The Problem of the Color Line: Atlanta Landmarks and Civil Rights History

The Problem of the Color workshops feature visits to Atlanta's landmark historic sites associated with the color line and efforts to remove it, and lectures to provide the context for these sites. Atlanta is a city destroyed in the Civil War and rebuilt as a “New South” city where memorials to the Old South became symbols of white supremacy that relegated African Americans to legal and economic second-class status. The struggle of resistance begins with Atlanta University in the 1870s and continues to W. E. B. Du Bois in the early 1900s to the Atlanta Student Movement and Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1960s. Atlanta has an ideal nexus of historic sites where teachers can explore these struggles, from the legacy of slavery, the promise of emancipation, the betrayal of Reconstruction, the terror of redemption and race riot, the erection of the color line and resistance to segregation, the civil rights movement, legal desegregation, and integration to a multicultural and pluralistic society. Teachers from middle and high school can bring home lessons for many subjects for their students, colleagues, and districts.