Civil rights history in a city of trees

Atlanta began in 1837 as the end point of a railway line, a settlement first called Terminus, and it has been a crossroads ever since. Burned during the Civil War in 1864, it rebuilt quickly as a hub of trade and transport for the South. The city stands about 300 metres above sea level on the Piedmont plateau, and its dense canopy of oak, pine and magnolia has earned it the name ‘city in a forest’.

It is also the city of Martin Luther King Jr. He was born in 1929 on Auburn Avenue, preached at Ebenezer Baptist Church a short walk away, and is buried nearby with Coretta Scott King. The civil rights movement drew on Atlanta’s Black colleges, churches and businesses, and the city keeps that history in plain view, from the national historical park in Sweet Auburn to the museum beside Centennial Olympic Park, laid out for the 1996 Games.

The city is best explored neighbourhood by neighbourhood. Inman Park keeps its Victorian houses, Midtown its museums and theatres, and the BeltLine trail joins them along old railway corridors. Eat Southern: fried chicken, collard greens, biscuits, peach cobbler and the lemon pepper wings Atlanta claims as its own. For the rest of the world, drive out along Buford Highway, where Korean, Vietnamese, Chinese and Mexican restaurants fill the strip malls for miles.