ATLVault

Atlanta’s very first Super Bowl remains arguably the most exciting in NFL history.

The crime that happened only hours later remains the Super Bowl's most infamous.

Hours after the St. Louis Rams withstood a furious, late-game and last-second surge from the Tennessee Titans to win their first-ever NFL championship, two men were stabbed to death outside a Buckhead nightclub.

Ray Lewis - a Baltimore Ravens linebacker already well on his way to an NFL Hall of Fame career - was leaving Buckhead’s Cobalt Lounge when the fight broke out at the nightclub. Jacinth Baker and Richard Lollar were stabbed to death

Eleven days later, Lewis and two friends - Joseph Sweeting and Reginald Oakley - were arrested and charged with double murder. Lewis later pleaded guilty to obstruction, received one year’s probation, and was fined by the NFL for $250,000. Less than a year later, he would be named MVP of Super Bowl 36, which was won by the Baltimore Ravens.

Tim Livingston recently finished a three-year investigation into the murders, which remain unsolved. He is the host of 'The Raven,' and his podcast can be heard wherever you receive your podcasts.

Listen to all of Atlanta News First’s podcasts, now available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Amazon Music, and wherever you get your podcasts.

he old offices where legendary Atlanta newspapermen like Ralph McGill toiled, and a long-forgotten African-American burial ground in the heart of Buckhead have been listed as places in peril by the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation.

Each year, the trust releases a list of 10 places in peril throughout the state, a list the organization hopes will raise awareness about Georgia’s historic, archaeological and cultural resources that are threatened by demolition, neglect, lack of maintenance, inappropriate development or poor public policy.

“This is the Trust’s nineteenth annual Places in Peril list,” said W. Wright Mitchell, president and CEO of the trust. “We hope the list will continue to bring preservation solutions to Georgia’s imperiled historic resources by highlighting 10 representative sites.”

Paige Watts is the author of a new book, "What's With Atlanta?" The travel writer and blogger shares some fascinating aspects about life in the ATL.

On April 6, 1972, a fire began at the Triangle Refinery in Doraville, starting with an overfilled storage tank. Vapors from the tank reached nearby homes on Doral Circle and ignited a pilot light at one of the homes causing an explosion. The explosion then set three storage tanks on fire. 

In all, 300 people were evacuated from their homes, staying at nearby elementary schools, hotels, or with friends and family. Two people died in the fire, whose flames reached up to 400 feet and were visible from downtown Atlanta.

In 2022, Valerie Biggerstaff wrote a 50-year retrospective on the famous Doraville refinery fire, and shares her research with digital content producer Tim Darnell and ATLVault on Atlanta News First. 

Founded in 1871, Doraville is one of Georgia's oldest cities, but features an amazing diversity. Mayor Joe Geierman talks about his city's rich history; the old General Motors plant that was a catalyst for Doraville's economic growth; the new Assembly Atlanta; and the challenges facing this intown Atlanta suburb.

On Sept. 5, 1955, two Atlanta businessmen - Joe Rogers and Tom Forkner - opened the very first Waffle House, located in DeKalb County's Avondale Estates community. Rogers started in the restaurant business as a short-order cook in 1947 
at the Toddle House in Connecticut.
By 1949, he was a regional manager, then moved to Atlanta. He met Forkner 
while buying a house from him in Avondale Estates.
Today, Waffle House has more than 1,900 locations in 25 states.
Njeri Boss, vice president of public relations, and Virginia Angles, curator of the Waffle House museum, talk about this national iconic culinary brand.

On Aug. 28, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered one of the most famous speeches in human history. On the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in an address that culminated the march on Washington, King delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech. Lasting less than 18 minutes, King's speech has inspired millions around the world. 

But where did King actually draft his speech? Conventional history records he wrote the speech at the Willard Intercontinental Hotel in Washington, D.C. But David Yoakley Mitchell of the Atlanta Preservation Center and Dr. Robert Adams of the Penn Center on St. Helena Island, South Carolina, say one of history's most influential speeches has its roots elsewhere.

One of the world’s most celebrated and influential speeches was delivered 60 years ago.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., made his now-famous “I Have a Dream” speech on August 28, 1963, capping the “March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom” event.

King gave his speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

Here is a recording of what became a speech that has inspired millions around the world.

 Mary Phagan had only two things on her mind on April 26, 1913. First, it was Confederate Memorial Day in Georgia, and she was excited to show off her new dress. Second, she had to pick up her paycheck of $1.20 from Leo Frank, her boss at the National Pencil Company in Atlanta, where she worked to help support her widowed mother who ran a local boarding house.

Phagan ate a late breakfast of cabbage and bread around 11:30 a.m., and then headed to the factory. She would never be seen alive again.

Phagan’s body was discovered early the next morning by night watchman Newt Lee, who was making his rounds and came upon her in the factory’s filthy basement. Two days later, police arrested Frank - believed to be the last person to have seen Phagan alive - and charged him with her murder.

Phagan’s murder and Frank’s trial captured the nation’s attention, and until the Atlanta child murders of the late 1970s and early 80s, was the city’s most sensational. Two years after he was convicted, Frank was abducted from his cell at the Georgia State Prison in Milledgeville, driven to Marietta and lynched.

Read more here: https://bit.ly/3JFU4c9

On June 3, 1962, many of Atlanta’s civic and cultural leaders were returning from a museum tour of Europe sponsored by the Atlanta Art Association when their chartered Boeing 707 crashed upon takeoff at Orly Field near Paris, France.

Of the 122 passengers that died, 106 were Atlantans (eight crew members also died; two stewardesses sitting in the tail section survived). In an instant the core of Atlanta’s arts community was gone. Thirty-three children and young adults lost both parents in the crash.

Mayor Ivan Allen Jr. traveled to Paris to assist with the recovery efforts.

Hala Moddelmog is the current president and CEO of the Woodruff Arts Center, which was born out of that tragedy, 61 years ago.

ATLVault is a digital series of articles and podcasts that bring Atlanta’s history to life.

The product that has become the world's most iconic consumer brand was first served in Atlanta, Georgia, on May 8, 1886. Dr. John Stith Pemberton, a local pharmacist, produced the syrup for Coca-Cola, and carried a jug of the new product down the street to Jacobs’ Pharmacy, where it was sampled, pronounced “excellent” and placed on sale for five cents a glass as a soda fountain drink. Carbonated water was teamed with the new syrup to produce a drink that has become a symbol of American capitalism all over the world.

ATLVault's Tim Darnell speaks with Bob Hope, himself a legendary public relations executive who once worked for Coke, about the product's history, legacy and its future. Welcome to ATLVault on Atlanta News First.

On April 3, 1948,  the first Black police officers began patrolling Atlanta's streets around Auburn Avenue, marking the official integration of the Atlanta Police Department. Author Thomas Mullen discusses the challenges these pioneers faced in mid-20th century Atlanta. Mullen is the author of seven books, including Darktown, Midnight Atlanta and Lightning Men, written in the timeframe of 1940s and 1950s Atlanta.

 Early city officials purchased six acres in 1850 to be a public burial ground for a young-but-fast-growing town of Atlanta. 

Originally called Atlanta Graveyard or City Burial Place, this was the beginning of Oakland Cemetery. 

It was officially renamed in 1872. By then it had expanded to 48 acres, mainly due to pressures of the Civil War. In the late 19th century, families tended the plots of loved ones, creating an assortment of lovely gardens. Oakland became a popular destination for Sunday carriage rides and picnics.

As the 20th century unfolded, Oakland increasingly was surrounded by residential and industrial development. With the passage of time, many graves went unattended as descendants moved away or lost touch with their antecedents. After years of deferred maintenance and budgetary shortfalls, Oakland became a  deteriorating landscape of weed-choked lots and neglected monuments.

In 1976, Oakland Cemetery was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and experienced a renewal of interest and attention from “friends” that would eventually take over much of the restoration and maintenance of the cemetery and become the Historic Oakland Foundation.

Through restoration projects, fundraising, willpower, and imagination, Oakland Cemetery and its stories have been saved from obscurity. Today, the cemetery welcomes 105,000 visitors a  year who stroll the grounds, attend a tour or special event, and come to learn about Atlanta’s rich history.

 The Heart of Atlanta Supreme Court decision stands among the court’s most significant civil rights rulings.

In Atlanta, two arch segregationists vowed to flout the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the sweeping slate of civil rights reforms just signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson.

The Pickrick restaurant was run by Lester Maddox, who would eventually become governor of Georgia. The other, the Heart of Atlanta motel, was operated by lawyer Moreton Rolleston Jr.

After the law was signed, a group of ministry students showed up for a plate of skillet-fried chicken at Maddox’s diner. At the Heart of Atlanta, the ministers reserved rooms and walked to the front desk. Maddox greeted them with a pistol, axe handles, and a mob of White supporters. Rolleston refused to accept the Black patrons.

These confrontations became the centerpiece of the nation’s first two legal challenges to the Civil Rights Act.

Ronnie Greene is the author of “Heart of Atlanta: Five Black Pastors and the Supreme Court Victory for Integration.”

Its streets were traveled by some of the nation’s principled and most courageous. Its buildings were brick-laid by people who endured and persevered to leave behind a better city than they discovered.

Atlanta and the nation have taken a lot from Auburn Avenue. Now, the time may have finally arrived to give something back.

ATLVault talks with David Yoakley Mitchell, executive director of the Atlanta Preservation Center, about the legacy of Sweet Auburn.

Located in downtown Atlanta, Ebenezer Baptist Church was founded in 1886 by Pastor John A. Parker and eight others. 

Affiliated with the Progressive National Baptist Convention and American Baptist Churches USA, it was the church where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was co-pastor 
from 1960 until his assassination in 1968; the location of the funerals of both Dr. King and congressman John Lewis; and the church for which U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock has been pastor since 2005. 

It is located in the historic area now designated as the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park.

Rev. John Vaughn is the executive pastor, and he speaks with ATLVault on the church's history and its current place in America and the world.

 Dr. Jeffery Wells, author of 2011′s “The Atlanta Ripper: The Unsolved Case of the Gate City’s Most Infamous Murders,” the definitive book about the crimes, talks with ATLVault.  Read part one in our three-part series on our city's very first serial killer, the Atlanta Ripper: https://bit.ly/3XgLcyD 

The two political candidates couldn’t have been more different. One man, descending from a family line of Baptist ministers and championing the values of temperance and chastity, promised law and order. The other belonged to a political party thriving on social disorder and looser interpretations of the laws regarding recreational pursuits.

Such a scenario could be easily imagined in any modern election, but it was exactly the case 175 years ago, when the newly renamed and incorporated city of Atlanta held its first mayoral election.