Archive Atlanta

This week’s mini episode is about the Atlanta Sports Arena, which once stood on Chester Avenue in today’s Reynoldstown neighborhood.  This is a story of basketball, boxing, wrestling, amateur sports, square dancing, 70s rock bands and Muhammad Ali.
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This week, I’m checking off another Atlanta pillar of higher education, the famed Morehouse College. We’re covering its earliest iteration in Augusta, GA, its move to Atlanta, its first deans, presidents and professors, famous graduates and important buildings - we are talking about as much as we can in 20 minutes!
Morehouse Graduates
Maroon Tiger Archives
 
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If you’ve been listening for a while, you know that I do my best to cover all facets of Atlanta history and I’m also terrible at planning specific episodes to coincide with national events, holidays, etc. But I could not let Black History Month pass by without an episode about the city’s Black history. This week, I am re-sharing my episode from June of 2019 about Atlanta’s African American Hospitals. While the audio is certainly not the best of quality, this topic is still relevant and important and the buildings that I mentioned 4 years ago and are still standing today.
Emory TedX
https://linktr.ee/ArchiveAtlanta
 
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This week mini episode is all about Atlanta’s original hippie community of the 1960s. When they arrived, who they were, the businesses they started and patronized, the clashes with government and local police and the community’s eventual demise. 
 
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Many of us live, work and/or play in buildings that were dedicated fallout shelters during the Cold War. This week, I am covering the federal, state and local response to the Cold War, and how the fallout shelter craze played out in Atlanta.
 
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There are so many stories from American history that, while not centered solely in Atlanta, have connections to this city. This week, I sharing the story of the U.S. Marine Corps first Black Marines, from the lens of those that enlisted in Atlanta. A dozen Black Marines served in the Revolutionary War, but from 1798 until 1942, enrollment in the corps was denied to Black men. 
In May of 1942, the Secretary of the Navy announced plans for the recruitment of 900 Black Marines to begin in June of that year. In Atlanta, any Black man, between the ages of 17 and 29 who wanted to enlist went to the second floor of the Rialto Theater. Of the first 6 Georgians to enlist, 5 lived in Atlanta.
Montford Point Marines Chapter 5
 
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With support from the National & Georgia Trusts for Historic Preservation, Mailchimp, and the Department of Community Affairs, Historic Atlanta and the City of Atlanta kicked off an initiative in early 2022 to create an LGBTQ Context Statement, which will identify, document and ultimately lead to preservation of neighborhoods, public spaces and individual buildings associated with Atlanta’s LGTBQ+ community.
New South Associates has been engaged to complete this study, and I had the pleasure of interviewing historians Wes Nimmo and Patrick Sullivan to get a sneak peak of the stories they’ve discovered and documented. 
In Part II, we talked about RuPaul, the Atlanta Lesbian Feminist Alliance, the first Pride march and parade, Cheshire Bridge Road, Wes and Patrick’s favorite buildings, the oldest, continually-occupied LGBTQ space in the city, places that existed for minority LGBTQ Atlantans and so much more.
Project Website
 
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With support from the National & Georgia Trusts for Historic Preservation, Mailchimp, and the Department of Community Affairs, Historic Atlanta and the City of Atlanta kicked off an initiative in early 2022 to create an LGBTQ Context Statement, which will identify, document and ultimately lead to preservation of neighborhoods, public spaces and individual buildings associated with Atlanta’s LGTBQ+ community.
New South Associates has been engaged to complete this study, and I had the pleasure of interviewing historians Wes Nimmo and Patrick Sullivan to get a sneak peak of the stories they’ve discovered and documented. 
In this week’s Part I, we talk about what a context study is, the first documented drag performance in 1895, the city’s first lesbian bar, the complexities of researching LGTBQ history, the first gay-affirming church in the US which was downtown and so much more.
Project Website
 
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This week, we’re talking about the history of the telephone - when and where it arrived in Atlanta, the buildings that were built, the different technologies, long distance and area codes. Can you imagine a time when calling Decatur was long distance? Or when every county in the state of Georgia shared the 404 area code? Tune in for these stories and many more!
atlantatelephonehistory.org
 
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Replaying this episode from February of 2021, as the City of Atlanta has restarted public meetings to discuss updating our zoning. 
Atlanta’s Office of Housing & Community Development recently created a revised zoning plan and I got to interview director Josh Humphries to find out some history, the new plan's details and next governmental steps. 
By 2050 Atlanta expects our population to (more than) double and right now, we're the 316th densest city in the US...so there is room to grow and it’s up to Atlanta residents to decide how that growth is going to happen - will we continue to be the one of the most racially and economically segregated in county, or will we have a place where all different income levels live in the same neighborhoods? 
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