150 years of The Atlanta Constitution

Some of our most famous front pages

The building at 143 Alabama Street was The Atlanta Constitution's home from 1947-1953.

THURSDAY, JUNE 18, 1868 | A NEWSPAPER IS BORN: The June 16 inaugural edition of The Constitution has been lost over the years. The earliest complete edition in our files is from the third day, which featured a front page that was heavy on ads, public proclamations and who’s who among public servants. The list of officials includes legislators, policemen, city bureaucrats and the federal military officers who oversaw the state during the post-war years of Reconstruction. In the photo is Washington Street and City Hall (right) from a print of an 1875 Stereoscope.

THURSDAY, SEPT. 19, 1895 | THE COTTON STATES AND INTERNATIONAL EXPOSITION OPENS: The Exposition was a major coming-out party for Atlanta, not dissimilar to the role the Olympics would play a century later. The four-month-long event, which was staged at Piedmont Park, allowed the city to showcase its progress since the Civil War. Though President Grover Cleveland was on hand for the opening festivities – as noted in the paper’s first-day coverage – the Exposition is best remembered for Booker T. Washington’s controversial “Atlanta Compromise” speech. The photo shows a football game between Auburn and UGA, which was among the events that happened at the Exposition.

TUESDAY, APRIL 16, 1912 | THE SINKING OF THE TITANIC: One of the world’s biggest stories of the 20th century happened at the worst possible time for The Constitution’s press deadlines. The doomed liner sank in the early morning hours of April 15, and it would take hours more for the news to reach offices of American newspapers. Still, The Constitution went all out on the story the next day, with the virtually the entire front page devoted to the tragedy. The sole exception: A short item about a rift in GOP politics. In the photo, the Titanic is seen sailing out of Southampton, England, at the beginning of its ill-fated voyage.

WEDNESDAY, AUG. 18, 1915 | THE LEO FRANK LYNCHING: The Leo Frank lynching was a notorious killing that attracted national attention. Frank, an Atlanta factory superintendent who was Jewish, was lynched on Aug. 17 near where today’s I-75 crosses Roswell Road in Cobb County. Frank had been convicted of murdering 13-year-old Mary Phagan following a shoddy investigation and amid a sea of anti-Semitic rhetoric. When Gov. John Slaton commuted the sentence from death to life imprisonment, a well-organized cabal of Marietta citizens broke into the jail and seized Frank. No one was ever punished for the act.

TUESDAY, MAY 22, 1917 | THE GREAT FIRE OF ATLANTA : Most people associate Atlanta and fire with the damage wrought in 1864, but this blaze was far more destructive, especially for residents. The fire originated around noon on May 21 in the Old Fourth Ward, and burned for 11 hours. About 10,000 people were left homeless and the damage was estimated to reach $5 million — more than $100 million today. “A path of smoking ruins, six blocks in width and twenty-four in length, extends this morning from Decatur street to Vedado way,” the newspaper reported. A cause was never determined.

SATURDAY, DEC. 16, 1939 | "GONE WITH THE WIND" PREMIERES HERE: The idea of a movie premiere being a big deal may seem strange in today’s multi-media, multi-digitized world. But "Gone With the Wind" was no ordinary film, not for that time, and certainly not for Atlanta. Margaret Mitchell’s novel had been an international best-seller, so the process of hitching the city’s wagon to her romanticized Civil War saga was a done deal by the time the eagerly anticipated film debuted at Loew’s Grand Theatre. Hollywood came to town in full force, and Atlanta’s society was waiting with open arms, with balls and cocktail parties throughout the week. At the center of it all was Mitchell, who began her literary career by working as a reporter for The Constitution’s then-rival, The Atlanta Journal.

FRIDAY, APRIL 13, 1945 | PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT DIES IN WARM SPRINGS: The world’s biggest news story hasn’t always happened in The Constitution’s backyard, but in this case it did – or at least just down the street, 70 miles away in tiny Warm Springs, Ga. Franklin Roosevelt annually visited the therapeutic water of Warm Springs, but his sudden and unexpected death there on April 12 stunned the world, including the millions of Americans whom he led through the darkest days of the Great Depression and World War II. The only item on the front page that wasn’t devoted to FDR’s passing was the day’s weather forecast. In the photo, the train carrying Roosevelt's body pulls into Atlanta's Terminal Station on its way from Warm Springs to Washington D. C.

SUNDAY, DEC. 8, 1946 | THE NATION’S DEADLIEST HOTEL FIRE: When Constitution editor Ralph McGill arrived at the Winecoff Hotel on the night of Dec. 7, 1946, the Peachtree Street building was fully illuminated by flames and firefighters’ searchlights. He watched as people jumped from windows, and his taut writing captured the horror of the moment. “The dead are all picked up by now, at 4:40. Those who leaped in alley and street are carried away, dead or wounded. Only the bloodstains on the big, round catch-nets testify with what violence their dead weight plunged down toward that dimly seen refuge.” It remains the deadliest hotel fire in U.S. history, with 119 victims. Today, the Ellis Hotel is located at the site. The photo by Arnold Hardy shows a woman falling from an upper floor of the hotel. She was later identified as Daisy McCumber, one of the fire's survivors.

THURSDAY, JULY 1, 1965 | ATLANTA GETS AN NFL TEAM: In 1964, the city and Fulton County built an $18-million stadium near Downtown Atlanta in hopes of attracting a Major League Baseball team. They found a taker in the Milwaukee Braves, but subsequent litigation held up the move until 1966. Meanwhile, the NFL showed little interest in having its first Southern franchise – until the rival AFL announced plans to put a team here, awarding a franchise to business executive Rankin Smith. Within a matter of days, the NFL offered a franchise to Smith, who then backed out of his AFL agreement. It took a whirlwind, but pro football finally had a home in the Southeast.

FRIDAY, APRIL 5, 1968 | MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.’S ASSASSINATION: The murder of Atlanta’s most famous citizen happened on the evening of April 4, too late for the newspaper to get a reporter to the scene in Memphis in time for the next morning’s edition. However, The Constitution combined local reaction – including one of Ralph McGill’s best-remembered columns, and the news that President Johnson had called Coretta Scott King with his condolences – among the national wires stories on its front page.

WEDNESDAY, OCT. 17, 1973 | ATLANTA ELECTS ITS FIRST AFRICAN-AMERICAN MAYOR: Maynard Jackson Jr. became the first African-American to run a major Southern city with his victory in a 1973 run-off with the incumbent mayor, Sam Massell. The 35-year-old Jackson, the great-grandson of slaves, went on to become the dominant politician during one of Atlanta’s biggest periods of growth. He helped create an Atlanta that boasted the world's busiest airport, allowed minorities to do business with the government, would go on to land the Summer Olympics, and in general attracted people to a black mecca. He served three terms, spanning 1974-82 and 1990-94.

TUESDAY, APRIL 9, 1974 | THE HAMMER PASSES THE BABE: The most cherished record in American sports was broken on the night of April 8, 1974, at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium when Hank Aaron surpassed Babe Ruth as baseball’s all-time home run king. The future Hall of Famer for the Braves had endured death threats as he drew closer to Ruth’s mark of 714 career homers.

WEDNESDAY, NOV. 3, 1976 | A GEORGIAN WINS THE WHITE HOUSE: “Jimmy Carter the peanut farmer” was the dismissive tag offered by some to Georgia’s former governor when he entered the 1976 Democratic primaries. Virtually unknown on the national stage, Carter was given no chance of emerging from a crowded field of Democratic contenders. However, Carter’s message of open government and being a D.C.-outsider played well in the wake of Watergate. Carter went on to defeat President Gerald Ford by a 297-240 margin in the Electoral College, though the final West Coast results came in too late to make the morning paper.

MONDAY, NOV. 7, 1977 | THE TOCCOA FALLS TRAGEDY: When an earthen dam gave way after multiple days of heavy rain, most of the students at Toccoa Falls College, just a few thousand feet downstream, were asleep. The ongoing downpour likely muffled the sound of the 30-foot wall of water as it bore down on the campus at 1:30 a.m. It took emergency workers days to recover all victims, with the final death toll reaching 39.

SUNDAY, FEB. 28, 1982 | THE ATLANTA CHILD MURDERS: The most infamous serial killer case in the city's history reached a sense of closure with the conviction and sentencing of Wayne Williams. From over 1979-1982, over 20 (the exact number remains a source of controversy) African-American children and young adolescents, most of them male, were murdered around metro Atlanta. The newspaper covered all aspects of this horrific story, from the often-frustrated police investigation, to the fear and anxiety that gripped the city.

WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 19, 1990 | ATLANTA LANDS THE OLYMPICS: When Atlanta began its quest to host the 1996 Summer Olympics, you could count the number of people who thought it would succeed on Billy Payne's right hand. All the same, for two years the AJC sent journalists worldwide to document and report on the city's bid efforts. The Constitution celebrated with the rest of the region when the International Olympic Committee shocked the world by awarding the games to Atlanta.

SUNDAY, OCT. 29, 1995 | FINALLY, A PRO SPORTS CHAMPIONSHIP: Sometimes a picture - aided by a really big headline - is worth a thousand words. Some thirty years after the Braves announced their move to Atlanta from Milwaukee, the team delivered the city's first (and only, alas) world championship by beating the Cleveland Indians in Game 6 of the World Series.

SATURDAY, MARCH 12, 2005 | THE FULTON COURTHOUSE KILLINGS: A day of horror unfolded in Fulton County's judicial hallways when accused rapist Brian Nichols took a deputy's gun and shot 3 people to death before fleeing (he killed a fourth person hours later). A massive manhunt ensued, which ended in Nichols' arrest the next day.

WEDNESDAY, JAN. 29, 2014 | SNOWPOCALYPSE: The winter storm that paralyzed metro Atlanta with 2 inches of ice and snow left millions stranded in either their cars or homes -- much to the amusement of the rest of the country. At the AJC offices, journalists worked around the clock in covering the storm and its aftermath, some sleeping on makeshift bedding in the newsroom.

THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 2015 | THE APS CHEATING SCANDAL: When the AJC first raised questions about the rapid improvement in test scores among Atlanta Public Schools, the newspaper received widespread blowback, and was accused of trying to undermine a nationally celebrated success story. Undeterred by the critics (a group that included many political and business leaders), the AJC continued to dig deeper, with the newspaper's coverage ultimately leading to the conviction of APS administrators in what has been described is the largest school cheating scandal in U.S. history.

For larger and more easily readable versions of each of the front pages above, go here and click on the individual dates to get that page as a PDF file.

A NOTE FROM EDITOR KEVIN RILEY

When I came to Atlanta more than seven years ago to become editor of the newspaper, I knew of the storied tradition of The Atlanta Constitution.

The newspaper was known for its history as an advocate for all of Atlanta's citizens. Almost immediately upon my arrival, I read the biography of Ralph McGill, the famous editor of the Constitution who established its reputation during the Civil Rights era.

As I turned each page, I became more honored to have found a place in the line of his successors.

Today, as we celebrate the 150th birthday of The Atlanta Constitution, it's tempting to revel in that part of our history - and to see that as the entirety of the story in the Constitution's century and half of journalism.

But, as always, there's more to the story.

To understand the Constitution's tale requires a disquieting visit with some of Georgia's most difficult history and a journey along the road of our state's progression to some of its present-day challenges.

And, I promise you, it's a trip worth taking. The Constitution's history is a big part of Atlanta's story — and the newspaper was not always the positive force we are proud of today. Like Atlanta, it spent a long time finding its way.

As recorded by the New Georgia Encyclopedia, the Constitution's founding sounds routine:

"The Constitution was founded in 1868 by Carey Wentworth Styles, an Atlanta lawyer and entrepreneur. He bought the Atlanta Daily Opinion, one of several newspapers serving the city's 20,288 residents, and renamed it The Atlanta Constitution."

The Atlanta Constitution set about publishing its first drafts of the state's and city's history, but its founding — in fact, its very name — reveals a point of view that its numerous courageous moments have long overshadowed.

The name — "Constitution" — conjures a noble purpose and strikes a proud tone to modern readers. But on June 16, 1868, that name meant something very different. To grasp what was in that name, we must step back into the tumultuous times following the Civil War, when the country and Georgia experienced crises.

First, the federal government in Washington had just three weeks earlier survived a near-fatal power struggle.

The Republican-dominated Congress impeached President Andrew Johnson. There were strong disagreements about what to demand of southern states as they sought to rejoin the union.

Johnson survived his trial in the Senate by just one vote, but the impeachment had created a fissure between the president and Congress.

Johnson resisted enfranchisement of former slaves, playing to the southern Democrats who were part of his constituency. He vetoed legislation to give rights to blacks when Congress passed it.

The Congressional Republicans demanded that southern states grant citizenship to former slaves and guarantee black men the right to vote.

Blacks began to exercise their new freedom, and demanded to participate in politics. This gave rise to the Ku Klux Klan as white resistance grew.

The southern states' leaders sought a return to the union, but imagined the South of old — a society that whites ruled, said Stan Deaton, senior historian at the Georgia Historical Society.

"That black voters were entertained at all seemed absurd to them," Deaton said. "This was the world turned upside down."

Among those insolent southern states was Georgia, where the federal military still intervened. Federal troops were ever-present in Georgia — and throughout the South — to guarantee rights to blacks.

And Georgia was in political chaos.

Gen. George Meade, the northern hero of the Battle of Gettysburg, oversaw the federal military district that included Georgia, Alabama and Florida. He was the all-powerful ruler of the subjugated former Confederate state. And in January of 1868, he removed the elected governor of Georgia for undermining efforts to grant blacks their rights.

Meade then appointed a fellow U.S. general as governor.

The federal government demanded that Georgia write a new constitution that included provisions enfranchising blacks.

White leaders in Georgia saw the writing of that constitution as their job — to be done in the way they saw fit and without the federal government's involvement — and as a job that excluded blacks.

Deaton called Georgia's political environment "a soup unlike any you can imagine."

"The Atlanta Constitution is born of this tumult," he said.

So the name "Constitution," was really a demand for ending federal military rule and giving Georgia self-determination of its government and laws — code for white domination.

"There's no other way to say it. The call was for a constitutional government that excluded blacks," said Deaton. "Its readers would've understood."

By its name, the Constitution aligned itself with Southern Democrats and against Republicans.

Two of its early leaders also served as mayors of Atlanta, and the newspaper eventually moved away from its anti-Reconstruction stance, as a number of newspapers fought for dominance in Atlanta — including The Atlanta Journal, which came along in 1883.

One of Georgia's most famous names joined The Atlanta Constitution in 1876. Henry Grady brought a new approach to the newspaper's journalism. He provided its readers with stories from around the country, and he also wrote about the south for northern newspapers.

Grady was progressive and the first to position the Constitution as a newspaper of national scope and reputation.

"Grady, the 'Spokesman of the New South,' served as managing editor for The Atlanta Constitution in the 1880s," according to The New Georgia Encyclopedia. "A member of the 'Atlanta Ring' of Democratic political leaders, Grady used his office and influence to promote a New South."

Grady was successful at convincing investors to look south for industrial growth and established Atlanta's reputation as the key city of the region.

But that New South still had a legacy with which to contend.
"In numerous Constitution editorials Grady claimed that African Americans enjoyed 'fair treatment' in Georgia and throughout the South," said the New Georgia Encyclopedia.

Despite Grady's characterizations, blacks in Georgia didn't enjoy full citizenship rights — and wouldn't for decades.

Grady died unexpectedly on December 23, 1889. He was just 39.

Clark Howell was the next great figure in the Constitution's history, taking charge of the newspaper his father owned in 1897.

The New Georgia Encyclopedia gives this concise description of Howell's journalistic leadership:

"He campaigned against the state's notorious convict lease system, supported Atlanta's acceptance of evacuees from a yellow fever epidemic in several southern states and stood with the governor when he vetoed a bill outlawing football at UGA in the wake of a player's death."

Also a politician, Howell served as a state legislator.

He lost a bitter battle for governor in 1906 to Hoke Smith, who was a former owner of The Atlanta Journal.

"(His opponent) was more strident in his opposition to suffrage for blacks than Howell and won handily," according to the New Georgia Encyclopedia.

In 1929, a young journalist from Tennessee would arrive in the Constitution's newsroom. He was hired in the sports department, a modest opportunity that would belie his future as one of Georgia's great historical figures and reformers. Ralph McGill, nine years later, would be named the newspaper's top editor.

McGill's legendary tenure at the Constitution would include a Pulitzer Prize and the writing of more than 10,000 columns, most of which appeared on the front page.

As the editor of one of the South's most important newspapers, he faced down harsh criticism as he challenged the treatment of blacks and segregationist laws.

He presented his views to southerners as a southerner. He wrote a column every day — but he mixed in other stories and topics instead of writing about racial issues all the time.

I spoke to Leonard Ray Teel, McGill's biographer and a professor at Georgia State University, for a column I wrote in 2011.

"McGill broke the silence" about the racial situation in the South, he said. "He was a southerner, which meant he was a traitor" to those who held segregationist or racist views.
But what made McGill so effective, according to Teel was his ability to tell stories.

"He would achieve his goal by telling a story," he said. "He was a good man who had a wonderful ability to tell a story.

"People read McGill whether they liked him or not," Teel said.
Many people didn't like McGill, who routinely received threatening letters, as he established himself as "The Conscience of the South," and the Constitution as one of the country's leading journalistic voices.

McGill would serve as an important mentor, including to Celestine Sibley, whom he appointed as one of the newspaper's first female editors.

He would eventually be named publisher of the newspaper, and the legendary Eugene Patterson would fill the role of editor.
By that time the Constitution and Journal were part of the same company, our current owners, Cox Enterprises.

Over time, changes to the media business and the economics of the newspaper industry would result in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

McGill and those who followed set the newspaper on a course that still guides us. My reading of McGill's biography reminded me that we, like him, must confront the difficult issues of our time.

In retrospect and from afar, McGill seems brilliant.
But upon a closer look in the pages of his biography, I met a man who was persistent, hard-working and thoughtful — wrestling each day with how to make Atlanta and Georgia a better place through his work.

He inspires us today.

You can see that in our commitment to investigative reporting, and to holding public officials accountable.

And you can see it as we consistently cover racial issues in our community and country. Race, and Atlanta's history with it, remains one of the important issues of our time — just as was 150 years ago.

The Constitution's growth and change through its history embodies the history of Atlanta. Its story, with all of its challenges, faults and accomplishments, is also a part of Atlanta's story. It seems that Atlanta has always known it would be one of the country's leading cities.

You will see that in the remarkable collection of front pages from The Atlanta Constitution published in this special keepsake edition.

The newspaper has been alongside our town through a lot of good and bad days, and by reaching into its history, the stories of Atlanta and Georgia unfold. And they remind us of the progress we've made.

Here's to another 150 years.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution Editor Kevin Riley

The Constitution's edition for June 18, 1868

Henry Grady joined The Atlanta Constitution in 1876.

Ralph McGill joined The Atlanta Constitution in 1929.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's printing plant in Norcross earlier this year. (HYOSUB SHIN / HSHIN@AJC.COM)

PHOTOS: Former Atlanta Journal and Atlanta Constitution buildings (all 11 of them)

A TIMELINE

1868: Carey Wentworth Styles, James H. Anderson and W. A. Hemphill buy the Atlanta Daily Opinion newspaper and rename it The Atlanta Constitution. The first edition publishes on June 16. Why the Constitution? Atlanta was still under martial law during the Reconstruction era, and the founders advocated the return of a constitutional government as had existed before the Civil War.

1876: Evan P. Howell is named editor-in-chief, and he soon makes two key hires: Henry Grady as political writer and Joel Chandler Harris as associate editor.

1879: Joel Chandler Harris' first Uncle Remus story, The Story of Mr. Rabbit and Mr. Fox, runs in The Constitution on July 20.

1886: Henry Grady, now editor of the Constitution, makes his first “New South” address in New York City on Dec. 22. He declares, "We have raised a brave and beautiful city." Among those in his audience: William Tecumseh Sherman.

1889: On Dec. 23, Henry Grady dies at age 39 from pneumonia, which he contracted while delivering a speech in Boston.

1931: The Constitution wins its first Pulitzer Prize, for public service, after exposing kickbacks in the construction of Atlanta City Hall.

1950: James M. Cox, the former governor of Ohio who had purchased the Atlanta Journal in 1939, buys The Atlanta Constitution in March. Cox forms Atlanta Newspapers Inc. and combines the two newspapers' Sunday editions. In April, Furman Bisher becomes sports editor of The Constitution and writes his first column for the paper.

1959: Ralph McGill is awarded the paper’s second Pulitzer Prize. He wins for editorial writing for his many columns on tolerance and integration.

1960: Reporter Jack Nelson wins a Pulitzer Prize for exposing abuses at Milledgeville State Hospital for the mentally ill.

1967: Editor Eugene Patterson wins a Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing.

1969: On Feb. 3, Ralph McGill, who still was publisher and a columnist for The Constitution, dies after suffering a heart attack.

1974: Editor Reg Murphy is kidnapped from his home. He was released after the newspaper pays a $700,000 ransom. His kidnapper, William A.H. Williams, was soon arrested and serves nine years in prison

1976: The Journal and Constitution's Saturday newspapers combine into a single weekend edition.

1978: Lewis Grizzard begins his humor column after moving over from the sports department.

1982: The newsrooms of the Constitution and the Journal combine under Editor Jim Minter.

1988: Constitution cartoonist Doug Marlette wins the Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning.

1989: Reporter Bill Dedman wins the Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting after exposing discrimination in lending practices by metro Atlanta banks and mortgage companies.

1993: Mike Toner wins the Pulitzer Prize for explanatory journalism for When Bugs Fight Back, his series about organisms' resistance to antibiotics and pesticides.

1995: Mike Luckovich of the Constitution wins the Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning.

1998: AJC.com launches on Feb. 26, publishing the newspapers' content on the Internet.

1999: Celestine Sibley, who began working for the Constitution in 1941, passes away on Aug. 15 at age 85. Her column appeared for 55 years.

2001: The last Atlanta Journal is published on Nov. 2. The next day, the newspaper becomes the Atlanta Journal-Constitution seven days a week.

2006: Editorial cartoonist Mike Luckovich wins his second Pulitzer Prize.

2007: Columnist Cynthia Tucker wins a Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing.

2008: In December, The Journal-Constitution begins a series of investigative reports questioning the turnaround in test scores at some Atlanta Public Schools. Over the next few years, the newspaper’s reporting uncovers widespread test-score cheating and a subsequent cover-up at the highest levels of APS.

2009: Hall of Fame sportswriter Furman Bisher retires from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution after 59 years.

2011: In January, Kevin Riley succeeds Julia Wallace as editor of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

2016: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution launches a national investigative series, Doctors & Sex Abuse. The series finds that regulators fail to protect patients from physicians who continue to practice despite repeated complaints of sexual assault and misconduct. The series wins numerous national awards.

2018: The newspaper celebrates its 150th anniversary.

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