12/31/2023 0 Comments Atlanta journal constitution logoHe was the all-powerful ruler of the subjugated former Confederate state. George Meade, the northern hero of the Battle of Gettysburg, oversaw the federal military district that included Georgia, Alabama and Florida. Federal troops were ever-present in Georgia - and throughout the South - to guarantee rights to blacks. "This was the world turned upside down."Īmong those insolent southern states was Georgia, where the federal military still intervened. "That black voters were entertained at all seemed absurd to them," Deaton said. The southern states' leaders sought a return to the union, but imagined the South of old - a society that whites ruled, said Stan Deaton, senior historian at the Georgia Historical Society. This gave rise to the Ku Klux Klan as white resistance grew. The Congressional Republicans demanded that southern states grant citizenship to former slaves and guarantee black men the right to vote.īlacks began to exercise their new freedom, and demanded to participate in politics. He vetoed legislation to give rights to blacks when Congress passed it. Johnson resisted enfranchisement of former slaves, playing to the southern Democrats who were part of his constituency. Johnson survived his trial in the Senate by just one vote, but the impeachment had created a fissure between the president and Congress. There were strong disagreements about what to demand of southern states as they sought to rejoin the union. The Republican-dominated Congress impeached President Andrew Johnson. Into the tumultuous times following the Civil War, when the country and Georgia experienced crises.įirst, the federal government in Washington had just three weeks earlier survived a near-fatal power struggle. To grasp what was in that name, we must step back But on June 16, 1868, that name meant something very different. The name - "Constitution" - conjures a noble purpose and strikes a proud tone to modern readers. The Atlanta Constitution set about publishing its first drafts of the state's and city's history, but its founding - in fact, its very name - reveals a point of view that its numerous courageous moments have long He bought the Atlanta Daily Opinion, one of several newspapers serving the city's 20,288 residents, and renamed it The Atlanta "The Constitution was founded in 1868 by Carey Wentworth Styles, an Atlanta lawyer and entrepreneur. Like Atlanta, it spent a longĪs recorded by the New Georgia Encyclopedia, the Constitution's founding sounds routine: The Constitution's history is a big part of Atlanta's story - and the newspaper was not always the positive force we are proud of today. To understand the Constitution's tale requires a disquieting visit with some of Georgia's most difficult history and a journey along the road of our state's progression to some of its present-day challenges.Īnd, I promise you, it's a trip worth taking. Today, as we celebrate the 150th birthday of The Atlanta Constitution, it's tempting to revel in that part of our history - and to see that as the entirety of the story in the Constitution's century and half of journalism.īut, as always, there's more to the story. Almost immediately upon my arrival, I read the biography of Ralph McGill, the famous editor of the Constitution who established its reputation duringĪs I turned each page, I became more honored to have found a place in the line of his successors. The newspaper was known for its history as an advocate for all of Atlanta's citizens. When I came to Atlanta more than seven years ago to become editor of the newspaper, I knew of the storied tradition of The Atlanta Constitution.
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