Courtesy of Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Groups
From gospel singers to labor unions, these groups left their mark on our state and its history.
Atlanta Braves
After moving to Atlanta in 1966, the Braves captured the attention of baseball fans regionwide, becoming the South’s first major league professional sports team. The team hit peak success in the 1990s after decades of defeats, shocking sports fans with an all-star lineup and a win at the 1995 World Series. Despite ups and downs, the Braves established themselves as top competitors, winning a second World Series title in 2021.
Sample Primary Sources
Digital Library of Georgia
Freedom Singers
The Freedom Singers were a group of gospel singers and civil rights advocates from Albany, Georgia, who used music to spread their message across the country. They traveled 50,000 miles across forty states in a Buick station wagon, and played alongside musicians like Bob Dylan and Pete Seeger, in order to raise awareness and funds for the civil rights movement.
Sample Primary Sources
Civil Rights Digital Library – Freedom Singers
Civil Rights Digital Library – Cordell Reagon
Civil Rights Digital Library – Rutha Mae Harris
Civil Rights Digital Library – Bernice Johnson Reagon
Digital Library of Georgia
Geechee and Gullah Culture
The Gullah and Geechee people who reside on the Georgia Sea Islands represent a uniquely preserved culture based on West African traditions. Generations of Islanders have used storytelling to preserve, share, and protect their cultural heritage from the oppression of enslavement to the current threat of tourism overtaking their cultural landscape.
Sample Primary Sources
Digital Library of Georgia
Georgia 4-H
Georgia 4-H may have started as an agricultural “Corn Club” in the early twentieth century, but it has since evolved into a diversified program embracing many different educational interests. Operated by the University of Georgia, 4-H inspires members to “learn by doing” through hands-on educational experiences in competitions and at summer camps.
Sample Primary Sources
Digital Library of Georgia
Georgia Historic Newspapers
Knights of Labor
As the largest labor organization in late nineteenth-century America, the Knights of Labor brought together more than 9,000 workers of all races, occupations, and skills in its Georgia chapter. By 1886 the organization had nominated political candidates in six Georgia cities, and white members tried their hand at organizing African Americans in the rural South—a dangerous task at the time.
Sample Primary Sources
Georgia Historic Newspapers
League of Women Voters of Georgia
In the 1910s, a collective of suffragists came together to form the League of Women Voters of Georgia with the aim of securing women the right to vote. Since the organization’s beginnings, members have worked to help women advocate for themselves by promoting nonpartisan political awareness and voter education. The League has lobbied for child labor laws, prison reform, access to education, and full equality between the sexes.
Sample Primary Sources
Digital Library of Georgia
Georgia Historic Newspapers
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), based in Atlanta, was one of the most dynamic organizations of the civil rights era. The organization was involved in a variety of activities, including sit-ins, marches, voter registration drives, boycotts, and class-action lawsuits to end segregation. Still active today, the SCLC continues to fight for social justice and human rights.
Sample Primary Sources
Civil Rights Digital Library
Digital Library of Georgia
Georgia Historic Newspapers – Southern Christian Leadership Conference
Georgia Historic Newspapers – SCLC
The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)
The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) was a key player during the civil rights movement. SNCC formed as a youth-led, nonviolent organization committed to direct action and grassroots activism. Students involved in SNCC played significant roles in the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Mississippi Freedom Summer, empowering Black communities to vote and speak out against oppression and segregation. In Georgia, SNCC activists worked to integrate Albany’s public transportation and to increase voter participation in Atlanta’s Black communities.
Sample Primary Sources
Digital Library of Georgia
Civil Rights Digital Library
