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April in Georgia History

On April 21, 1732, King George II of England signed a charter establishing the trustee colony of Georgia. After twenty years of rule, the Georgia Trustees ceded control of the colony to the British crown on April 23, 1752. Much of Fort Frederica, established by James Oglethorpe on St. Simons Island, burned down in 1758. The first annual conference of Methodists in Georgia was held near Elberton in 1788.

In 1825 Creek leader William McIntosh was killed by fellow Creeks at his plantation Lockchau Talofau, in present-day Carroll County, after signing the Treaty of Indian Springs, which ceded remaining Creek lands to the state of Georgia. The first coins were issued from the Branch Mint at Dahlonega in 1838.

In April 1862, during the Civil War, Fort Pulaski fell to Union forces, and Union spy James Andrews incited a seven-hour locomotive chase, later known as the Andrews Raid. That same month, Susie King Taylor and other African Americans fled to St. Simons Island, which was under the control of Union troops. There she organized the state's first freely operating freedmen's school. In 1863 women in Columbus, desperate for food as a result of wartime shortages, looted several stores. Wilson's Raid, near the end of the war in April 1865, resulted in the surrender of both Columbus and Macon to Union troops, and that same month, a female military unit called the Nancy Harts surrendered LaGrange to Union troops.

In 1881 Spelman College was founded in the basement of Atlanta's Friendship Baptist Church. Decades later, on April 7, 1968, the college hosted a public viewing of the body of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., who was assassinated at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4. King's funeral took place on April 9 at Ebenezer Baptist Church, where he had shared the pastorate with his father since 1960.

Leo Frank, born on April 17, 1884, was arrested in Atlanta for the murder of Mary Phagan on April 29, 1913. Frank was found guilty of the crime and sentenced to death, but he was later lynched by a mob after the governor commuted his sentence to life imprisonment.

In 1898 the federal government requested that Georgia supply 3,000 troops for military campaigns during the Spanish-American War. In 1918, during World War I, more than 500 German prisoners of war were interned at camps near Fort McPherson. In 1942, during World War II, the German U-boat U-123 sank three tankers off the Georgia coast. U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt died at the Little White House in Warm Springs on April 12, 1945. In 1959 the second location for the Naval Air Station Atlanta was completed in Marietta.

Georgia native Archibald Butt, a military aide to U.S. president William Howard Taft, died aboard the Titanic in 1912, after delivering a message from the president to Catholic pope Pius X at the Vatican, in Rome, Italy.

The Georgia Old Times Fiddlers' Convention was held in Atlanta each April from 1913 to 1935. In 1926 the country music string band Gid Tanner and His Skillet Lickers recorded eight songs in Atlanta for Columbia Records. Twelve-year-old Brenda Lee made her debut on the country music charts with the song "One Step at a Time" in 1957, and in 1979 the Georgia legislature declared Ray Charles's version of "Georgia on My Mind" to be the official state song. In 1990 the 40 Watt Club in Athens opened at its current location.

The Masters Tournament, held each April in Augusta, was first played in 1934.

In 1936 one of the most destructive tornadoes in the nation's history hit Gainesville.

In 1937 the U.S. Supreme Court struck down an insurrection statute used to convict Angelo Herndon, a member of the Communist Party who was arrested in Fulton County after participating in a labor demonstration. Students at the University of Georgia in 1968 staged a sit-in to protest the dress and curfew rules for women on campus, which were stricter than those for men.

Several memorable baseball firsts occurred in this month for two Georgia natives. In 1947 the Brooklyn Dodgers bought Jackie Robinson's contract, and a few days later Robinson became the first African American to play in a major-league baseball game on April 15, 1947. Hank Aaron, playing for the Milwaukee (later Atlanta) Braves, hit his first major-league home run on April 23, 1954. The Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium was completed in 1965, and the Atlanta Braves played their first home game there on April 12, 1966. It was there, in 1974, that Aaron, playing in his final season with the Braves, broke Babe Ruth's home run record.

Noteworthy literary achievements in this month include the 1903 publication of Souls of Black Folk by W. E. B. Du Bois. Ed Dodd's comic strip Mark Trail debuted in 1946. Alice Walker received both the Pulitzer Prize and the American Book Award for her novel The Color Purple in 1983. Alfred Uhry's play Driving Miss Daisy premiered in 1987 at an off-Broadway theater. In 2004 talk-show host Oprah Winfrey selected Carson McCullers's The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (1940) for her book club, spiking sales of the novel.

In 1989 the Georgia Aviation Hall of Fame, located at Robins Air Force Base in Warner Robins, was created. The Georgia Sports Hall of Fame opened in Macon in 1999, and the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame was inaugurated in 2000.

The state legislature declared April 19, 1995, to be "Johnny Mercer Day," in honor of the songwriter from Savannah. The mayor of Savannah named April 26, 1996, as "John Berendt Day," in honor of the author of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.

Events held around the state in April include the Annual Screven County Livestock Festival in Screven County, Day of the Child in Bacon County, Georgia Strawberry Festival in Taylor County, Inman Park Festival and Tour of Homes in the Inman Park neighborhood of Atlanta, National Grits Festival in Worth County, National Mayhaw Fesitval in Colquitt, Pan African Festival of Georgia in Macon, Rose Show and Festival in Thomas County, Shellcracker Fishing Tournament in Seminole County, Springtime Ellaville in Schley County, and the Timberland Jubilee in Clinch County.

Born this month in Georgia history: Georgia signers of the Declaration of Independence Lyman Hall (1724) and Button Gwinnett (1735); botanist and explorer William Bartram (1739); governors William Rabun (1771), George R. Gilmer (1790), Thomas Ruger (1833), and Lamartine Hardman (1856); industrialist Mark Anthony Cooper (1800); politicians Tunis Campbell (1812), Joseph E. Brown (1821), and Richard B. Russell Sr. (1861); Georgia Supreme Court justice Henry L. Benning (1814); Confederate officers Thomas R. R. Cobb (1823), Alfred H. Colquitt (1824), and Ambrose Wright (1826); writer Bill Arp (1826); educator Lucy Craft Laney (1854); pharmacist Henry Rutherford Butler (1862); Progressive reformer Helen Dortch Longstreet (1863); football coach Glenn "Pop" Warner (1871); architects Henrietta Dozier (1872) and A. Thomas Bradbury (1902); civil rights leaders A. T. Walden (1885) and Coretta Scott King (1927); musicians Wallingford Riegger (1885), Gertrude "Ma" Rainey (1886), Robert Shaw (1916), Chuck Leavell (1952), and Amy Ray of the Indigo Girls (1964); religious leaders Louie D. Newton (1892) and William Ragsdale Cannon (1916); military logistics expert Lucius D. Clay (1897); actors Melvyn Douglas (1901) and Jane Withers (1926); artist Andrée Ruellan (1905); newspaper publisher Peyton Anderson (1907); athletes Luke Appling (1907), Beau Jack (1921), Phil Niekro (1939), Mel Blount (1948), Davis Love III (1964), and Cheryl Haworth (1983); aviator Robert Scott (1908); naturalist Jim Fowler (1930); and poets Coleman Barks (1937) and Natasha Trethewey (1966).

Trustee Georgia, 1732-1752 The first twenty years of Georgia history are referred to as Trustee Georgia because during that time... Fort Frederica Destined to defend the southern frontier from the continued presence of Spanish colonials in the American... Methodist Church: Overview Georgia's deep roots in Methodism reach back to the founders of the Methodist movement. Methodism is... William McIntosh (ca. 1778-1825) William McIntosh was a controversial chief of the Lower Creeks in early-nineteenth-century Georgia. His... Civil War in Georgia: Overview The South, like the rest of the country, was forever altered by the dramatic events of the Civil War... Andrews Raid The Andrews Raid of April 12, 1862, brought the first Union soldiers into north Georgia and led to an... Women during the Civil War During the Civil War (1861-65), women across the South took on new roles to support their families and... Nancy Harts Militia The Nancy Harts militia, formed in LaGrange during the first weeks of the Civil War (1861-65), was a... Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968) Martin Luther King Jr., Baptist minister and president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference... Leo Frank Case The Leo Frank case is one of the most notorious and highly publicized cases in the legal annals of Georgia.... World War I in Georgia Georgia played a significant role during America's participation in World War I (1917-18). The state... World War II in Georgia Southern states were critical to the war effort during World War II (1941-45) and none more so than Georgia.... Franklin D. Roosevelt in Georgia Between 1924 and 1945 Franklin D. Roosevelt visited Warm Springs and Georgia forty-one times. In the... Archibald Butt (1865-1912) Major Archibald Butt was a journalist, U.S. Army officer, and military aide to U.S. presidents Theodore... Georgia Old-Time Fiddlers' Conventions Some of the most important figures in the history of commercial country music received their first significant... Brenda Lee (b. 1944) Singer Brenda Lee, known as "Little Miss Dynamite," has enjoyed success as a child performer, teen idol,... Georgia General Assembly A form of representative government has existed in Georgia since January 1751. Its modern embodiment,... 40 Watt Club One of the most famous music clubs in Georgia, if not the United States, the 40 Watt Club of Athens received... Gainesville Gainesville, the "Queen City of the Mountains," is located fifty-two miles northeast of Atlanta on Interstate... Communists During the late 1920s and 1930s the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA) waged an... Student Movement of the 1960s During the 1960s Georgia experienced an increase in student activism on its college campuses and in its... Hank Aaron (b. 1934) "Hammerin' Hank" Aaron, a player for the Atlanta Braves, hit 755 home runs, a record that stood unchallenged... Atlanta–Fulton County Stadium Atlanta–Fulton County Stadium (known as Atlanta Stadium from 1966 to 1975) lured major league... Ed Dodd (1902-1991) Ed Dodd combined his affinity for the outdoors with his artistic talent to create the comic strip Mark Trail... Pulitzer Prizes of Georgia Numerous Georgia writers have won Pulitzer Prizes for their work in the various categories of letters,... Alfred Uhry (b. 1936) Alfred Uhry, a playwright, lyricist, and screenwriter, is best known for his play Driving Miss Daisy... Carson McCullers (1917-1967) With a collection of work including five novels, two plays, twenty short stories, more than two dozen... Georgia Aviation Hall of Fame On April 19, 1989, Governor Joe Frank Harris signed a bill authorizing the creation of the Georgia Aviation... Georgia Sports Hall of Fame At 43,000 square feet, the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame and Museum is the nation's largest state sports... Johnny Mercer (1909-1976) While Johnny Mercer had the talent, Georgia provided the inspiration that made him one of America's most...

Royal Georgia, 1752-1776 Royal Georgia refers to the period between the termination of Trustee governance of Georgia and the colony's... James Edward Oglethorpe (1696-1785) As visionary, social reformer, and military leader, James Oglethorpe conceived of and implemented his... Creek Indians The history of early Georgia is largely the history of the Creek Indians. For most of Georgia's colonial... Branch Mint at Dahlonega A branch of the United States Mint was established in Dahlonega in 1835, a decade after the nation's... Fort Pulaski A massive five-sided edifice, Fort Pulaski was constructed in the 1830s and 1840s on Cockspur Island... Susie King Taylor (1848-1912) Susie Baker King Taylor was the first African American to teach openly in a school for former slaves... Wilson's Raid In mid-March 1865, as the Confederate States of America struggled through its final days, Union major... Spelman College Spelman College, the nation's oldest historically black college for women, has provided women with access... Ebenezer Baptist Church Located within Atlanta's Sweet Auburn district, the reputed cradle of the civil rights movement, Ebenezer... Spanish-American War in Georgia On the quiet evening of February 15, 1898, the American exercise in saber rattling with Spain over the... Fort McPherson Fort McPherson occupied nearly 500 acres in southwest Atlanta from 1885 until 2011. At the time of its... U-boat Attacks during World War II Georgia's closest brush with actual combat operations in World War II (1941-45) occurred when American... Naval Air Station Atlanta From 1943 until 2009 Naval Air Station Atlanta (NAS) trained flight personnel from throughout the southeastern... Catholic Church The Catholic Church in Georgia is both one of the earliest and one of the fastest-growing religious institutions... Gid Tanner and His Skillet Lickers Gid Tanner was one of the most widely recognized names among country music enthusiasts of the 1920s and... Country Music: Overview Country music has played a large role in the culture of Georgia, as it has in all southern states, and... Ray Charles (1930-2004) As a performer and recording artist in the late 1950s and early 1960s, Ray Charles pioneered a new style... Masters Tournament First played in 1934, the Masters Tournament is one of golf's four "major" events, alongside the U.S.... Angelo Herndon Case An African American member of the Communist Party, Angelo Herndon won national and international fame... University of Georgia The University of Georgia (UGA) is the oldest, largest, and most comprehensive educational institution... Jackie Robinson (1919-1972) Jackie Robinson became the first black man to play major league baseball in the twentieth century when... Atlanta Braves After spending seventy-seven years in Boston, Massachusetts, and thirteen in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the... W. E. B. Du Bois in Georgia William Edward Burghardt Du Bois (1868-1963) was an African American educator, historian, sociologist,... Alice Walker (b. 1944) Alice Walker is an African American novelist, short-story writer, poet, essayist, and activist. Her most... The Color Purple  The Color Purple is the international best-selling novel by Alice Walker, an African American writer from... Driving Miss Daisy The play Driving Miss Daisy had its New York premiere on April 15, 1987, off Broadway at the Studio Theater... The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter The first novel by Georgia writer Carson McCullers, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter is commonly treated... Robins Air Force Base Robins Air Force Base is Georgia's largest industrial installation and is located in Warner Robins, sixteen... Georgia Writers Hall of Fame As part of the University of Georgia's Year 2000 millennial celebration, the University Libraries established... Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil The impact of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil on Savannah has been greater than that of any other...

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