January 8, 1911
Her fame rested on one indelible performance: a slave who lacked the midwifery skills to help Melanie Hamilton. Thelma McQueen was born in Florida in 1911. She moved to Augusta after her father abandoned the family. She studied acting, dance, and music in New York. Her nickname derived from a performance in the Butterfly Ballet […]
May 30, 1910
He was called the “World’s Fastest Human,” and he excelled on and off the track. Ralph Metcalfe was born in Atlanta in 1910 and became one of the fastest track stars in the world. He won a host of national titles and tied the world record in the 100 and 200 meters. Metcalfe competed in […]
September 22, 1909
Lamar Dodd’s paintings evoked “Georgia, Georgia, Georgia,” according to one New York art critic. Born in Fairburn and raised in LaGrange, Dodd studied briefly at LaGrange College and Georgia Tech before attending the Arts Students League in New York City. He studied under Boardman Robinson, American Scene artist Thomas Hart Benton, and George Luks of […]
November 18, 1909
“Moon River,” “Jeepers Creepers,” “Accentuate the Positive” — Savannah native John Herndon Mercer wrote those songs and a thousand more like them, and his songs are some of the most popular of all time. In a career that spanned nearly 50 years, Mercer co-founded Capitol Records, wrote for Broadway musicals, and was nominated for 19 […]
August 12, 1909
How much would you pay to kill a pest? On this day in 1909, the Georgia General Assembly formally asked the U.S. Congress for a $5 million prize to the first person to eliminate the boll weevil. This was six years before the cotton–consuming pest even appeared in Georgia. Cotton had been Georgia’s premier staple […]
November 11, 1908
He was one of only three people inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as both a player and a coach. Robert Lee “Bobby” Dodd was a four-sport star at the University of Tennessee and was an All-American tailback playing football for legendary coach Robert Neyland. After graduation, Dodd took a job as assistant […]
August 21, 1907
It was a major blow to the rights of Black Georgians. At the same time, a new phrase was born – the grandfather clause. In 1907, Georgia Governor Hoke Smith, who had campaigned promising to disenfranchise Black voters, signed an act that would amend Georgia’s constitution and impose a literacy test as a requirement for […]
March 20, 1907
He’s the only person who ever beat Gene Talmadge. Ellis Arnall was born in Newnan in 1907. He earned a degree in Greek from the University of the South, and a law degree from the University of Georgia. He was a young man on the rise: elected to the state legislature at 25 and attorney […]
April 9, 1907
Peyton Anderson was born in 1907 in Macon with newspaper ink in his veins. His uncle edited and published the Macon Telegraph and later the Macon News; his father was vice president of the company; another uncle was a columnist. Anderson began working at the paper at age 9 sweeping floors. After earning a Bronze […]
September 6, 1905
He began life a slave but, at 47, Alonzo Herndon started the company that became one of America’s most successful Black-owned businesses. Alonzo Franklin Herndon was born in Social Circle, the son of a Black mother and a White slave owner. With just a year of formal education, he opened a barbershop in Jonesboro in […]
