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Thehistory of Atlanta dates back to 1836, whenGeorgia decided to build a railroad to theU.S. Midwest and a location was chosen to be the line's terminus. The name also may have been a nod to the local legend that the mythical City of Atlantis emerged nearby. This idea was propounded by American explorerJohn C. Fremont when discussing with localNative American tribes. The stake marking the founding of "Terminus" was driven into the ground in 1837 (called theZero Mile Post). In 1839, homes and a store were built there and the settlement grew. Between 1845 and 1854, rail lines arrived from four different directions, and the rapidly growing town quickly became the rail hub for the entireSouthern United States. During theAmerican Civil War, Atlanta, as a distribution hub, became the target of amajor Union campaign, and in 1864, UnionWilliam Sherman's troops set on fire and destroyed the city's assets and buildings, save for churches and hospitals. After the war, the population grew rapidly, as did manufacturing, while the city retained its role as a rail hub. Coca-Cola was launched here in 1886 and grew into an Atlanta-based world empire. Electric streetcars arrived in 1889,^[1] and the city added new "streetcar suburbs".

The city's elite black colleges were founded between 1865 and 1885, and despite disenfranchisement and the later imposition ofJim Crow laws in the 1910s, a prosperousblack middle class andupper class emerged. By the early 20th century,"Sweet" Auburn Avenue was called "the most prosperous Negro street in the nation". In the 1950s, black people started moving into city neighborhoods that had previously kept them out, while Atlanta's first freeways enabled large numbers of whites to move to, and commute from, new suburbs. Atlanta was home toMartin Luther King Jr., and a major center for theCivil Rights Movement. Resulting desegregation occurred in stages over the 1960s. Slums were razed and the newAtlanta Housing Authority built public-housing projects.

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 newGeorgia 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 theMARTA 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 theSummer Olympics, for which new facilities and infrastructure were built. Hometown airlineDelta continued to grow, and by 1998-1999,Atlanta's airport was the busiest in the world. Since the mid-1990s,gentrification has given new life to many of the city'sintown neighborhoods. The 2010 census showed affluent black people leaving the city for newer exurban properties and growing suburban towns, younger whites moving back to the city, and a much more diverse metropolitan area with heaviest growth in the exurbs at its outer edges.

The region where Atlanta and its suburbs were built was originallyCreek andCherokeeNative American territory. In 1813, the Creeks, who had been recruited by the British to assist them in theWar of 1812, attacked and burnedFort Mims in southwesternAlabama. The conflict broadened and became known as theCreek War. In response, the United States built a string of forts along theOcmulgee andChattahoochee Rivers, including Fort Daniel on top of Hog Mountain near present-dayDacula, Georgia, and Fort Gilmer.^[2]

Fort Gilmer was situated next to an important Indian site calledStanding Peachtree, aCreek Indian village. The site traditionally marked a Native American meeting place at the boundary between Creek and Cherokee lands, at the point wherePeachtree Creek flows into the Chattahoochee. The fort was soon renamed Fort Peachtree. A road was built linking Fort Peachtree and Fort Daniel following the route of existing trails.^[2]

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, theGeorgia 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, andDecatur 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 renamedWest End in 1867 and is the oldest intactVictorian neighborhood of Atlanta.^{[citation needed]}

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 theTreaty of New Echota, an act that led to theTrail of Tears.^{[citation needed]}

In 1836, theGeorgia General Assembly voted to build theWestern and Atlantic Railroad to provide a link between theport ofSavannah and theMidwest.^[9] The initial route of that state-sponsored project was to run fromChattanooga, Tennessee, to a spot east of theChattahoochee River, in present-dayFulton County. The plan was to eventually link up with theGeorgia Railroad fromAugusta, and with theMacon and Western Railroad, which ran betweenMacon and Savannah. AU.S. Army engineer, Colonel Stephen Harriman Long, was asked to recommend the location where the Western and Atlantic line would terminate. He surveyed various possible routes, then in the autumn of 1837, drove a stake into the ground between what are now Forsyth Street and Andrew Young International Boulevard, about three or four blocks northwest of today'sFive Points.^[10][11] The zero milepost was later placed to mark that spot.^[12][13]

In 1839,John Thrasher built homes and ageneral store in this vicinity, and the settlement was nicknamed Thrasherville. A marker identifies the location of Thrasherville at 104Marietta Street, NW, in front of theState Bar of Georgia Building, between Spring and Cone Streets.^[14](33°45.409′N84°23.542′W / 33.756817°N 84.392367°W /33.756817; -84.392367 (Thrasherville marker))^[15] At this point, Thrasher built theMonroe 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 indowntown Atlanta.^[10]

In 1842, the planned terminus location was moved, four blocks southeast (two to three blocks southeast of Five Points), to what would becomeState Square, on Wall Street between Central Avenue and Pryor Street. (33°45.141′N84°23.317′W / 33.752350°N 84.388617°W /33.752350; -84.388617 (Zero milepost marker)). At this location, thezero milepost can now be found, adjacent to the southern entrance ofUnderground Atlanta.^[13] As the settlement grew, it became known as Terminus, literally meaning "end of the line". By 1842, the settlement at Terminus had six buildings and 30 residents.

Meanwhile, settlement began at what became theBuckhead 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, afterGovernorWilson Lumpkin. Gov. Lumpkin asked them to name it after his young daughter (Martha Atalanta Lumpkin) instead, and Terminus becameMarthasville;^[16] it was officially incorporated on December 23, 1843. In 1845, the chief engineer of the Georgia Railroad (J. Edgar Thomson) suggested that Marthasville be renamed "Atlantica-Pacifica", which was quickly shortened to "Atlanta". Wilson Lumpkin seems to have supported the change, reporting that Martha's middle name wasAtalanta.^[17]

The residents approved the name change, apparently undaunted by the fact that not a single train had yet visited. Act 109 of theGeorgia General Assembly enacted the name change, which was approved December 26, 1845,^[18] and signed into law 3 days afterward. In the same act, the election precinct known as the Whitehall precinct (in the home of Charner Humphries) was also changed to Atlanta. In 1847, thecity's charter was approved, elections were held, and the first slate ofcouncilmen and themayor took office in January 1848.

AN ACT to change the name of Marthasville, inDeKalb 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

The firstGeorgia Railroad freight and passenger trains fromAugusta (to the east of Atlanta), arrived in September 1845 and in that year the first hotel, theAtlanta 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, theMacon & Western (orig. "Monroe Railroad"), completed tracks to Terminus/Atlanta, connecting the little settlement withMacon to the south andSavannah to the southeast. The town then began to boom. In late 1846, theWashington Hall hotel was opened. By 1847, the population had reached 2,500. In 1848, the town elected its first mayor and appointed its first town marshal, German M. Lester,^[22] coinciding with the first homicide and the first jail built. A new city council approved the building of wooden sidewalks and banned conducting business on Sundays. In 1849, Atlanta's third and largest antebellum hotel was built, theTrout House, and theDaily Intelligencer became the town's first successful daily newspaper. In 1850Oakland Cemetery was founded southeast of town, where it remains today within the city limits.

In 1851, a third rail line, theWestern and Atlantic Railroad - for which the site of Atlanta had been identified as a terminus - finally arrived, connecting Atlanta toChattanooga in the northwest and opening up Georgia to trade with theTennessee andOhio River Valleys, and the American Midwest. Theunion depot was completed in 1853 onState Square. That year, the depot's architect,Edward A. Vincent, also delivered Atlanta's first official map to the city council.

Fulton County was established in 1853 from the western section ofDeKalb, 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'sState Capitol building. (After the Civil War, theGeorgia General Assembly decided to move thestate capital fromMilledgeville to Atlanta.)^[10]: 370

In 1854, a fourth rail line, the Atlanta and LaGrange Rail Road (laterAtlanta & West Point Railroad) arrived, connecting Atlanta withLaGrange, Georgia, to the southwest, sealing Atlanta's role as a rail hub for the entire South, with lines to the northwest, east, southeast, and southwest.

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.

The first true manufacturing establishment was opened in 1844, whenJonathan Norcross, who later became mayor of Atlanta, arrived in Marthasville and built a sawmill.Richard Peters,Lemuel Grant, andJohn 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]

TheAtlanta Rolling Mill (later the "Confederate" Rolling Mill) was built in 1858 nearOakland Cemetery. It soon became the South's second-most productiverolling mill. During theAmerican Civil War it rolled out cannon, iron rail, and 2-inch-thick (51 mm) sheets of iron to clad theCSSVirginia for theConfederate navy. The mill was destroyed by theUnion Army in 1864.^[10]: 427

The city became a busy center forcotton distribution. As an example, in 1859, theGeorgia Railroad alone sent 3,000 empty rail cars to the city to be loaded with cotton.^[25]: 18

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]

In 1850, out of 2,572 people, 493 were enslavedAfrican Americans, and 18 werefree blacks, for a total black population of 20%.^[26] The black proportion of Atlanta's population became much higher after the Civil War, when freed slaves came to Atlanta in search of opportunity.

Severalslave auction houses were in the town, which advertised in the newspapers and many of which also traded in manufactured goods.

During theAmerican Civil War, Atlanta served as an important railroad and military supply hub. (See also:Atlanta in the Civil War.) In 1864, the city became the target of amajor Union invasion (the setting for the 1939 filmGone with the Wind). The area now covered by Atlanta was the scene of several battles, including theBattle of Peachtree Creek, theBattle of Atlanta, and theBattle of Ezra Church. General Sherman cut the last supply line to Atlanta at theBattle of Jonesboro fought on August 31 – September 1.^[27]

With all of his supply lines cut,Confederate GeneralJohn Bell Hood was forced to abandon Atlanta. On the night of September 1, his troops marched out of the city toLovejoy, Georgia. General Hood ordered that the 81 rail cars filled with ammunition and other military supplies be destroyed. The resulting fire and explosions were heard for miles.^[28] The next day, MayorJames Calhoun surrendered the city,^[29] and on September 7 Sherman ordered the civilian population to evacuate.^[30][31] He then ordered Atlanta burned to the ground on November 11 in preparation for his punitive march south.

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 inSherman'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 theBattle of Mobile Bay, the fall of Atlanta led to the re-election ofAbraham Lincoln and the eventual surrender of the Confederacy.

The city emerged from the ashes – hence the city's symbol, thephoenix – 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; theAMA helped fill the gap with food, shelter, and clothing, and the federally sponsoredFreedmen'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. Some1⁄8-acre (510 m²) to1⁄4-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 tode facto segregation, with most black people settling inthree shantytown areas at the city's edge. There, housing was substandard; anAMA missionary remarked that many houses were "rickety shacks" rented at inflated rates. Two of the three shantytowns sat in low-lying areas, prone to flooding and sewage overflows, which resulted in outbreaks of disease in the late 19th century.^[34] A shantytown namedTight Squeeze developed at Peachtree at what is now 10th Street inMidtown Atlanta. It was infamous for vagrancy, desperation, and robberies of merchants transiting the settlement.^[35][36]

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 renamedFort McPherson) in southwest Atlanta to ensureReconstruction-era reforms. In 1868, Atlanta became the Georgia state capital, taking over fromMilledgeville.

Atlanta quickly became a center of black education.Atlanta University was established in 1865, the forerunner ofMorehouse College in 1867,Clark University in 1869,Spelman College in 1881, andMorris Brown College in 1881. This was one of several factors aiding the establishment of one of the nation's oldest and best-establishedAfrican-American elite in Atlanta.

Henry W. Grady, the editor of theAtlanta Constitution, promoted the city to investors as a city of the "New South", by which he meant a diversification of the economy away from agriculture, and a shift from the "Old South" attitudes of slavery and rebellion. As part of the effort to modernize the South, Grady and many others also supported the creation of theGeorgia School of Technology (now the Georgia Institute of Technology), which was founded on the city's northern outskirts in 1885. With Grady's support, theConfederate Soldiers' Home was built in 1889.

In 1880, Sister Cecilia Carroll, RSM, and three companions traveled from Savannah, Georgia to Atlanta to minister to the sick. With just 50 cents in their collective purse^{[citation needed]}, the sisters opened the Atlanta Hospital, the first medical facility in the city after the Civil War. This later became known as Saint Joseph's Hospital.

Starting in 1871,horse-drawn, and later, starting in 1888, electric streetcars fueled real estate development andthe city's expansion.Washington Street south of downtown andPeachtree Street north of the central business district became wealthy residential areas.

In the 1890s,West End became the suburb of choice for the city's elite, butInman Park, planned as a harmonious whole, soon overtook it in prestige. Peachtree Street's mansions reached ever further north into what is now Midtown Atlanta, includingAmos G. Rhodes' (founder of theRhodes Furniture Company in 1875) mansion,Rhodes Hall, which can still be visited.

Atlanta surpassed Savannah as Georgia's largest city by 1880.

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 apoll 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.

The identities of Atlanta andCoca-Cola have been intertwined since 1886, whenJohn Pemberton developed the soft drink in response to Atlanta and Fulton County going "dry". The first sales were at Jacob's Pharmacy in Atlanta.Asa Griggs Candler acquired a stake in Pemberton's company in 1887 and incorporated it as theCoca Cola Company in 1888.^[37] In 1892, Candler incorporated a second company,The Coca-Cola Company, the current corporation. By the time of its 50th anniversary, the drink had reached the status of a national icon in the USA. Coca-Cola's world headquarters have remained in Atlanta ever since. In 1991, the company opened theWorld of Coca-Cola, which has remained one of the city's top visitor attractions.

In 1895, theCotton States and International Exposition was held at what is nowPiedmont 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. PresidentGrover Cleveland presided over the opening of the exposition, but the event is best remembered for the both hailed and criticized"Atlanta Compromise" speech given byBooker 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.

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 the1906 Atlanta race riot, which left at least 27 people dead^[38] (25 of them black) and over 70 injured. Many Black businesses were destroyed.^[39][40]

Black businesses started to move from the previously integrated business district downtown to the relative safety of the area around theAtlanta University Center west of downtown, and to Auburn Avenue in theFourth Ward east of downtown."Sweet" Auburn Avenue became home toAlonzo Herndon'sAtlanta Mutual, the city's first black-owned life insurance company, and to a celebrated concentration of black businesses, newspapers, churches, and nightclubs. In 1956,Fortune magazine called Sweet Auburn "the richest Negro street in the world", a phrase originally coined by civil-rights leaderJohn Wesley Dobbs.^[41] Sweet Auburn and Atlanta'selite black colleges formed the nexus of a prosperousblack middle class andupper class, which arose despite enormous social and legal obstacles.

Jim Crow laws were passed in swift succession in the years after the riot. The result was in some cases segregated facilities, with nearly always inferior conditions for black customers. In many cases it resulted in no facilities at all available to black people, e.g. all parks were designated whites-only (although a private park,Joyland, opened in 1921). In 1910, the city council passed an ordinance requiring that restaurants be designated for one race only, hobbling black restaurant owners who had been attracting both black and white customers.^[42]

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 theNew 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]

ManyAppalachian 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 thrivingcountry-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.

In 1914,Asa Griggs Candler, the founder ofThe Coca-Cola Company and brother to former Emory PresidentWarren Candler, persuaded theMethodist Episcopal Church South to build the new campus ofEmory University in the emerging affluent suburb ofDruid Hills, which borders northeastern Atlanta.

In 1916, Candler was elected mayor of Atlanta (taking office in 1917). As mayor he balanced the city budget and coordinated rebuilding efforts after theGreat 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 toEmory University,^[46]) and theCandler Hospital inSavannah, Georgia. Candler had paid to relocate Emory University fromOxford, Georgia, to Atlanta.^[47]

On May 21, 1917, theGreat Atlanta Fire destroyed 1,938 buildings, mostly wooden, in what is now theOld Fourth Ward. The fire resulted in 10,000 people becoming homeless. Only one person died, a woman who died of a heart attack when seeing her home in ashes.

In the 1930s, theGreat 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 establishingTechwood Homes, the nation's first federalhousing 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,Ann Burlak, Herbert Newton, and Henry Storey. During the summer of 1930, approximately 150 Atlanta business leaders, American Legion members, and members of law enforcement founded the American Fascisti Association and Order of the Black Shirts with the goal to "foster the principles of white supremacy".^[48]

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 attorneyBenjamin 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]

On December 15, 1939, Atlanta hosted the premiere ofGone with the Wind, the movie based on Atlanta residentMargaret Mitchell's best-selling novel. StarsClark Gable,Vivien Leigh, andOlivia de Havilland were in attendance. The premiere was held atLoew's Grand Theatre, at Peachtree and Forsyth Streets, current site of theGeorgia-Pacific building. An enormous crowd, numbering 300,000 people according to theAtlanta Constitution, filled the streets on an ice-cold night in Atlanta. A rousing ovation greeted a group ofConfederate veterans who were guests of honor.

Noticeably absent wasHattie McDaniel, who won theAcademy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Mammy, as well asButterfly McQueen (Prissy). The black actors were barred from attending the premiere, from appearing in thesouvenir program, and from all the film's advertising in the South. DirectorDavid Selznick had attempted to bring McDaniel to the premiere, butMGM advised him not to do so. Clark Gable angrily threatened to boycott the premiere, but McDaniel convinced him to attend, anyway.^[49] McDaniel did attend the Hollywood debut thirteen days later, and was featured prominently in the program.^[50]

Martin Luther King Jr. sang at the gala as part of a children's choir of his father's church, Ebenezer Baptist.^[51] The boys dressed aspickaninnies and the girls wore "Aunt Jemima"-style bandanas, the dress seen by many black people as humiliating.^[52][53]John Wesley Dobbs tried to dissuade Rev.Martin Luther King Sr., from participating at the whites-only event, and Rev. King was harshly criticized in the black community.

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

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

Atlanta played a vital role in the Allied effort duringWorld War II. ColonelBlake Van Leer the president of Georgia Tech played a significant part by lobbying war-related manufacturing companies like Lockheed Martin to move to Atlanta, successfully lobbying the Government to build military bases, in turn helping attract thousands of new residents through new jobs. Van Leer also launched major research centers, which includedNeely Nuclear Research Center and funds to help make Georgia Tech the "MIT" of the south while also foundingSouthern Polytechnic State University.^[54][55][56]

In 1951, the city received theAll-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 annexedBuckhead 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 theAtlanta Negro Voters League.^[57]

In the late 1950s, after forced-housing patterns^{[clarification needed]} were outlawed, violence, intimidation, and organized political pressure were used in some white neighborhoods to discourage black people from buying homes there. However, by the late 1950s, such efforts proved futile asblockbusting drove whites to sell their homes in neighborhoods such asAdamsville,Center Hill,Grove Park in northwest Atlanta, and white sections ofEdgewood andKirkwood on the east side. In 1961, the city attempted to thwart blockbusting by erecting road barriers inCascade Heights, countering the efforts of civic and business leaders to foster Atlanta as the "city too busy to hate".^[58][59]

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.East Lake,Kirkwood,Watts Road,Reynoldstown,Almond Park,Mozley Park,Center Hill, andCascade 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.^[60]

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 notablyNewt Gingrich.^[61]

In the wake of the landmarkU.S. Supreme Court decisionBrown v. Board of Education, which helped usher in theCivil Rights Movement, racial tensions in Atlanta erupted in acts of violence. One such instance occurred on October 12, 1958, whena Reform Jewish temple on Peachtree Street was bombed. A group ofwhite 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.^[62]

In January 1956,Bobby Grier became the first black player to participate in theSugar Bowl. He is also regarded as the first black player to compete at a bowl game in theDeep South, though others such asWallace Triplett had played in games like the 1948 Cotton Bowl in Dallas. Grier's team, the Pittsburgh Panthers, was set to play against the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. However, Georgia's GovernorMarvin Griffin beseeched Georgia Tech's presidentBlake 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 by Georgia Tech, locals and University of Georgia students. The protests quickly turned into a riot. The students broke windows, upturned parking meters, hung Griffin in effigy, and marched all the way to the governor's mansion, surrounding it until 3:30 a.m. Griffin publicly blamed Georgia Tech's President for the "riots" and requested he be replaced and Georgia Tech's state funding be cut off. 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.

.^[63][64] 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. After the game, Grier was invited by Georgia Tech's president and players to dinner at the segregated St. Charles Hotel. Grier stated that he has mostly positive memories about the experience, including the support from teammates and letters from all over the world. President Van Leer would die two weeks later, his family publicly stated it was from the stress of this event and death threats.^[65]

In the 1960s, Atlanta was a major organizing center of the Civil Rights Movement, withMartin 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 candidateJohn F. Kennedy.^{[citation needed]}

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.^{[citation needed]}

Desegregation of the public sphere came in stages, with buses andtrolleybuses desegregated in 1959,^[66] restaurants atRich's department store in 1961,^[67] (thoughLester Maddox's Pickrick restaurant famously remained segregated through 1964),^[68] and movie theaters in 1962–3.^[69][70] While in 1961, MayorIvan 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.^[71]

In 1962, Atlanta in general and its arts community in particular were shaken by the deaths of 106 people onAir France charter flight007, which crashed. TheAtlanta Art Association had sponsored a month-long tour of the art treasures of Europe. 106^[72] of the tour members were heading home to Atlanta on the flight. The group included many of Atlanta's cultural and civic leaders. Atlanta mayorIvan Allen Jr. went to Orly, France, to inspect the crash site where so many important Atlantans perished.^[73] The loss was a catalyst for the arts in Atlanta and helped create theWoodruff 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 aRodin sculpture,The Shade, to theHigh in memory of the victims of the crash.^[74]

The crash occurred during the Civil Rights Movement and affected it, as well. Martin Luther King Jr., andHarry Belafonte announced cancellation of asit-in in downtown Atlanta as a conciliatory gesture to the grieving city, whileNation of Islam leaderMalcolm X gained widespread national attention for the first time by expressing joy over the deaths of the all-white group.^[75]

Atlanta's freeway system was completed in the 1950s and 1960s, with thePerimeter completed in 1969. Historic neighborhoods such asWashington-Rawson andCopenhill were damaged or destroyed in the process. Additional proposed freeways were never built due to theprotests of city residents. The opposition lasted three decades, with then-governorJimmy Carter playing a key role in stoppingI-485 throughMorningside andVirginia Highland toInman Park in 1973, but pushing hard in the 1980s for a"Presidential Parkway" between downtown, the newCarter Center, andDruid Hills/Emory.

In the 1960s, slums such asButtermilk Bottom near today's Civic Center were razed, in principle to build better housing, but much of the land remained empty until the 1980s, when mixed-income communities were built in what was renamedBedford 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 asU-Rescue emerged to address the lack of housing for poor black people.^{[citation needed]}

The first major mall built in Atlanta wasLenox Square in Buckhead, opening in August 1959. From 1964 until 1973, nine major malls opened, most at the Perimeter freeway:Cobb Center in 1963,Columbia Mall in 1964,North DeKalb andGreenbriar malls in 1965,South DeKalb Mall in 1968,Phipps Plaza (near Lenox Square) in 1969,Perimeter andNorthlake malls in 1971, andCumberland Mall in 1973.Downtown Atlanta became less and less a shopping destination for the area's shoppers.Rich's closed its flagship store downtown in 1991, leaving government offices the major presence in theSouth Downtown area around it.^{[citation needed]}

On the north side of Five Points, Downtown continued as thelargest concentration of office space in Metro Atlanta, though it began to compete with Midtown, Buckhead, and the suburbs. The first four towers ofPeachtree Center were built in 1965–1967, including theHyatt Regency Atlanta, designed byJohn Portman, with its 22-story atrium. In total, 17 buildings of more than 15n floors were built in the 1960s.^[76] The center of gravity of Downtown Atlanta correspondingly moved north from theFive Points area towardsPeachtree Center.^{[citation needed]}

Atlanta's convention and hotel facilities also grew immensely.John C. Portman Jr. designed and opened what is now theAmericasMart 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 byWestin in 1976, and theMarriott in 1985. TheOmni Coliseum opened in 1976, as did theGeorgia 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]}

In 1960, whites comprised 61.7% of the city's population.^[77] 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 theAtlanta 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 theHartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in his honor shortly after his death, also named after him is the newMaynard Holbrook Jackson Jr. International Terminal which opened in May 2012. He alsofought against the construction of freeways through intown neighborhoods.

In 1965, an act of theGeorgia General Assembly created theMetropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority, orMARTA, which was to provide rapid transit for the five largest metropolitan counties:DeKalb, Fulton,Clayton,Gwinnett, andCobb, 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".^[78] In 1972, the agency bought the existing, bus-onlyAtlanta Transit Company.^[79]

Construction began on the new rail system in 1975. Service started in June 1979, running east–west fromGeorgia State University downtown toAvondale. TheFive Points downtown hub opened later that year. A short north–south line opened in 1981, which by 1984 had been extended to reach fromBrookhaven toLakewood/Fort McPherson. In 1988, the line was extended to astation inside the airport terminal.^[79] A line originally envisioned to run toEmory University isstill under consideration.^[80]

Atlanta was rocked by aseries 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 nativeWayne 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]}

In 1981, after being urged by a number of people, includingCoretta Scott King, the widow of Martin Luther King Jr., Democratic CongressmanAndrew Young ran formayor ofAtlanta. He was elected later that year with 55% of the vote, succeedingMaynard 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 renamedZoo 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 the1988 Democratic National Convention during Young's tenure. He was prohibited byterm 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.

In November 1994, the Atlanta Empowerment Zone was established, a 10-year, $250 million federal program to revitalize Atlanta's 34 poorest neighborhoods includingThe Bluff. Scathing reports from both the U.S.Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Georgia Department of Community Affairs revealed corruption, waste, bureaucratic incompetence, and specifically called out interference by mayorBill Campbell.^[81][82]

In 1993-1996 about 250,000 people attendedFreaknik, 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.

In 1990, theInternational Olympic Committee selected Atlanta as the site for the1996 Summer Olympics. Following the announcement, Atlanta undertook several major construction projects to improve the city's parks, sports facilities, and transportation, including the completion of long-contestedFreedom Parkway. Former MayorBill Campbell allowed many "tent cities" to be built, creating a carnival atmosphere around the games. Atlanta became the third American city to host the Summer Olympics, afterSt. Louis (1904 Summer Olympics) andLos Angeles (1932,1984, and2028).

The games themselves were notable in the realm of sporting events, but they were marred by numerous organizational inefficiencies. A dramatic event was theCentennial Olympic Park bombing, in which two people died, one from a heart attack, and several others were injured.Eric Robert Rudolph was later convicted of the bombing as an anti-government and pro-life protest.

Shirley Franklin's 2001 run for mayor was her first run for public office. She won, succeeding MayorBill 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.^[83]

Franklin made repairing the Atlantasewer system a main focus of her office. Prior to Franklin's term, Atlanta'scombined sewer system violated the federalClean Water Act and burdened the city government with fines from theEnvironmental Protection Agency. In 2002, Franklin announced an initiative called "Clean Water Atlanta" to address the problem and begin improving the city's sewer system.^[84]

She has been lauded for efforts to make the City of Atlanta "green". Under Franklin's leadership Atlanta has gone from having one of the lowest percentages ofLEED certified buildings to one of the highest.

In 2005,Time magazine named Franklin of the five best big-city American mayors.^[83] In October of that same year, she was included in theU.S. News & World Report "Best Leaders of 2005" issue.^[85] 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.^[86]

On March 14, 2008, atornado ripped through downtown Atlanta, the first since weather has been recorded in 1880. There was minor damage to many downtown skyscrapers. However, two holes were torn into the roof of theGeorgia Dome, tearing down catwalks and the scoreboard as debris rained onto the court in the middle of an SEC game. TheOmni Hotel suffered major damage, along withCentennial Olympic Park and theGeorgia World Congress Center.Fulton Bag and Cotton Mills andOakland Cemetery were also damaged.

In 2005, the $2.8 billionBeltline 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%.^[87]

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, thethree-mile radius surroundingDowntown Atlanta gained 9,722 residents aged 25 to 34 holding at least a four-year degree, an increase of 61%.^[88][89] Meanwhile, as gentrification spread throughout the city, Atlanta's cultural offerings expanded: theHigh Museum of Art doubled in size; theAlliance Theatre won aTony Award; and numerous art galleries were established on the once-industrialWestside.^[90][91]

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.^[92] While black people exited the city and DeKalb County, the black population increased sharply in other areas of Metro Atlanta by 93.1%.^[93] 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.^[94]

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, toKasim 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.^[94]

In 2009, theAtlanta Public Schools cheating scandal began, whichABC News called the "worst in the country",^[95] resulting in the 2013 indictment of superintendentBeverly Hall.

Starting in October 2011,Occupy Atlanta staged demonstrations against banks andAT&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 byCOVID-19 pandemic. Following the approval of the firstCOVID-19 vaccines inGeorgia, 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 followingGeorge 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^[96] and The College Football Hall of Fame^[97] were vandalized.

In 2021,a series of mass shootings struckmassage 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 inCrisp County, south of Atlanta.^[98]

In 2021, a police training center that critics have calledCop City became controversial. The controversy attracted international attention after a protestor,Manuel Esteban Paez Teran was killed by police in January 2023.^[99]

• 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

• 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.{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
• 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).onlineArchived February 2, 2016, at theWayback Machine; 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).

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

• 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.

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