultural History of Black Atlanta, Georgia, 1966-1996 (PhD Diss. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2010). online; Bibliography pages 308-39
• Holliman, Irene V. "From Crackertown to Model City? Urban Renewal and Community Building in Atlanta, 1963—1966". Journal of Urban History 35.3 (2009): 369–386.
• Hornsby Jr., Alton. A Short History of Black Atlanta, 1847-1993 (2015).
• Hornsby, Alton. Black Power in Dixie: A Political History of African Americans in Atlanta (2009)
• Kruse, Kevin M. White flight: Atlanta and the making of modern conservatism (Princeton University Press, 2013).
• Lands, LeeAnn. The Culture of Property: Race, Class, and Housing Landscapes in Atlanta, 1880-1950 (U of Georgia Press, 2011).
• Levy, Jessica Ann. "Selling Atlanta Black Mayoral Politics from Protest to Entrepreneurism, 1973 to 1990". Journal of Urban History 41.3 (2015): 420–443. online
• Lewis, John and Andy Ambrose. Atlanta: An Illustrated History (2003), popular history
• Link, William A. Atlanta, Cradle of the New South: Race and Remembering in the Civil War's Aftermath (UNC Press, 2013).
• Meier, August, and David Lewis. "History of the Negro upper class in Atlanta, Georgia, 1890-1958". Journal of Negro Education 28.2 (1959): 128–139. in JSTOR
• Mixon, Gregory. The Atlanta Race Riots: Race, Class, and Violence in a New South City (University of Florida Press, 2004).
• Nixon, Raymond B. Henry W. Grady: Spokesman of the New South (1943).
• Odum-Hinmon, Maria E. "The Cautious Crusader: How the Atlanta Daily World Covered the Struggle for African American Rights from 1945 to 1985". (Dissertation 2005). online
• Peterson, Paul E. The Politics of School Reform, 1870-1940 (1985) covers Atlanta, Chicago, and San Francisco
• Roth, Darlene R., and Andy Ambrose. Metropolitan Frontiers: A short history of Atlanta (Longstreet Press, 1996).
• Russell, James M. and Thornbery, Jerry. "William Finch of Atlanta: The Black Politician as Civic Leader", in Howard N. Rabinowitz, ed. Southern Black Leaders of the Reconstruction Era (1982) pp 309–34.
• Russell, James Michael. Atlanta, 1847-1890: City Building in the Old South and the New (LSU Press, 1988). review essay
• Shirley, Michael. "The 'Conscientious Conservatism' of Asa Griggs Candler." Georgia Historical Quarterly 67.3 (1983): 356-365. online
• Stone, Clarence. Regime Politics: Governing Atlanta, 1946-1988 (University of Kansas Press, 1989).
• Strait, John Byron, and Gang Gong. "The Impact of Increased diversity on the Residential Landscape of a Sunbelt Metropolis: Racial and Ethnic Segregation Across the Atlanta Metropolitan Region, 1990–2010". Southeastern Geographer 55.2 (2015): 119–142.
• Watt, Eugene. The Social Bases of City Politics: Atlanta, 1865-1903 (1978).

Primary sources

• Kuhn, Clifford and E. West, eds. Living Atlanta: An Oral History of the City, 1914-1948 (Brown Thrasher Books, 1990).

City directories online

• V. T. Barnwell (1867), Barnwell's Atlanta city directory, and strangers' guide, Atlanta: Intelligencer Book and Job Office,
  OL 22850965M
• Atlanta City Directory for 1870. Atlanta, Georgia: William R. Hanleiter. 1870.
• Atlanta City Directory for 1872. Atlanta, Georgia: Plantation Publishing Co. 1872.
• Directory of the City of Atlanta for 1877. A.E. Sholes. 1877.
• Atlanta City Directory: 1882. Sholes & Co. 1882.
• Atlanta City Directory. Atlanta, Ga.:
  R.L. Polk & Co.
  1891.
• Atlanta City Directory for 1896. Franklin Printing and Publishing Co. 1896.
• Atlanta City Directory for 1898. Bullock and Saunders. 1898.

Published in the 20th century

• Atlanta City Directory. Foote & Davies Co. 1914. 1904, 1908
• Atlanta City Directory: 1919. Atlanta City Directory Co. 1919.
• Atlanta City Directory. Atlanta City Directory Company. 1922.
• Walter G. Cooper (1978). Official History of Futon County. Spartanburg, South Carolina: The Reprint Company.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to History of Atlanta.

• Changing Atlanta