Archive Atlanta

The Butler Street YMCA (22 Jesse Hill Jr Drive) is my favorite building in Atlanta. Why? Because this one building has Black history, Jewish history, white history, and it’s the embodiment of The Atlanta Way - created by a bi-racial, upper class coalition that wanted this building to serve as a symbol of Atlanta’s progress and an answer to the issues of crime in the poor Black Atlanta class. It was funded and built in the midst of WWI, the Great Atlanta fire of 1917 and a whole host of other issues.
This week, I’ll also share the story of Atlanta's African American YMCA, it’s first offices, the promises of funding a new building, the campaign to raise the money, the architecture, the utility and the many, many famous programs and people that have worked and played inside it’s walls. 
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This week’s mini episode is about a forgotten, short-lived chapter of the early 1900s reform movement - a group called the Men and Religion Forward Movement. Between 1911-1912, 76 major US cities, and 1,083 small towns began chapters of this group…so what was it all about? Who formed it in Atlanta? What did they do here? 
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It has been a wild week, where I have over-committed myself in all realms of my life - so I am re-releasing an episode that I did just over two years ago, all about Atlanta’s small Chinese Community.
In 1890, the entire state of Georgia had only 1.78% of residents with foreign patronage, so I wondered what brought Chinese men to Atlanta in the 1880s? What work did they do? What were their names? How did the South embrace them? Today, we’re covering all those questions and more.
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This week I am sharing the first oral history recording I did, which happened in June of 2021. At the time of this recording, Wesley Johnson was 89 years old and his wife Patricia, a year younger. He was born and raised in South Atlanta, taking the streetcar, attending Booker T Washington and later David T Howard and then college at Morris Brown before joining the Air Force. Patricia joined us later in the conversation and gave us the juicy bits - like how they started dating and some incredible stories about the Fox, Lincoln Country Club and the Waluhaje. 
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Just over one month after NYC’s Stonewall Riot, Atlanta had its own version, when, on August 5, 1969, a movie at the Ansley Mall Mini-Cinema was raided by police. In this week’s mini episode, I’m covering what led to the raid, the details of the event and what it inspired going forward. 
Gayle Dose Podcast
Smithsonian Article
Atlanta History Center
Documenting Queer History Archives
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The Dixie Hills Riot, a days-long community uprising, born out of the frustrations of a whole host of issues that we’ll cover, happened exactly 55 years ago today. 
In 1950, Dixie Hills residents were without running water, paved roads and proper sewers. By the 1960s, 45% of the city’s population was Black, yet were only legally allowed to live in 22% of it’s housing. There was overcrowding, segregation, income inequality, unemployment, poverty - so many of the exact same issues we have today.
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Hey everyone! I am currently taking my yearly podcast summer break and using this time to finish new episodes, work on new ideas and record some amazing interviews. In the meantime, catch up on previous episodes and we'll be back on June 17th!
 

Forward Atlanta was a multi-million dollar marketing campaign launched by the City of Atlanta in the 1920s that is still influencing the city in 2022. I hope by the end of this short episode you can understand how important this campaign was, how it ties into the reason that Atlanta today is so quick to forget and suppress its past, and how we are still in the big business of selling our city to outside industry.
 
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While convict leasing, as a system, was abolished in Georgia in 1908, the chain gang era immediately followed and operated through 1955. Chain gangs installed water and sewer systems and smoothed and paved every. single. road you drive, bike, run or walk on today.
This week we’re covering the history of the chain gang, the Fulton County chain gang, the projects they worked on, the men and women they chained, beat and killed and the lasting legacy it left for us today.
 
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In September of 1896, Thomas finished dinner, told his wife not to wait up, and rode the streetcar to Lakewood Park. There, he rented a bathing suit and a row boat and ventured out onto the lake. That's the last time anyone would see him alive.
Was it an accident? Was it a suicide? Listen to find out all the Victorian-era true crime drama. 
 
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