Atlanta and Environs: A Chronicle of Its People and Events: Vol. 3: 1940s-1970s

Atlanta and Environs is, in every way, an exhaustive history of the Atlanta Area from the time of its settlement in the 1820s through the 1970s. Volumes I and II, together more than two thousand pages in length, represent a quarter century of research by their author, Franklin M. Garrett—a man called “a walking encyclopedia on Atlanta history” by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. With the publication of Volume III, by Harold H. Martin, this chronicle of the South’s most vibrant city incorporates the spectacular growth and enterprise that have characterized Atlanta in recent decades.

The work is arranged chronologically, with a section devoted to each decade, a chapter to each year. Volume I covers the history of Atlanta and its people up to 1880—ranging from the city’s founding as “Terminus” through its Civil War destruction and subsequent phoenixlike rebirth. Volume II details Atlanta’s development from 1880 through the 1930s—including occurrences of such diversity as the development of the Coca-Cola Company and the Atlanta premiere of Gone with the Wind. Taking up the city’s fortunes in the 1940s, Volume III spans the years of Atlanta’s greatest growth. Tracing the rise of new building on the downtown skyline and the construction of Hartsfield International Airport on the city’s perimeter, covering the politics at City Hall and the box scores of Atlanta’s new baseball team, recounting the changing terms of race relations and the city’s growing support of the arts, the last volume of Atlanta and Environs documents the maturation of the South’s preeminent city.

"Definitive . . . An exhaustive history of the city, which, in its faithful attention to minutiae, effectively captures the flavor of Atlanta."—Atlanta Journal-Constitution

"A boon to the historian, the genealogist and to the average citizen who wants to fill himself in on the background of the leading Southeastern city."—Augusta Chronicle-Herald

“A very competent and well-written history.”—American Reference Books Annual

“A very model of local historical writing . . . A history that will long stand as the definitive story of Atlanta.”—Richmond News-Leader

Section I. The Nineteen-Forties

Introduction 3

1940 6

1941 53

1942 67

1943 91

1944 102

1945 111

1946 122

1947 132

1948 144

1949 148

Section II. The Nineteen-Fifties

1950 159

1951 167

1952 178

1953 191

1954 206

1955 218

1956 235

1957 257

1958 284

1959 299

Section III. The Nineteen-Sixties

1960 315

1961 324

1962 337

1963 365

1964 389

1965 417

1966 446

1967 457

1968 513

1969 and into the 1970s 544

Index 601