Updated Recently

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.

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

View on source site

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

View on source site

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

Harry Blackmun

Harry Blackmun

Harry Blackmun, pictured in 1976, served as a justice on the U.S. Supreme Court from 1970 until 1994.

Courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division

Byron White

Byron White

Byron White, pictured in 1976, served as a justice on the U.S. Supreme Court from 1962 until 1993.

Courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division

Potter Stewart

Potter Stewart

Potter Stewart, pictured in 1976, served as a justice on the U.S. Supreme Court from 1959 until 1981.

Courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division

Yazoo Act Burning

Yazoo Act Burning

The burning of the Yazoo Act, which resulted in the Yazoo land fraud of 1795, took place on the grounds of the capitol building in Louisville. Louisville served as the state capital from 1796 until 1806, when the legislature moved to Milledgeville.

Joseph Warren

Joseph Warren

This etching by John Norman, made around 1776, depicts the death of Joseph Warren at the Battle of Bunker Hill during the Revolutionary War. Both Warren County and its seat, Warrenton, in east central Georgia are named in his honor.

Courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division

Rome

Rome

Rome, the seat of Floyd County, is situated along the Coosa River at the confluence of the Etowah and Oostanaula rivers. Founded in 1834, Rome was rated the Southeast's most liveable small city in 1997.

Courtesy of Explore Georgia.

County Unit System

County Unit System

Election day in Kingsland, Camden County, in the early 1960s, before the advent of voting booths. Georgia's elections were governed by the county unit system, which gave more weight to rural votes than to urban votes, until 1962. Even though they were home to a minority of Georgians, rural counties usually decided the winners of statewide elections.

Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
cam368.

View on partner site

John Paul Stevens

John Paul Stevens

John Paul Stevens, pictured in 1976, served as a justice on the U.S. Supreme Court from 1975 until 2010.

Courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division

Bus Station Sign

Bus Station Sign

A sign, pictured in 1943, indicates separate facilities for Black customers at a bus station in Rome. Segregation of Blacks and whites became a common occurence in the South with the rise of Jim Crow laws in the 1890s.

Photograph by Wikimedia

Jeanes Teachers

Jeanes Teachers

Jeanes Supervisors gather at the Georgia Jeanes Teachers Annual Dinner in Atlanta, circa 1945. At the head table, from left to right, Kara Jackson (standing), Mella West, Mr. Hooper. Seated at the next table to the right are Mrs. and Dr. Benjamin Mays.

Courtesy of Atlanta University Center, Robert W. Woodruff Library Archives, Southern Education Foundation Records..

Thurgood Marshall

Thurgood Marshall

Thurgood Marshall, pictured in 1976, served as a justice on the U.S. Supreme Court from 1967 until 1991.

Courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Franklin D. Roosevelt

During his visits to Warm Springs, U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt, pictured in 1932, enjoyed traveling the countryside and getting to know the concerns of members of the community.

Fulton County Voters

Fulton County Voters

Voters in Fulton County line up at the polls in the early 1970s.

Courtesy of Atlanta University Center, Robert W. Woodruff Library Archives, Voter Education Project Organizational Records.

Samuel Worcester

Samuel Worcester

Samuel Worcester, a missionary, defied Georgia through peaceful means to protest the state's handling of Cherokee lands. He was arrested several times as a result. With a team of lawyers, Worcester filed a lawsuit against the state that went all the way to the Supreme Court, where he finally won his case.

Photograph from Cherokee Messenger, by Althea Bass

John Marshall

John Marshall

Although Chief Justice John Marshall ruled in Cherokee Nation v. Georgia (1831) that the Cherokees should receive the protection of the U.S. government, the state of Georgia continued to encroach upon Cherokee lands.

Photograph by Wikimedia