The New Georgia Encyclopedia is supported by funding from A More Perfect Union, a special initiative of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
A group of Georgia Muslim protestors hold prayer at the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in Midtown Atlanta. Members of multiple faiths gathered there in 2017 to protest immigration restrictions against majority-Muslim nations. Since the September 11th attacks in 2001, many Muslim communities have been subjected to government scrutiny and prejudicial acts.
Courtesy of Special Collections & Archives, Georgia State University Library, Atlanta Area Photographers Collection.
Bilali Mohammed, an enslaved African who lived openly as a Muslim on Sapelo Island, has been a subject of scholarly and popular interest since the nineteenth century. His experience is reflected in the “Bilali Document,” a brief manuscript he wrote concerning Islamic regulations.
Courtesy of Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of Georgia Libraries, Francis R. Goulding papers.
This photograph, taken by Malcolm and Muriel Bell, captures Julius Bailey driving an ox cart along a Sapelo Island road around 1939. The image graces the cover of Drums and Shadows, a study of Black culture in coastal Georgia. Originally published in 1940, the book was reissued by the University of Georgia Press in 1986.
Courtesy of Georgia Historical Society, Muriel Barrow Bell and Malcolm Bell, Jr. collection, #GHS 1283-PH-03-02-101.
A native of Sandersville who grew up in Cordele, Elijah Poole moved north in the Great Migration to escape the depredations of Jim Crow. While in Detroit, he heard a speech by the Nation's founder, Wallace Fard Muhammad, that proposed Islam as a tool for Black empowerment. Poole joined the movement, changed his name to Elijah Muhammad and, upon Fard’s death, assumed leadership of the Nation of Islam. Elijah Muhammad, pictured here at a podium, preached Black self-sufficiency and pride, arguing that Blacks were God’s original people while whites sprang from the devil.
Image from Wikimedia
As Georgia became more prosperous in the 1970s, an increasing number of Muslim immigrants settled in the state, especially around Atlanta. These immigrants often retained their cultural and organizational distinctiveness by establishing ethnic-oriented masjids (the proper Arabic term for mosques) to worship apart from previously established masjids dominated by African Americans.
Photograph by Engineering Design Technologies
Among the names of enslaved laborers on this Savannah-area planation in 1781 were four with names associated with Islam: Mahomet and Fatima. Mahomet is a Latin version of the name Muhammad, while Fatima was Muhammad’s daughter. Through Islamic names in lists like these and advertisements seeking fugitives from slavery, it is possible to discern the presence of enslaved Muslims in the early South.
From the Royal Georgia Gazette, March 8, 1781.
A scenic road cuts through the wilds of Sapelo Island. The barrier island is home to abundant plant and animal life.
Image from Kevin
Cornelia Bailey gathers silver grass and life everlasting, an herb used by her grandfather to make medicinal tea, on Sapelo Island. Bailey received a 2004 Governor's Award in the Humanities for her efforts to preserve the island's Geechee culture.
Photograph by Richard Cheppy. Courtesy of Cornelia Bailey
Thomas Spalding, one-time owner and developer of Sapelo Island, was one of the leading planters on the tidewater, an agricultural innovator, amateur architect, astute businessman, and leading citizen of McIntosh County.
Organizers of the second Atlanta International Pop Festival initially required tickets to enter the gated festival, shown here on opening day, July 3, 1970. However, unruly crowds soon prompted the organizers to allow free entry.
Photograph by Earl McGehee
The crowd at the second Atlanta International Pop Festival in Byron. Estimates vary, but the festival likely attracted between 200,000 and 300,000 people.
Courtesy of Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Alex Cooley, pictured in 1978, owned and operated a number of the best-known rock venues in Atlanta, including Alex Cooley's Electric Ballroom and the Tabernacle. In 1987 Cooley was inducted as a nonperformer into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame.
Courtesy of Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
This homemade blacklight poster is designed after the 1970 cover of the Second Annual Atlanta International Pop Festival newspaper.
Photograph by Earl McGehee
This centerfold from the second Atlanta International Pop Festival program showcases artists including Jimi Hendrix, B.B. King, and The Allman Brothers Band.
Photograph by Earl McGehee
The second Atlanta International Pop Festival took place July 3-5, 1970, in Byron.
Photograph by Earl McGehee
Scorching temperatures and high winds marked the second Atlanta International Pop Festival. Firetrucks were brought in to hose down attendees while medics treated sunburns.
Photograph by Earl McGehee
Litter quickly covered the ground at the second Atlanta International Pop Festival in Byron.
Photograph by Earl McGehee
Augustin Verot, known as the "Rebel Bishop" for his support of the Confederacy during the Civil War, became bishop of the Diocese of Savannah in 1861 and led the Catholic community through the turbulent years of war and Reconstruction.
Courtesy of Catholic Diocese of Savannah Archives
On January 4, 1861 Augustin Verot delivered a sermon defending the practice of slavery and condemning abolitionism. It was later reprinted as a Confederate tract and circulated throughout the region, earning Verot wide acclaim in southern states.
In the aftermath of the Civil War, Augustin Verot called for Catholic bishops to support the construction of schools and churches for freedmen.
Members of the First Congregational Church, including the Reverend Henry Hugh Proctor (standing seventh from left), in Atlanta are pictured circa 1899. Today the church is an affiliate of the United Church of Christ, which formed in 1957.
Courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
Henry Hugh Proctor, the minister at First Congregational Church in Atlanta from 1894 until 1920, is pictured circa 1900. In 1910 Proctor founded the Atlanta Colored Music Festival Association, which produced annual concerts by classically trained African American performers for nearly a decade.
Courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
Young John Allen, born in Burke County and raised in Meriwether County, traveled as a Methodist missionary to Shanghai, China, in 1860 and remained there for much of his life. In addition to his ministry, Allen worked as a journalist and founded a college in Shanghai.
Mary Houston Allen, the wife of Young John Allen, a Methodist missionary to China, is pictured with her children, circa 1870. Before her marriage, Allen attended Wesleyan College in Macon.
Young John Allen (center), a Georgia native and Methodist missionary to Shanghai, China, is pictured with two Chinese writers, identified as Tsai and Yin, circa 1900. During his many decades in China, Allen founded the publication (Church News) and translated books.
First African Baptist Church, which was established during the 1770s, played an important part in the Savannah civil rights movement. The stained-glass windows in the current church building, located at 23 Montgomery Street in Savannah, feature prominent Black leaders.
Photograph by Carl Elmore. Courtesy of Savannah Morning News
A museum housing artifacts and church memorabilia dating to the eighteenth century is housed on the grounds of First African Baptist Church in Savannah. One of the oldest Black churches in the nation, First African has occupied its current site on Montgomery Street since 1859.
Photograph by Sarah E. McKee, New Georgia Encyclopedia
This post-Civil War sketch depicts members of Savannah's First Bryan Baptist Church, named after early Baptist minister Andrew Bryan, congregating outside the church building. The church is one of the oldest Black churches in North America.
Photograph by James M. Simms
Joseph Smith founded the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1830. Adherents of the church, known as Mormons, sent missionaries to Georgia first in the 1840s, and then again after the Civil War (1861-65).
Courtesy of the Church Archives, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Mormon missionaries Rudger Clawson (left) and Joseph Standing are pictured in 1878. In 1879 Standing was killed by a mob in Whitfield County as he and Clawson were traveling to a church conference in Chattooga County.
Image from Church History Library
Charles Callis directed the Southern States Mission of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Atlanta from 1919 to early 1934, when he left for Salt Lake City, Utah, to fulfull his 1933 calling to be one of the church's Quorum of Twelve Apostles.
Photograph by American Foto News. Courtesy of the Church Archives, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
LeGrand Richards succeeded Charles Callis in 1934 as the president of the Southern States Mission of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Atlanta.
Courtesy of the Church Archives, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
The Atlanta Georgia Temple, pictured circa 2009 and located in Sandy Springs, was the first Mormon temple erected in the South. Georgia governor George Busbee spoke at the building's groundbreaking in 1981, and the facility was dedicated two years later.
Photograph by Ray Luce
A chapel of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, pictured in 1952, was erected in Atlanta at the corner of Boulevard and North Avenue in 1925. The building served both as a meeting house and as the office for the Southern States Mission.
John Morgan, pictured in 1890, arrived in Georgia as a missionary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1876. Two years later he was given authority over the church's Southern States Mission, headquarterd in Rome.
Courtesy of Special Collections Department, J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah
Joseph Standing was sent as a Mormon missionary to Georgia in 1878. The following year he was killed by a mob in Whitfield County while traveling with fellow missionary Rudger Clawson. A memorial park at the murder site was dedicated to Standing in 1952.
Courtesy of Special Collections Department, J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah
The Mennonite House, pictured in 1962, was located on Houston Street in Atlanta and served as a residence and headquarters for Mennonites active in the civil rights movement. The house was established by Vincent Harding, a Mennonite minister, and his wife, Rosemarie.
Reprinted by permission of Mennonite Church USA Historical Committee
Menno L. Yoder's farm in Macon County, pictured circa 1970, is one of the farms comprising the Mennonite community in Montezuma. Mennonites maintain a rural, communal lifestyle, often choosing to limit the use of modern technology, dress, and entertainment.
Photograph from The Amish Mennonites of Macon County, Georgia, by E. S. Yoder
An interracial Mennonite Bible school teaching team poses in Atlanta in 1963. These volunteers were part of a project sponsored in Atlanta by the Mennonite Central Commitee, which sent minister Vincent Harding to organize desegregation efforts in the South.
Reprinted by permission of Mennonite Church USA Historical Committee
Residents of the Mennonite House, a center of civil rights activity in Atlanta from 1961 to 1964, gather around the "black and white table." The table, built in 1962 by Mennonites Vincent Harding and Bill Cooper, was made of light maple and dark mahogany or cherry, symbolizing racial unity.
Reprinted by permission of Mennonite Church USA Historical Committee
The first meetinghouse used by the Mennonite community in Montezuma is pictured in 1981. The community was established in 1953 and today supports three schools and three churches.
Photograph from The Amish Mennonites of Macon County, Georgia, by E. S. Yoder
The Reverend William Holmes Borders served as pastor of Wheat Street Baptist Church in Atlanta from 1937 to 1988. In the late 1950s he led the Love, Law, and Liberation Movement to desegregate the city's bus system, and in the 1960s he arranged for the construction of a low-income housing project, Wheat Street Gardens.
Courtesy of Wheat Street Baptist Church; Estate of the Reverend William Holmes Borders Sr.
Wheat Street Baptist Church, located in the Sweet Auburn district of Atlanta, was founded in 1869. The church building, located at the corner of Auburn Avenue and Yonge Street (later William Holmes Borders Drive), was constructed between 1921 and 1939. William Holmes Borders, a prominent civil rights activist, was pastor of the church from 1937 to 1988.
From The United Negro: His Problems and His Progress: Containing the Addresses and Proceedings the Negro Young People's Christian and Educational Congress, Held August 6-11, 1902, by Irvine Garland Penn and John W. E. Bowen Sr.
Members of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People gather in February 1957 for civil rights hearings held before the U.S. Senate in Washington, D.C. Prominent leaders from Georgia include A. T. Walden (second row, fourth from left) and the Reverend William Holmes Borders (second row, fifth from left).
Courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Visual Materials from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Records, #LC-USZ62-126520.
Leaders of the movement to desegregate the bus system in Atlanta gather in the office of Rev. William Holmes Borders (seated) at Wheat Street Baptist Church. From left, Rev. R. B. Shorts, Rev. R. Joseph Johnson, Rev. Howard T. Bussey, and Rev. Ray Williams.
Courtesy of Wheat Street Baptist Church; Estate of the Reverend William Holmes Borders Sr.
The teachings of the prophet Zarathushtra, also known as Zoroaster, form the basis for the ancient monotheistic religion Zoroastrianism. Zarathushtra is thought by most scholars to have lived in what is now Iran sometime between 1500 and 1000 B.C. An active Zoroastrian community has existed in Atlanta since the early 1990s.
Courtesy of Alliance of Religions and Conservation
The faravahar, a prominent motif in Middle Eastern art, functions as a symbol of the Zoroastrian faith. Interpretations of the symbol vary. Zoroastrianism is an ancient religion practiced around the world, with approximately 250 adherents in Georgia as of 2007.
Image from Wikimedia
The main sanctuary of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, a megachurch in Atlanta, holds 7,500 people. The use of state-of-the-art technology, including lighting, sound systems, and wide-screen video monitors, is a hallmark of the worship experience in many megachurches.
Courtesy of the Sizemore Group, the Architects
Savannah Christian Church, a megachurch in Savannah, operates a bookstore on the church campus. Many megachurches offer a variety of services and facilities to their members, including bookstores, gymnasiums, information centers, and shuttle services.
Courtesy of Savannah Christian Church
Congregation Mickve Israel in Savannah is the oldest Jewish congregation in the South and the third oldest in the United States. The congregation was founded during the establishment of the colony in 1733, and the current temple building was completed in 1878.
Photograph by Mark Kortum
The Jewish section of Oakland Cemetery in Atlanta is included in a database of cemeteries and burial sites compiled by the Jewish Cemetery Association of Georgia. The association was founded by volunteers at the William Breman Jewish Heritage Museum in Atlanta.
Photograph by Kate Wrightson
During the antebellum period in Atlanta, most Jews supported the Confederacy, including David Mayer. Mayer served as Governor Joseph E. Brown's commissary officer, and later became a founding and longtime member of Atlanta's school board.
Detectives investigate the damage at the side entrance of the Hebrew Benevolent Congregation, commonly known as "the Temple," in Atlanta. The Temple was bombed on October 12, 1958, probably in response to the civil rights activism of the congregation's rabbi, Jacob Rothschild.
Courtesy of Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The Hebrew Benevolent Congregation, which first organized in 1860 as the Hebrew Benevolent Society, began construction in 1875 on a synagogue in Atlanta. The Temple, as it came to be known, continues to serve the Jewish community in the city.
Photograph by David
Herman Myers, a prominent member of the Jewish community in Savannah, was mayor of that city during the 1890s.
Photograph by Wikimedia
Congregation Mickve Israel, founded in 1733, is the oldest Jewish congregation in the South. The current synagogue, erected in Savannah between 1876 and 1878, is designed in the Gothic style and features a museum documenting the congregation's history.
Photograph by Kelly Caudle, New Georgia Encyclopedia
Congregation Mickve Israel, pictured circa 1930, was built in 1878 on Bull Street, on the east side of Monterey Square. The synagogue is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
ctm162.
Former members of the dissolved Ruskin Commonwealth, a utopian community in Dickson County, Tennessee, arrive at the Ware County railroad station in September 1899 to join the Duke Colony, a cooperative farming community located eight miles southwest of Waycross.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
war002.
A cabin built by members of the Macedonia Cooperative Community during the 1940s is pictured in 1975. The community was founded in Habersham County in 1937 and practiced communal living, spiritual searching, and pacifism.
Photograph by W. Edward Orser
The printing office for the Coming Nation, the newspaper published by the Ruskin Commonwealth in Ware County, also served as a community dining room. A cooperative farm community, the Ruskin Commonwealth was incorporated in 1899 and disbanded in 1902.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
war014.
The workshop for Community Playthings, a toy and furniture business run by members of the Macedonia Cooperative Community, is pictured in 1975. The Macedonia community, located in Habersham County, was founded in 1937 and disbanded in 1957.
Photograph by W. Edward Orser
Members of the Liberty Congregational Church in Hart County gather for a homecoming photograph, circa 1948. The church was likely established around 1878 by Moses Gordon Fleming and continues to be an active congregation.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
hrt099.
Midway Congregational Church, located in Liberty County, was founded in 1754 and is one of the oldest Congregational churches in the state. The current building was erected in 1792 to replace the church's first structure, which was burned in 1778 during the Revolutionary War.
Image from Ebyabe
Duncan's Creek Congregational Church, pictured in 1955, was built in Gwinnett County in 1889. The Congregational denomination has maintained a presence in Georgia since the eighteenth century.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
gwn094.
Mulberry Christian Methodist Episcopal Church was built in 1873 and offered church services and a school to Black residents of Lincolnton, the seat of Lincoln County. A congregation of approximately 200 members continues to meet in the church.
Courtesy of Lincolnton-Lincoln County Chamber of Commerce
St. Paul Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, pictured in 2007, is located in Athens. The Christian Methodist Episcopal Church (CME Church) is a historically Black denomination established in 1870. Originally known as the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church, the denomination officially changed its name in 1956.
Photograph by Katie Korth
As bishop of the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church, Lucius Holsey oversaw the growth of the denomination in his native state of Georgia. He was also instrumental in the establishment of Paine Institute (later Paine College), which opened in Augusta in 1884.
Photograph by Mathew B. Brady. Courtesy of National Archives and Records Administration
Paine Institute (later Paine College) was founded in Augusta by leaders of the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church, including Lucius Holsey, in 1884. Haygood Memorial Hall (pictured) is known today as Haygood Holsey Hall and houses administrative offices.
Used with permission of Documenting the American South, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Libraries
This cartoon, by well-known political cartoonist Clifford "Baldy" Baldowski, refers to the Ministers' Manifesto, a statement issued by the Atlanta Christian Council in 1957 to urge the peaceful integration of public schools. A second manifesto, encouraging racial moderation, was issued in the wake of the Temple bombing in 1958. The cartoon, published in 1960, appeared in the Atlanta Constitution.
Courtesy of Richard B. Russell Library for Political Research and Studies, University of Georgia Libraries, Clifford Baldowski Editorial Cartoon Collection.
Atlanta mayor William B. Hartsfield speaks about the bombing of "the Temple" in Atlanta on October 13, 1958, the day after a dynamite blast destroyed portions of the Hebrew Benevolent Congregation's synagogue. Hartsfield denounced the act, accusing the bombers of giving "a bad name to the South."
Courtesy of Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Reporters gather at Atlanta's city hall on August 30, 1961, the day that the city's schools were officially integrated. The recommendations of the Sibley Commission to the state legislature in 1960 contributed to the desegregation of schools across Georgia.
Courtesy of Special Collections & Archives, Georgia State University Library, Lane Brothers Commercial Photographers Photographic Collection.
Louie D. Newton, pictured in 1949 in his office at Druid Hills Baptist Church in Atlanta, was a prominent Baptist preacher, author, editor, radio personality, and denominational leader. A native of Screven County, Newton was the pastor at Druid Hills from 1929 until his retirement in 1968.
Courtesy of Christian Index
Renowned evangelist Billy Graham, pictured in 1966, first brought his crusade to Georgia in 1948, when he visited Augusta. He returned to Georgia in 1950, drawing 25,000 people to his crusade at Ponce de Leon Ballpark in Atlanta. Later crusades in Atlanta were held in 1973 and 1994, attracting crowds of approximately 40,000 and 300,000 respectively.
Courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
Billy Graham (fourth from left) attends a prayer breakfast in Atlanta with Georgia governor Jimmy Carter (second from left) in the early 1970s. State representative Dorsey Matthews stands between Carter and Graham.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #ful0088.
Evangelist minister Billy Graham holds a noon prayer meeting at the Peachtree Arcade in Atlanta during his six-week crusade to the city in 1950. The arcade, built in 1916-17, is an example of the Beaux-Arts style of architecture popular during the late Victorian period. It was designed by A. Ten Eyck Brown, a prominent Atlanta architect.
Courtesy of Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Williams Hall, on the campus of Luther Rice University in Lithonia, houses administrative and faculty offices, as well as classroom space. Founded in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1962 as Luther Rice Seminary, the university moved to its current campus in 1988 and offers both an undergraduate Bible college and a graduate-level seminary.
Photograph by Russ Sorrow
Viewpoints, the historical journal for Georgia Baptists, is published every two years by the Georgia Baptist Historical Society and the Georgia Baptist Historical Commission. First published in 1968, Viewpoints is housed at the Georgia Baptist History Repository in the Jack Tarver Library of Mercer University in Macon.
Damage to the synagogue of the Hebrew Benevolent Congregation in Atlanta, known as "the Temple," is pictured on October 12, 1958, the day that fifty sticks of dynamite destroyed portions of the building, including part of the sanctuary.
Courtesy of Special Collections & Archives, Georgia State University Library, Atlanta Journal-Constitution Photographic Archive.
Atlanta mayor William Hartsfield (left) and Jacob Rothschild, rabbi of the Hebrew Benevolent Congregation in Atlanta, examine rubble on October 13, 1958, the day after the bombing of the congregation's synagogue, known as "the Temple."
Courtesy of Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
