A few weeks ago, Dr. Jeffrey Ogbar, a historian and graduate of Morehouse College, visited the Atlanta History Center to speak about his newest book, America's Black Capital: How African Americans Remade Atlanta in the Shadow of the Confederacy. Dr. Ogbar read from his book and spoke with former Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin. I spoke with him before his event, and our interview was recorded at the Atlanta History Center StoryCorps booth.
I shared with Dr. Ogbar that a surprising story he documented was about an African American businessman, Solomon Luckie, whose business was in the Atlanta Hotel. He owned a store that also provided haircuts and other services. I asked him about this person who had a business in antebellum Atlanta.
When asked Dr. Ogbar about the most surprising thing he discovered in his research, which took approximately nine years, he spoke about how the desegregation of schools didn’t happen in Atlanta until the 1970s. He shared that Atlanta has no historical photographs, such as Ruby Bridges or the Arkansas Nine, that can be found in other states because we integrated schools after most other places. He goes on to share that the National NAACP suspended the local Atlanta Chapter of the NAACP because they were slow to integrate. The local NAACP chapter pointed out that the Atlanta Public School system had a Black superintendent even if the schools were still segregated.
Ogbar’s book takes us through the history of “Gate City” from before the Civil War to the 21st Century. His appearance at the Atlanta History Center was supported by The Atlanta Business League and the 44th and 3rd Bookstore.
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