By SHERRI SMITH BROWN

Georgia > Atlanta Metro > Fulton County > Atlanta

The 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta is the subject of just one of the many historical exhibits you will see at the Atlanta History Center. 

The Atlanta History Center, one of the largest history museums in the nation, is a place you can visit time and time again and always have a different experience. If you are interested in the Civil War, there is “Turning Point: The American Civil War,” one of the nation’s largest and most complete Civil War exhibitions with over 1,500 Union and Confederate artifacts, including the flag that flew over Atlanta at the time of its surrender and a Union supply wagon used by Sherman’s army.

“Metropolitan Frontiers” is the largest and most comprehensive exploration of urban history in the Southeast, telling the story of Atlanta’s emergence as a major city after the Civil War. Vintage film footage documents the 1939 premiere of Gone With the Wind, and the city’s primary role in the Civil Rights Movement.

The Centennial Olympic Games Museum at the Atlanta History Center guides you through the history of the Olympic movement, shows highlights from the Games on a large screen, and has America’s only complete collection of Olympic torches and medals. (more…)

By SHERRI SMITH BROWN

Georgia > Southwest Georgia > Dougherty County > Albany

Albany was a major battleground in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and that story is told at the Albany Civil Rights Movement Museum at Old Mt. Zion Church.

Nationally noted as a key civil rights battleground of the early 1960s, Albany was one of the first cities where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the four major civil rights organizations – Southern Christian Leadership Council (SCLC), Student National Coordinating Committee (SNCC), Committee on Racial Equality (CORE), and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) – joined forces.

The Albany Civil Rights Movement Museum at Old Mt. Zion Church, operated by the Albany Civil Rights Institute (ACRI), tells the compelling story of the Civil Rights Movement in Albany. The Albany Movement was an organization formed in 1961 to coordinate civil rights movement activities in the area. The group chose Mt. Zion Church as the site of their first mass meeting. A majestic church at the corner of Whitney Avenue and Jefferson Street, Mt. Zion Church had been built in 1906 by a congregation of former slaves, who had organized at the end of the Civil War. Mt. Zion Church continued to host the Albany Movement’s mass meetings, such as those in which Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke to capacity crowds. (more…)

By SHERRI SMITH BROWN

His grandparents home at 501 Auburn Avenue in Atlanta is where Martin Luther King, Jr., was born and lived until he was 12 years old. It is part of the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site.

Atlanta’s Auburn Avenue, or Sweet Auburn as the neighborhood around it is called, was one of the most prosperous and influential African-American communities in the country in the early 20th century, and the place where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was born, raised, lived, worked, and worshiped and where he is buried. Much of the Sweet Auburn area is now part of the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site.

Begin your visit of the historic site at the National Park Service Visitor Center, where you can get a brief orientation of the site, sign up for a Birth Home tour and view various exhibits and videos. One particular exhibit, “Children of Courage,” is geared towards younger children, telling the story of the children of the Civil Rights Movement. Now through July 19, you can see an international art exhibit paying tribute to Dr. King. Seventy artists from every continent are featured in the “I Have a Dream” exhibition, where the common theme of the artwork is “the dream.” (more…)