The U.S. Civil Rights Trail marks over 120 landmarks across 14 states for travelers to visit. By Allison Joyner A new work detailing some of the better-known and not-so-apparent important locations of the Civil Rights Movement is now available for purchase. The U.S. Official Civil Rights Trail Companion Book compliments a website that follows a […]
Tag: Atlanta
Not so fast
This week’s story comes to us from Saporta Report reader and all-around Atlanta history buff Greg Hodges who wrote to ask if we knew the story of Richard Petty’s 1959 victory at Atlanta’s Lakewood Speedway. We did not and it turns out that it is just our kind of story. Long-time Atlantans will remember the […]
The value of getting involved
A graduate of the school now known as Spelman College, she was a teacher in Atlanta and the mother of a young son. Searching for a way for parents in Atlanta – and elsewhere – to get involved in their chilren’s schooling, she laid the groundwork for an education icon.
Atlanta Pride: How Impulse Atlanta is using traditional and non-traditional tactics to help in the fight against HIV/AIDS
This affinity group of the AIDS Health Foundation promotes sexual health and lifestyle wellness using modern social approaches. By Allison Joyner With the growing number of HIV/AIDS cases in the metro, the Atlanta chapter of AIDS Health Foundation affinity group, Impulse, helps gay men with awareness and treatment. Rig Rush is the director of marketing […]
A once in a lifetime visit, and then it was gone
When the 1895 Cotton States Exposition opened in Atlanta over 120 years ago, it represented the culmination of years of planning and fund raising on the part of the exposition’s organizers. It was a big-time undertaking costing over $2 million dollars, which, by today’s currency standards, equates to around $57 million dollars. The exposition was […]
Juneteenth: Where to celebrate and why
Several events are scheduled to commemorate the holiday that celebrates the official end to slavery all over the metro area. By Allison Joyner With the rise of social justice for African Americans currently at the forefront of people’s minds, people are excited to celebrate the upcoming Juneteenth holiday all over the Atlanta metro area. “The […]
Reporter’s Notebook: Part-time pedestrian paradise coming to Edgewood
Georgia on My Mind … In 1930, musicians Hoagy Carmichael and Stuart Gorrell wrote the now-classic song. Many artists recorded the song over the years, but Ray Charles put it on the map. After Charles performed “Georgia on My Mind” for the Georgia General Assembly in 1979, it was named the state’s official song. The […]
South River Forest: A big green dream starts coming true
A lovely June morning was the perfect time for a nature hike in southeast Atlanta, but the starting point was a bit of a surprise. A small group traversed the tire-doughnut scars in the parking lot of the Value Village shopping center at Moreland and Custer avenues, parked behind its graffiti-covered loading docks, passed through […]
The perseverance of Morris Brown College: A bright future ahead
As Dr. Kevin James began his tenure at the Historically Black institution, Morris Brown College was trying to retain its accreditation that was forfeited almost twenty years ago. This third and final installment of this series looks at the work done by James and his administration. By Allison Joyner One year after being the interim […]
A controversial approach
In 1895, Atlanta put its best foot forward for all to see with the Cotton States and International Exposition. It was a coming out party of sorts for Atlanta and designed to show the world that Atlanta had moved past its pre-civil war mentality and had taken its rightful place as the leader of the […]
Atlanta region maintains its spot as a Fortune 500 HQ city
By Maria Saporta Metro Atlanta maintained its position as a hub for Fortune 500 headquarters with 16 companies, according to the latest 2021 ranking from Fortune Magazine. HD Supply, which has been reacquired by the Home Depot, dropped off the list. But Global Payments, which merged with Columbus-based TSYS in 2019, made the list. Two […]
Atlanta Jazz Festival – Piedmont Park – Memorial Day Weekend 2019
Note: continuing a series about great Atlanta events that were canceled or postponed in 2021, and will hopefully return in full force in 2022. Kelly
The perseverance of Morris Brown College: The aftermath of the withdraw
With their accreditation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools revoked, the prosecution of their former president, and the mountain of debt piling up, the Historically Black institution had to pull itself out of an ever-deepening hole. By Allison Joyner As the reaction to the only HBCU in Georgia founded by Blacks losing its […]
Atlanta City Councilman Antonio Brown says children stole his car in broad daylight
While Atlanta leaders and political hopefuls are working to rein in local criminals, a Wednesday afternoon car theft case has proved that elected officials aren’t impervious to what Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms has called a “COVID crime wave.”
The return of “Uncle Billy”
In November of 1864, having occupied Atlanta for a little over two months, William Sherman left the city to continue his march to the sea. About three miles out, he paused briefly and gazed back at Atlanta. Years later he wrote of that moment, “Behind us lay Atlanta smoldering and in ruins, the black smoke […]
