Culture and Society

Long before workers at Starbucks and Amazon began fighting for the right to collectively bargain, workers at Fulton Bag and Cotton Mills fought to unionize, creating a blueprint for those in the present-day.

For decades silverback gorilla, Willie B., was not only the premier attraction at Zoo Atlanta, but also one of the most famous gorillas in the world. When Willie B. died in 2000, thousands of Atlantans attended his memorial cementing his status as a true Atlanta legend.

When driving down a busy street in Atlanta, you may find yourself on a different road without making a turn. These seemingly nonsensical street name changes are due to past residential segregation practices enacted when white Atlantans did not want to share the same address as Blacks.

Formed in June 1972, the Atlanta Lesbian/Feminist Alliance (ALFA) was established to increase lesbian visibility and solidarity, and to provide means for women to exist outside of society’s sexist institutions. The Kenan Research Center has recently processed several visual collections related LGBTQ+ history, which include photographs related to ALFA.

The Negro Motorist Green Book (later Negro Travelers’ Green Book) was an annual guidebook for African American travelers. First published in 1936, the pamphlet provided a list of Black-friendly restaurants, bars, hotels, clubs, lounges, and services in places across the country including Atlanta.

Atlanta History Center is using our resources to explore the history of the components that make a healthy democratic system, including methods of civic engagement, widespread and informed voter participation, civil rights, and community leadership.

Throughout the civil rights movement in Atlanta, soul food restaurants were hubs of change where civil rights leaders could convene, converse, and strategize, and in times of terror and violence, these places were retreats where leaders could plan their next tactical moves.

Norfolk Southern, one of the nation’s major railroad systems, recently relocated its headquarters to Atlanta. The company celebrated its move with a major donation of archival materials from predecessor company Southern Railway to Atlanta History Center. We look back on the history of Southern Railway and reflect on the importance of this iconic railroad to Atlanta and the Southeast.

Meet Jasmine Nicole—printmaker, muralist, and 2021 Midtown Heart of the Arts artist-in-residence.

Celebrate Atlanta’s rich musicality with this tour of places with ties to hip-hop history.

This month in 1987, Cuban immigrants who had been indefinitely detained at the Atlanta federal penitentiary rioted when they learned the U.S. government planned to return them to Fidel Castro’s Cuba. They held more than 100 prison employees hostage for 11 days and burned part of the prison in an effort to negotiate new immigration trials.

November is National Adoption Month. This month we recognize Atlanta trailblazer Carrie Steele Logan. After being enslaved, Logan went on to establish the Carrie Steele-Pitts Home, the country’s first orphanage for Black children. 

Atlanta History Center records, preserves, and makes accessible the stories of men and women who did serve as well as the civilians who supported them. Their stories allow future generations to hear directly from those who lived through our nation’s conflicts to better appreciate the realities and the sacrifices of war.

Atlanta History Center is home to one of the nation’s most comprehensive collections of Civil War memorabilia including a growing number of rare objects identified specifically with African American USCT soldiers and regiments such as a canteen, swords, a rifle, brass drum, knapsack, Bible, badges, a Medal of Honor, and a USCT flag.