Georgia Library Quarterly Volume 56 Article 9 Issue 2 Spring 2019

4-1-2019 ’s Changing Exhibit: Documenting Local History through Archives W. Michael Camp University of West , [email protected]

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Recommended Citation Camp, W. (2019). Emory University’s Changing Atlanta Exhibit: Documenting Local History through Archives. Georgia Library Quarterly, 56(2). Retrieved from https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/glq/vol56/iss2/9

This Article is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@Kennesaw State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Georgia Library Quarterly by an authorized editor of DigitalCommons@Kennesaw State University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Camp: Emory University’s Changing Atlanta Exhibit

Emory University’s Changing Atlanta Exhibit: Documenting Local History through Archives

By W. Michael Camp

A current major theme in the promotion of materials of four recently processed or in- archives is outreach to users beyond academia. process collections held at Emory's Rose Library, Another important goal for most repositories is the exhibit was also designed with the goal of acquiring new collection material. By presenting promoting the value of archival materials to the activities of archives in a visually stimulating nontraditional users. The exhibit moved way, exhibits of archival material are a useful chronologically from the 1950s through the way to both promote archival awareness and 1990s, documenting the human experiences encourage placing of papers and records with found within the large-scale processes of archives. Events related to exhibits are a further Atlanta's geographic and economic change. It way to promote the mission of the archive. This was curated by three historians and two article discusses archivists, which the Changing allowed the Atlanta exhibit exhibit both to displayed at promote the Emory University value of archival as a case study to collections and to demonstrate how put documents exhibits can spur into the context greater public of broader city engagement with histories. Two archives and historians and archival two archivists materials. The each curated one exhibit used archival collections to illuminate of the four sections of the exhibit, based on the the stories of individuals and groups who collection each had recently processed. I was participated in the city of Atlanta’s expansion in one of these historian-curators, and at the time the 20th century. This article will discuss the was a doctoral student in Emory’s Department historical content of the exhibit itself, along of History specializing in US political history. The with the opportunities for outreach generated third historian, a subject librarian at Emory by the exhibit. University, provided comments and editing for the entire project, which provided someone Changing Atlanta, 1950–1999: The Challenges sufficiently distanced from the day-to-day of a Growing Southern Metropolis was on construction of the exhibit to be able to provide display in the Schatten Gallery of the Robert W. helpful input and tie all of the disparate parts Woodruff Library at Emory University from together. The Rose Library’s outreach archivist March 22–June 19, 2016. It examined the worked with the curators on digitization of perspectives and experiences of four distinct material as well as sharpening the argument of entities who affected—and were affected by— each of the individual sections. Planning and Atlanta's rapid and massive growth in the executing the exhibit involved collaborations second half of the 20th century, as well as the among several library units, including special city's emergence on the national and collections staff, the library’s exhibit team, international stages. Created using the development staff, and events staff.

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The exhibit began as part of a dissertation Southeastern and southwestern states quickly completion fellowship project for the other established “open shop” conditions, luring historian-curator, a Department of History manufacturers who preferred an environment doctoral student specializing in the emergence less advantageous for organized labor. of the Republican Party in the 20th-century Americans from the Northeast and Midwest Southeast. As part of his fellowship project, began migrating to the Southeast in order to arranging and describing the papers of Atlanta take advantage of these new economic tax lawyer Randolph Thrower, the fellow opportunities (Lichtenstein, 2002, p. 117). proposed holding a small exhibit using items found in the papers. Because the academic field Though long considered by many elite of history is moving toward a greater focus on analysts—especially Franklin Delano Roosevelt's public history, the fellow wanted to gain New Dealers—to be a backward and experience in this field. During preliminary undeveloped region that was holding back the discussions with Woodruff Library’s exhibit trajectory of the broader American economy, team in fall 2015, we found that a large exhibit the stage was now set for the Southeast to area was open for use in the spring semester, undergo rapid change and economic growth. It and we decided to expand the scope of the eventually caught up with and even surpassed exhibit to include four collections broadly the economic productivity of other US regions covering Atlanta history in the second half of (Phillips, 2007, pp. 78–80). Atlanta was the 20th century. We decided to use the exhibit especially affected because of its central to tell some of the more local and personal location in the region and its status as a stories embedded within this large-scale transportation hub. Beginning with the creation narrative of Atlanta’s growth and expansion. of Eisenhower's interstate highway system in 1956, the ensuing decades witnessed the Historical Context construction of I-75, I-85, I-285, and I-20 in and through the Atlanta area. The Atlanta airport, Owing significantly to new initiatives in federal named after former Atlanta mayors William government policy, Atlanta's growth and Hartsfield and Maynard Jackson, eventually development in the 20th century followed became one of the busiest in the world. Local many of the same patterns as other cities in the boosters worked especially hard to make sure Sunbelt South. The creation of the Federal that state and regional planning would be Housing Administration during the New Deal, favorable to the city's fortunes, with the city’s which provided subsidized home loans in order population and volume of economic activity to help restart America’s construction industry, both exploding (Allen, 1996, pp. 139–190). catalyzed Americans to buy single-family homes Coca-Cola, a homegrown company founded and in unprecedented numbers and led to headquartered near downtown, became one of construction of suburban neighborhoods the world’s most powerful corporations, farther and farther from city centers (Hyman, bringing national and international attention to 2011, pp. 56–66). During and after World War the city (Pendergrast, 2013, pp. 143–200). II, Sunbelt legislators steered huge amounts of defense and technology dollars to their states; However, while these processes unfolded, in the case of Atlanta, the Dobbins Air Reserve Atlantans also had to grapple with the long and Base in Marietta was established in 1941, tragic histories of racial inequality and violence providing stable employment to a number of endemic to the region. Civil rights protesters Atlantans. In 1947, the anti-union Taft-Hartley and Black Power advocates put pressure on city Act allowed states to ban the “closed shop,” leadership to bring the city into alignment with which required that laborers join unions as a the nation’s moves toward greater racial condition of employment in factories. equality (Brown-Nagin, 2011, pp. 1–16). Some

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Atlanta residents also questioned the virtue and providing a balance of historical information necessity of untrammeled growth, urging and aesthetic appeal. Emory holds the papers of greater examination and consideration of what a number of other local leaders and development and expansion would mean for organizations that we could have featured in the city's long-term prospects and its most the exhibit, but we decided to limit the exhibit vulnerable residents. These debates shaped the to recently processed and in-process collections city’s political development to the end of the in order to highlight the activities of archives 20th century and generated a voluminous themselves. We also decided to de-emphasize amount of rich historical material for the well-known figures of Atlanta history, such researchers. as Martin Luther King, Jr., in favor of other individuals and organizations whose papers Exhibit Content were recently opened for research. This focus allowed us to show exhibit visitors the wide Changing Atlanta provided a window into these diversity of subjects available for archival geographic, economic, social, and political investigation. changes. The four main sections displayed archival materials that illuminated these stories. An accompanying timeline at the exhibit The four main collections highlighted were the entrance traced some of the most significant Randolph Thrower moments and milestones papers, the John Sibley in Atlanta's development, papers, the Community including the growth of Council of the Atlanta the metropolitan Area records, and the population from 1 million Druid Hills Civic in 1960 to 4 million in Association records. The 2000, as well as the 1996 first two sections Olympic Games, which documented stories of signaled the city's how Atlanta emerged as a emergence as an modern city in the 1950s international destination. and 1960s by casting The timeline, along with a aside unfair political short title panel, helped methods and bringing the tie the four disparate city into line with national parts of the exhibit into a expectations on race coherent whole by relations. The latter two showing how each fit into examined how Atlanta’s a broader narrative of subsequent growth growth, development, affected two very and diversification. different constituencies, urban minorities and The first section of the suburban whites. All four exhibit examined the sections mixed textual 1956 congressional documents like brochures campaign of Atlanta tax and correspondence with lawyer Randolph larger visual items such as Thrower. Thrower, best campaign posters and known for being forced fliers promoting by Richard Nixon in 1971 neighborhood events, from his position as IRS

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chief for refusing to persecute Nixon's political entitled “Throw in with Thrower” (sung to the enemies, ran for Congress as a Republican on tune of “Pop Goes the Weasel”), along with an the platform of doing away with Georgia's interactive map displaying the dramatic changes “county unit” system. The county unit system, in political representation wrought by the which assigned electoral victories in Georgia abolition of the county unit system. These primaries on the basis of numbers of counties materials were generated with the help of the won—not popular Emory Center for votes obtained— Digital Scholarship. led to severe This section also overrepresentation included a voting for very booth on loan from conservative rural the Atlanta History areas. Racial Center. The voting demagogues like booth displayed the the notorious set of candidates Eugene Talmadge, that would have who resisted the been on the ballot progressive in Georgia in 1948 economic policies and showed of the New Deal on the grounds that they would exhibit-goers that they were all Democrats, improve the economic standing of African providing a dramatic visual representation of Americans, dominated state politics in the first how one-party rule allowed Democrats to half of the 20th century. Thrower's dominate state politics until the 1950s. congressional campaign, while ultimately unsuccessful, marshaled public opinion against The second section focused on the Sibley the county unit system, which was eventually Commission, headed by lawyer John Sibley of ruled unconstitutional by the US Supreme Court Atlanta, who was also a prominent confidant to in 1963. The demise of the county unit system Coca-Cola CEO Robert Woodruff. The then permitted urban areas, especially Atlanta, Commission, created to bring Georgia in line to emerge as major with the 1954 political centers in Brown v Board of the state. Thrower's Education decision, campaign also was established helped begin to after a 1959 US break the corrupt District Court ruling and decadent one- declaring continued party Democratic segregation in rule that had Georgia public dominated Georgia schools politics for decades, unconstitutional. and was therefore Because the Brown an important decision only turning point for Atlanta’s role in state politics. prohibited state laws that mandated On display were campaign brochures and segregation, Sibley came up with two possible correspondence with campaign supporters, options for the state to pursue in order to among other documents. This section of the preserve segregation as best as possible: to exhibit also included an interactive audio re- continue massive resistance by closing public creation of Thrower's 1956 campaign song, schools altogether, or to create a “local option”

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that would permit individual school districts to The exhibit's third section covered the decide whether or not to desegregate. Sibley Community Council of the Atlanta Area (CCAA). and the commission held a series of contentious The organization, formed in May 1960, hearings across the state in spring 1960. Though provided technical information to individuals, 60% of witnesses at the hearings favored civic groups, and human services agencies to massive resistance and closing public schools, help residents cope with rapid changes in the Sibley and other Atlanta elites knew that character of urban life. The Council worked on continued negative coverage from the national issues such as poverty, drug and alcohol abuse, press would hurt the city's prospects for daycare, employment and housing, recreation, continued economic advancement, and tried to and aging. It executed research and information end massive resistance by any possible means. dissemination services that culminated in the Sibley recommended the local option to the establishment of a public reference library. Of state legislature, special concern to which passed the the CCAA was the plan into law in transient hippie January 1961. community Atlanta-area centered on 10th schools were and 11th Streets soon in Midtown, desegregated, which often but other areas of clashed with the the state were police. Although not. Though the the Council Commission's disbanded in action helped 1974, other stave off the community violence that had accompanied desegregation groups adopted some its essential functions and efforts in other southern states, the local option continued to serve urban residents in the also meant that serious statewide efforts Atlanta area. On display were planning toward desegregation in Georgia would not memoranda from Executive Director Duane W. emerge until later in the 1960s. On display were Beck, handbooks, and research reports, among pieces of correspondence from Georgia other materials. This section also included a re- constituents expressing alarm and anger at creation of The Great Speckled Bird, a integration, which allowed visitors—especially counterculture newspaper published in Atlanta younger ones—to grasp the intensity of racial from 1968 to 1976, which was generated from tension in the 1960s, along with planning past issues of the newspaper that are now held documents from the commission itself. at Georgia State University. It contained several articles about events in Midtown Atlanta in the This section of the exhibit also included a 1960s and 1970s, providing exhibit visitors a 1960s-era desk on loan from Atlanta Public glimpse of the counterculture viewpoint about Schools. Some of the photographs in this contemporary events of the period.The final section featured white and African American section, the section I curated, examined the students sitting at similar desks during the era activities of the Druid Hills Civic Association of desegregation, and the physical desk allowed (DHCA). Founded in 1938, the DHCA handles a exhibit visitors to get a closer look at this variety of issues related to daily neighborhood artifact in person. life. It became especially active in the mid- 1960s, opposing a state government plan to extend the Freeway into

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, which would have cut allowed exhibit visitors to grasp the intensity of through Druid Hills and a number of other anti-freeway opposition. historic in-town neighborhoods, such as and Poncey-Highland. Though the state There was also an interactive table explaining government condemned large portions of land the archival process and displaying archival in Poncey-Highland and cleared houses in tools, such as acid-free boxes, micro-spatulas, preparation for construction, neighborhood and plastic clips. Displayed here were the opposition, along finding aids for the with federal four collections environmental featured in the regulations, exhibit, which gave stopped the project visitors a sense of before it could be the extent of the completed. The collections and the plan lay dormant diversity of for years before it materials contained was resurrected in within them. We the early 1980s, found that having when Jimmy Carter both archivists and desired freeway historians working access to his presidential library in Poncey- on the exhibit was of substantial benefit. The Highland. Though the Presidential Parkway archivists focused on promoting holdings and through Poncey-Highland was eventually built, explaining the purpose of archives and the daily neighborhood work that goes on opposition stopped in them, and the the from historians were crossing Moreland equipped to place Avenue and the individual entering Candler documents and Park and Druid narratives into Hills. As part of broader historical their protest, trajectories, as well neighborhood as create the residents camped Atlanta timeline. out in public parks The result was an along the major exhibit that thoroughfare of . On informed the public both about the process of display were pieces of correspondence from archiving as well as how archival holdings can neighborhood residents opposing highway illuminate the broader narratives of the past. development as well as handbills promoting protest events in neighborhood parks. This Outreach section of the exhibit included a re-creation of a large anti-freeway sign created by the In addition to the interactive materials available organization CAUTION (Coalition Against in each section of the exhibit, there were other Unnecessary Thoroughfares In Our opportunities for visitors to interact with the Neighborhood), another neighborhood exhibit. Attendees could leave post-it notes on opposition group. The sign was an exact replica two facing walls commenting on changes that in terms of size and color (bright orange) and they themselves had witnessed during their

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time in the city; several visitors commented on illuminate this process. Exhibits are an excellent increased traffic and other transportation way to undertake this activity in greater detail problems, but others spoke positively about the and depth. Students who have recently moved city’s cultural life and its recommitment to to the area to attend college have often never redeveloping neighborhoods and green space thought about the histories that shaped the near downtown Atlanta. Attendees could also current environment in which they find take home a series of commemorative themselves, and this exhibit gave them the postcards to provide a lasting connection to the chance to do so. archive, each of which featured images from the collections on display. Like many exhibits, In order to promote the exhibit to the larger there was also a guestbook for visitors to leave Atlanta community, the curators participated in comments. One said that, “as a new resident of a panel discussion at Emory University in April the Atlanta area, I truly enjoyed learning about 2016, discussing the exhibit planning and the city’s history.” A resident of Druid Hills said, putting its content into broader historical “thanks for including the neighborhood” in the context. We initially planned to have a separate exhibit. The exhibit also seemed to inspire one event for each of the four sections, but quickly student to think critically and productively realized that trying to execute four events in about the city, as she noted that “you can’t stop quick succession would be overwhelming, and change, but you can decide what kind of change decided to have one large event instead. The it will be.” event was held in a room directly adjacent to the exhibit display, and approximately 100 Several undergraduate students left their email people attended, many of whom had been addresses in the guestbook and asked for invited. We worked with the library’s further information on employment or development staff, which compiled a list of internship opportunities at the Rose Library, invitees, to plan and execute the event. There providing clear evidence that the exhibit had was also news coverage in local cultural affairs had a positive effect on their engagement with publications, such as Atlanta’s Creative Loafing archives. Outreach strategies were not magazine, that attracted attendees, and we specifically targeted at undergraduate students, sent out an email invitation to graduate but because the exhibit was installed in a students in the Department of History. The section of the library that receives voluminous chair of the Department of History, also the foot traffic, many undergraduates had the dissertation advisor for two of the history chance to stop and view it. Unfortunately, a graduate students curating the exhibit, course on African American history in Atlanta introduced the panel. Moderating the panel was offered in the Department of History in fall discussion was a recent Emory History 2015, and it ended before the exhibit opened, Department doctoral graduate who had written but there will certainly be future opportunities his dissertation on Atlanta’s metropolitanization to link exhibits on local history with courses on from 1950–2000. local history, such as encouraging instructors to have the class visit the exhibit—perhaps with a Event attendees included longtime Atlanta guided tour—as part of a class section, or residents who had participated in some of the having students complete an assignment history highlighted in the exhibit, including the outside of class time that requires them to view CCAA’s activism and the fight against the Stone the exhibit. From my own experience teaching Mountain Freeway. The discussion highlighted undergraduate history courses, I have found some additional historical information on students have often thought very little about Randolph Thrower and the Community Council where the narratives in their textbooks come of the Atlanta Area, and an evaluation of how from, and analyzing primary documents helps the activities of the Sibley Commission fit into

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the longer trajectory of racial change in Atlanta. attendees did not know about the opportunities After the discussion, the curators spoke with to place their papers with local archives, and attendees in the exhibit gallery itself as they the curator of the Rose Library’s Atlanta browsed the displays. Randolph Thrower’s son collections was present to provide more attended by invitation and was pleased to see information, hand out business cards, and that his father’s campaign song from a half establish contacts. Several attendees indeed century before had been recorded and brought expressed their interest in placing their own back to life. Residents of the Druid Hills personal papers with the Rose Library. Because neighborhood were especially excited to see one of the major issues in dealing with potential the section of the exhibit on their community, donors is building trust, being able to show and several said that they hoped that their them a professional production created with materials might end up in a similar exhibit related records assured them that their someday. About a month later, the curators materials would be treated with care and also presented material on exhibit planning and respect. content to a scholarly audience at the Atlanta Studies Symposium at Georgia State University. One issue we encountered was that potential donors insisted that we, the exhibit curators, be At a separate event held at the Rose Library the ones to handle the processing of their immediately before the public panel, the papers should they be donated. Because two of curators spoke to invited Druid Hills residents us were graduate students in the Department and members of the Georgia state legislature of History and would not be at the institution about the value of historical material and the permanently, we could not make that promise. importance of archival preservation. Given my Staff should be prepared to assure potential own subject matter expertise in American donors that all archivists will handle their environmental history, I highlighted the fact materials competently and respectfully, and that the DHCA records contain documents should be prepared to have potential donors related to the legal settlement that stopped meet with permanent staff at a later date as a freeway incursion into the neighborhood. The follow-up. settlement turned on the accuracy of the Georgia Department of Transportation’s We also found that exhibit visitors sometimes production of an environmental impact had very strong opinions about some of our statement, a necessary step in government interpretations of the events in question, construction projects that had been mandated especially those in which they had personally by the National Environmental Policy Act in participated. For example, we tried to present 1969. The DHCA’s activism in contesting the the controversies over freeway development environmental impact statement, I explained, from a neutral point of view, having sympathy represents an important case study for both for the state’s attempts to ease traffic flow environmental historians assessing the impact and locals’ desire to protect their of environmental legislation in the 20th neighborhoods from destruction. Some Druid century. That was only one small example Hills residents, however, insisted on seeing their pulled from the 60 linear feet of the DHCA position as the only reasonable one, and records, I explained, and there were many referred to the Georgia Department of dozens of other connections to broader Transportation with words such as “evil.” We historical narratives that I saw while processing were able to use this potential point of conflict the collection. I encouraged the audience to as an opportunity to encourage Druid Hills think about what valuable historical materials residents to donate their records to the might be in their attics or basements, in need of repository in order to have their side of the a safer permanent environment. Many of the

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story told as comprehensively as possible by archives collect materials related to local future scholars. history, similar exhibits and events could be done at a wide range of other repositories, Conclusion based on collection holdings. Every city and community has its own history, and local Taken together, the exhibit and related events archives often hold the papers and records of were a successful outreach initiative to the local individuals and groups who participated in that community. Exhibit attendees learned about broader narrative. The opportunities for future what archives are and how they operate, and exhibits are vast. event attendees learned about the content of the Rose Library’s collections. As we found, W. Michael Camp is Assistant Professor and attendees were excited to learn about the Political Papers Archivist in Ingram Library at “hidden histories” embedded within the areas the University of West Georgia. where they lived and worked. Since many

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References

Allen, F. (1996). Atlanta rising: The invention of Lichtenstein, N. (2002). State of the union: A an international city 1946–1996. Atlanta, century of American labor. Princeton, NJ: GA: Longstreet Press. Princeton University Press.

Brown-Nagin, T. (2011). Courage to dissent: Pendergrast, M. (2013). For God, country, & Atlanta and the long history of the civil Coca-Cola: The definitive history of the rights movement. New York, NY: Oxford great American soft drink and the company University Press. that makes it. New York, NY: Basic Books.

Hyman, L. (2011). Debtor nation: The history of Phillips, S. T. (2007). This land, this nation: America in red ink. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Conservation, rural America, and the New University Press. Deal. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.

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