Atlanta, Georgia

Atlanta, Georgia, the gate city of the South, began in 1842 as a railroad center called Terminus, was then renamed Marthasville in 1843, and was finally given its present name in 1847. From the beginning, industry, commerce, and transportation defined the city. It was the commercial center of the Confederacy during the Civil War, part of the “New South,” and by the late 20th century the commercial core and airline hub of the southern Sunbelt.

Largely destroyed during the Civil War, Atlanta took as its symbol the legendary Phoenix as it emerged out of devastation to become the leading city of the “New South.” The spirit of entrepreneurship and the prominent role played by its commercial elite forged a city with a determination to continue its dramatic economic development and population growth. By 1870, the city's population had more than doubled (to 21,789) over its 1860 figure. Aiding Atlanta's progress was its designation as state capital in 1868, the repairing and extension of the rail lines, and its marketing and processing facilities, especially in regard to cotton.

Other than commerce, the major aspect of Atlanta's success has been image. The city's business elite was protective of Atlanta's progressive reputation in regard to welcoming Northern capital, emphasizing growth, and claiming better race relations than elsewhere in the South. Boosterism has been the city's hallmark into the present day. The International Cotton Exposition (1881), in which Henry Grady, of the Atlanta Constitution, was an important voice for the New South, indicated the central place of the city in southern industrial and commercial growth, and the Cotton States and International Exposition (1895) in which Booker T. Washington offered his “Atlanta Compromise” speech calling for social separation of the races but unity in economic progress forged Atlanta's identification with business growth and racial harmony.

The business aspect was correct, but racial togetherness was never a realistic description of Atlanta's history. Most notable was the 1906 race riot—a brutal 4-day attack on the black community that resulted in numerous casualties. The result of the riot was to further separate the races as African Americans began congregating on the west side and in the Fourth Ward, especially along Auburn Avenue. “Sweet Auburn,” as it came to be called, became the business center and home to many of the black middle class, most notably the family of Martin Luther King Jr. Another infamous event that brought Atlanta unwelcome national attention was the trial and 1915 lynching of Leo Frank, a Jewish American, in close-by Marietta, which led to both the creation of the Antidefamation League of B'nai B'rith and the reemergence of the Ku Klux Klan, with its initial meeting on nearby Stone Mountain and its national offices in Atlanta.

Atlanta during the early 20th century evidenced serious racial and ethnic bigotry and violence. However, its entrepreneurial spirit was to eventually cross most barriers to growth. A major fire in 1917 that destroyed a good part of the east side (73 square blocks) barely slowed the city's development and boosterism as it marched onward with the Chamber of Commerce's “Forward Atlanta” campaign of the 1920s. The effort to market Atlanta, as well as to govern it, was the work of a relatively small number of interconnected white families who had school, marriage, economic, and background ties. This elite, which included the heads of various companies—Coca Cola, Haverty's Furniture, Rich's Department Store, and others—guided the city with their vision of what [Page 51]represented good, efficient, beneficial leadership. Many firms relocated to Atlanta, drawn by the campaign ads'claims of good weather, a readyto-work and cheap labor force, and effective transportation connections. The 1930s Depression temporarily dampened the 1920s economic boom but brought some benefits as well. The New Deal gave Atlanta the nation's first federal public housing projects, but the new housing maintained the segregated housing patterns already evident in the city. Techwood Homes, designated as a whiteonly project, opened in 1936; its black counterpart, University Homes, opened in 1937. Replacing slum housing, these projects became the prototype for other cities. The 1920s economic growth restarted during World War II. War industries such as the Bell Bomber plant (the precursor to Lockheed) in Marietta brought larger numbers of workers to the city and metropolitan areas as did army bases and military supply depots.

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