Saturday, January 20, 2007
From Civil War to Civil Rights
Posted by: lain // Category: Atlanta, Historic Preservation // 11:44 am
Victory is mine!
After four months of procrastination and several excruciating minutes of tinkering, I have finally figured out how to post pictures on this blog! Someone buy me a drink! Miss Nannie, I’m looking at you.
For the last few weeks I’ve been thinking of an idea that these two other dudes and I conjured up one day at lunch. We were thinking of ways to reconnect the Wren’s Nest with Atlanta, and the bus tour tentatively titled “From Civil War to Civil Rights” arose as a pretty cool option. So cool in fact, I’ve taken the time to present it to you in interactive map form.
Take a gander below and by all means click on the picture for details.
Atlanta has a very rich and seemingly disjointed history with two major movements: the Civil War and the Civil Rights movement. Some (me, at least) might argue the case for another important movement–ahem, hip-hop–but I’ll spare you for now.
As different as these two events in history are, there is a clear progression from point A to point B. Sometimes it’s easy to ignore the evolution, or perhaps sometimes events just seem to close to home, as it were.
“From Civil War to Civil Rights” makes perfect sense to me, anyhow. Not only do the sites on the tour (Grant Park, Cyclorama, Oakland, Wren’s Nest, Herndon Home, Margaret Mitchell House, King Center) weave an intricate tapestry of history, but so too does the journey itself. By encompassing both the east and west sides of town and traveling down Peachtree Street and Auburn Avenue, this tour proves itself pretty darn comprehensive and totally feasible.
Click on the link so you can read more (just click on each red or yellow point), come back here and tell me what you think. Good idea? Bad idea?
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11 Comments
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I really like the concept of this tour. The collaboration and partnerships developed would help all of the entitites featured. Great idea Lain!
The only credit I can take is for being a map geek. Thanks though.
A great concept for February’s Black history month…what can your readers do to help execute?!
Here’s what readers can do: pass this blog onto others! If you like what you see, send it to a few of your friends who would also think this is a cool idea.
the link to the blog is easy: http://www.wrensnestonline.com/blog
you can also link straight to the map and make comments there: http://www.wayfaring.com/maps/show/30395
If you want to help out, just email me: lain@wrensnestonline.com
send it to your friends and give me feedback! thanks, jodi.
I, too, love the idea. Not to be a naysayer - but the sticking point is accessibility. You can only take this tour if you have an automobile - making it virtually impossible for tourists -(I once posed as a tourist at the Westin Peachtree Plaza - trying to get to Zoo Atlanta by MARTA. After finally convincing the concierge there that MARTA did, in fact, include buses, I took the bus to the Zoo - bought a osft drink and immediately returned to the Westin. This excursion only took 3 1/2 hours. Imagine trying to hit everything on your map using MARTA - I’d guess 3 days minimum)
BUT - it is a great concept for an event - as Jodi noted - that could last all the month of February - I think we should talk with all of the venues involved and begin planning for an event next year - seriously.
Good point, Ronni. I was thinking that it could be a regular tour of the city with a signature mode of transportation a la the “Duck Tours” (http://www.bostonducktours.com/) in Boston.
Except ours wouldn’t go underwater. And there would be less quacking.
Regardless, let’s pretend there is a signature bus (or a bus operated by Grayline–www.grayline.com) that would pick tourists up and drop them off at Five Points.
This is bigger than the Wren’s Nest, but perhaps we could cut out the first leg (Atlanta Preservation Center) portion of the tour and have the APC manage the whole thing instead.
Hi Lain,
I’ve never run across your blog until tonight (saw the link at Atlanta metroblogging) - great stuff. I’m also really interested in developing a walking history tour of Atlanta dealing with the same time frame, and I think that a walking tour could really work - but it would probably have to be divided into historic/theme sections that could run in a loop or cross and connect withe various other sections.
Sadly, because this city can’t get its **$&% together and make this a safe pedestrian/bicycle friendly burg, you would have to augment the tour with buses or cars.
Some quick ideas:
Stops (with interpretation) could be:
1906 Race Riot:
1.The site of Alonzo Herndon’s barbershop on peachtree st.
2.Henry Grady Statue -scene where victims were piled up.
3. Decatur Street (near GA State) where Riot Formented
4. Forsyth Bridge - site where one victim was shot and thrown over
Civil Rights Era:
1. Herren’s Restaruant - 84 Luckie street:First white business that voluntarily desegregated.
2. Rich’s- Alabama Street - site of the famed Magonoia Room sit ins by SNCC
**There are alot of other sites that could be added in this section, just can’t name them all***
Civil War
1. This is a lot more difficult, none of the antebellum buildings in Atlanta have survived (most survived the war, just not the 2oth century). At present, I’m working on developing a GIS model of 1864 Atlanta that creates an overlay of the 1860s urban landscape over the modern street system and interprets historic sites and people related to the Battle of Atlanta and the city’s Confederate war effort.
I think that this idea has a lot of merit and a lot of potential -this is something that should really be considered and, once I’m out of school, I would really like to work on developing this. Later.
Patrick
Patrick, all good ideas. I’d be interested to see what your overlay looks like, especially in regard to the Connector! What a way to tear up some neighborhoods and some history, huh.
If you want to talk further about tours and history stuff, I’m always interested (seriously). You (or anyone else!) can email me at lain@wrensnestonline.com or stop by to chat.
Hi Lain,
I love this idea. My family comes to Atlanta at least a couple of time a year to visit — my dad is on your board (Harold Y.) –so we can only go to the zoo, Fernbank and the aquarium so many times. We live in the DC area so we’ve got museums, but this history trail is unique.
This would be a great field trip for middle school or high school students. Maybe a proposal to some of the private schools as a start would lead to something else.
On our next visit we’ll make it a point to come by.
Thanks, Karen. Harold is the man, and so are your cousins! Be sure to visit when you’re down here and say hello. I’m always in the office, and if the doors closed it’s only because we tend to rock out with the blues during office hours.
[...] I still think we should team up with the Cyclorama along with Oakland Cemetery, the Herndon Home, the Margaret Mitchell House and the King Center to create a “Civil War to Civil Rights” trail. Now we could even make outlandish statements like, “See website for details”! [...]