John Clark

1766-1832

David Emanuel

ca. 1744-1808

William Ewen

ca. 1720-1776/1777

Lyman Hall

1724-1790

John Houstoun

ca. 1747-1796

Jared Irwin

ca. 1750-1818

Bert Lance

1931-2013

Bill Lee

1925-2014

John Lewis

1940-2020

John Martin

ca. 1730-1786

Mike Egan

1926-2016

Tom Murphy

1924-2007

John Reynolds

ca. 1713-1788

Dean Rusk

1909-1994

Hoke Smith

1855-1931

Josiah Tattnall

ca. 1764-1803

George Walton

ca. 1749-1804

John Wereat

ca. 1733-1799

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A More Perfect Union

The New Georgia Encyclopedia is supported by funding from A More Perfect Union, a special initiative of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Issue cover of May 1978 Atalanta newsletter

Atalanta, 1978

Women of the Atlanta Lesbian Feminist Alliance self-published their own monthly newsletter, Atalanta, named after a huntress from Greek mythology and meaning "equal in weight." They sent the newsletter to other women’s groups so that news of Georgia’s queer life circulated across the nation and other parts of the lesbian world, connecting feminist lesbians in Atlanta to their global sisters.

Courtesy of Atlanta History Center, Atlanta Lesbian Feminist Alliance newsletters.

Atlanta Lesbian Feminist Alliance members gather for a softball game

ALFA Omegas

Perhaps the most important social benefit of the Atlanta Lesbian Feminist Alliance was its softball teams, notably the ALFA Omegas. The team competed nationally and allowed lesbians from Atlanta to build community around the country.

Courtesy of Atlanta History Center, Pamela Parker Photographs.

LGBTQ+ Rights Protest

LGBTQ+ Rights Protest

Supporters of LGBTQ+ rights gather outside the U.S. Supreme Court Building during oral arguments for Bostock v. Clayton County (2020). By a 6-3 majority, the Court ruled that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects employees against discrimination and unjust termination based on their sexual orientation.

Image from Wikimedia

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Gerald Bostock

Gerald Bostock

In 2016 Gerald Bostock sued Clayton County for workplace discrimination. His case ultimately reached the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act protects LGBTQ employees against unjust discrimination and termination.

Image from Wikimedia

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Photograph of Michael Hardwick, defendant in the Georgia sodomy case

Michael Hardwick

Michael Hardwick, defendant in the Georgia sodomy case Bowers v. Hardwick, speaking to the Atlanta Business and Professional Guild, Colony Square, Atlanta, Georgia, September 7, 1986.

Courtesy of Special Collections & Archives, Georgia State University Library, Atlanta Journal-Constitution Photographs.

Attorney for Michael Hardwick speaks at a gay rights demonstration in 1986

Kathy Wilde Speaking at a Gay Rights Demonstration

Kathy Wilde, attorney for Michael Hardwick, speaking at a gay rights demonstration in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court decision for Bowers v. Hardwick (Georgia sodomy law case), Richard B. Russell Federal Building, Atlanta, Georgia, July 3, 1986

Courtesy of Special Collections & Archives, Georgia State University Library, Atlanta Journal-Constitution Photographs.

Lewis F. Powell Jr.

Lewis F. Powell Jr.

Lewis F. Powell Jr., pictured in 1976, served as a justice on the U.S. Supreme Court from 1972 until 1987.

Courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division

Black and white photograph of Milledgeville State Hospital circa 1940

Milledgeville State Hospital

A sleeping ward at Milledgeville State Hospital for the Insane, circa 1940. Authorities at the hospital practiced compulsory sterilization of patients throughout the 1940s and 1950s. Following an award-winning 1959 report by Atlanta Constitution Jack Nelson, the number of operations dropped dramatically before finally ceasing in 1963.

Courtesy of Special Collections & Archives, Georgia State University Library, Atlanta Journal-Constitution Photographic Archive .

Black and white photo of Francis Galton

Francis Galton

Francis Galton was an English statistician whose theories on heredity lead him to develop the field of eugenics. During the early twentieth century, Galton's ideas gained support among scientific and medical professionals, politicians, and Progressive-era reform groups.

Image from Eveleen Myers

Georgia State Sanitarium

Georgia State Sanitarium

This tinted postcard of the Georgia State Sanitarium (later Central State Hospital) depicts the grounds of the institution circa 1905. During this time the hospital was under the leadership of Theophilus O. Powell, who implemented more precise methods of diagnosis.

Courtesy of Melinda Smith Mullikin, New Georgia Encyclopedia

books

books

Iris Blitch Speaking

Iris Blitch Speaking

Iris Blitch, pictured here speaking in Jesup in Wayne County, broke ground for female politicians in the 1950s and 1960s. When she was first elected in 1948, she was the only female legislator in the state.

Iris Blitch with Speaker Sam Rayburn

Iris Blitch with Speaker Sam Rayburn

Iris Blitch, far left, greets U.S. House Sepaker Sam Rayburn. Blitch and Edith Green of Oregon, second from left, were newly elected congresswomen in 1955. The Eighty-Fourth U.S. Congress had seventeen women.

Courtesy of the Collection of the U.S. House of Representatives

Iris F. Blitch

Iris F. Blitch

Iris Blitch, pictured here circa 1955, won her first congressional election in 1954, after unseating U.S. representative William McDonald "Don" Wheeler. She served the Eighth Congressional District of Georgia from 1955 to to 1963.

Courtesy of the Collection of the U.S. House of Representatives

Roswell City Hall

Roswell City Hall

Roswell, originally located in Cobb County, lies twenty miles north of Atlanta on the Chattahoochee River. Annexed to Fulton County in 1932, the city today is part of the Atlanta Regional Commission, a member of the Georgia Association of Regional Commissions.

Photograph by Jerry Joiner

Georgia’s Regional Commissions

Georgia’s Regional Commissions

Georgia is divided into twelve regional commissions, which function as multicounty planning and development agencies.

Courtesy of Georgia Association of Regional Commissions

John Archibald Campbell

John Archibald Campbell

John Archibald Campbell, a native of Wilkes County, served on the U.S. Supreme Court from 1853 until the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861.

Courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division

Women Voters

Women Voters

Women in Gwinnett County demonstrate in favor of the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which guaranteed women the right to vote. The amendment passed in 1920.

Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, # gwn151b.

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Frances Pauley

Frances Pauley

Frances Pauley attends a banquet of the Atlanta branch of the Urban League (AUL) in 1961. Pauley served on the board of the AUL and was president of the Georgia League of Women Voters during the 1950s.

Augustin Smith Clayton

Augustin Smith Clayton

At the end of the 1820s Augustin Smith Clayton of Athens constructed a cotton mill near his hometown, hoping to prove the protective tariff that subsidized northern industry at the expense of southerners unnecessary.

Our Overworked Supreme Court

Our Overworked Supreme Court

Published in 1885, the print Our Overworked Supreme Court depicts Supreme Court justices Woods, Blatchford, Harlan, Gray, Miller, Field, Waite, Bradley, and Matthews surrounded by paperwork for cases.

Courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division

William Burnham Woods

William Burnham Woods

William Burnham Woods, a native of Ohio, was a resident of Atlanta when he was appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1881. He served on the Court until his death in 1887.

Courtesy of British Museum, London

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Joseph Rucker Lamar

Joseph Rucker Lamar

Joseph Rucker Lamar, a native of Elbert County, served as a justice on the U.S. Supreme Court from 1911 to 1915.

Courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division

Joseph Rucker Lamar

Joseph Rucker Lamar

Joseph Rucker Lamar, a native of Elbert County, served as a justice on the U.S. Supreme Court from 1911 to 1915.

Courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division

James Moore Wayne

James Moore Wayne

James Moore Wayne, pictured circa 1850, was a Savannah native and the first Georgian appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court. He served as a justice from 1835 to 1867, one of the longest tenures in the Court's history.

Courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division

Nathan Deal

Nathan Deal

Governor Nathan Deal, elected in 2010, delivers the State of the State address in January 2011. Deal served as governor from 2011 to 2019. 

Courtesy of georgia.gov

Nathan Deal’s Inauguration

Nathan Deal’s Inauguration

Nathan Deal (right) was sworn in as Georgia's eighty-second governor on January 10, 2011, in Atlanta. He is pictured with his predecessor, Governor Sonny Perdue (left), and Georgia secretary of state Brian Kemp. Deal served as governor from 2011 to 2019.

Courtesy of Georgia.gov

Henry L. Benning

Henry L. Benning

Henry L. Benning was an influential advocate for secession and helped to draft Georgia's Ordinance of Secession. 

Fort Benning

Fort Benning

Fort Benning, home of the U.S. Army Infantry, comprises nearly 120,000 acres in Chattahoochee County.

Courtesy of Fort Benning

Court of Appeals Motto

Court of Appeals Motto

The motto of the Court of Appeals of Georgia was engraved into the wall of its former courtroom in the State Judicial Building in Atlanta. Fifteen judges serve on the Court of Appeals, which was established in 1906 to ease the caseload of the Supreme Court of Georgia.

Photograph by S. Sean Barrett

Hugh Peterson

Hugh Peterson

Hugh Peterson, pictured in 1925, was a state legislator from 1922 until 1934, during which time he was instrumental in passing the State Reorganization Act of 1931. Peterson went on to represent Georgia's First Congressional District in the U.S. Congress, serving from 1934 to 1946.

Hugh Peterson

Hugh Peterson

Congressman Hugh Peterson (front row, center), pictured in July 1937, and guests eat watermelons sent by J. M. Stubbs of Savannah. Peterson served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1934 to 1946.

Sixtieth Regiment of Foot

Sixtieth Regiment of Foot

Three companies of the British Sixtieth Regiment of Foot were sent to the Georgia colony in 1763 by King George III to strengthen the defense of colonial garrisons against attack by the French and Spanish.

Courtesy of The Company of Military Historians

Judicial Building

Judicial Building