Atlanta in 50 Objects
A pink pig and a renegade cow. A movie prop and a Coke bottle. A Pulitzer Prize–winning book and a Nobel Prize–winning icon.
How do you tell the story of Atlanta in 50 objects? We decided the best experts were Atlantans themselves—residents who cheer the Braves and rue I–285 rush-hour traffic, who understand how Civil War losses and Civil Rights victories together helped forge the city’s unique identity. Atlanta History Center asked the public to submit what objects they think best represent their town. The parameters were broad: an object could also be a person, a place, an institution, or an idea. After receiving hundreds of submissions, History Center staff assembled a collection of fifty pieces that represent the themes identified by the public. In addition to items from our own collections, we have partnered with many local institutions and individuals to gather artifacts from around the city to tell this community–driven story.
Sweet Auburn
East of downtown Atlanta, African Americans established a vibrant business and entertainment district along Auburn Avenue.
Pulled by common interests and pushed by increasingly restrictive segregation laws, it became the center of black opportunity, success, and social life in the South. By 1900, ten black businesses and two African American physicians operated on the street. Auburn Avenue received the designation “Sweet Auburn” from John Wesley Dobbs due to the street’s association as a place of African American community achievement.
Leaders such as Alonzo Herndon and Heman E. Perry advanced Auburn Avenue’s reputation as a national center of black commerce. Atlanta Life Insurance Company, Standard Life, and Citizens Trust Bank acted as the “three-legged stool of black finance.” The area’s business district included restaurants, lawyers’ and doctors’ offices, insurance companies, banks, lodges, churches, funeral homes, shoeshine stands, clubs, drugstores, and other businesses.
Sweet Auburn was also home to the nation’s first African American daily newspaper, the Atlanta Daily World, founded in 1928 by W.A. Scott. The Scott family eventually grew a syndicate of fifty newspapers resulting in one of the largest black-owned businesses in the nation.
Atlanta Daily World offices, 145 Auburn Avenue, 1973. Kenan Research Center at Atlanta History Center, Boyd Lewis, photographer