Editing Georgia (U.S. state) (section)

==History==
{{Main|History of Georgia (U.S. state)}}

Before settlement by Europeans, Georgia was inhabited by the [[Mound builder (people)|mound building]] cultures. The British colony of Georgia was founded by [[James Oglethorpe]] on February 12, 1733.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://georgia.gov/georgia-facts-and-symbols|title=Georgia Facts and Symbols—Georgia.gov|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140524123552/http://georgia.gov/georgia-facts-and-symbols|archive-date=May 24, 2014}}</ref> The colony was administered by the [[Trustees for the Establishment of the Colony of Georgia in America]] under a charter issued by (and named for) [[King George II of Great Britain|King George II]]. The Trustees implemented an elaborate plan for the colony's settlement, known as the [[Oglethorpe Plan]], which envisioned an agrarian society of [[Yeoman|yeoman farmers]] and prohibited slavery. The colony was [[Invasion of Georgia (1742)|invaded by the Spanish]] in 1742, during the [[War of Jenkins' Ear]]. In 1752, after the government failed to renew subsidies that had helped support the colony, the Trustees turned over control to the [[Monarchy of the United Kingdom|crown]]. Georgia became a [[Crown colony#History|crown colony]], with a governor appointed by the king.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-816 |title=Trustee Georgia, 1732–1752 |publisher=Georgiaencyclopedia.org |date=July 27, 2009 |access-date=October 24, 2010 |archive-date=August 31, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100831065402/http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-816 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

The [[Province of Georgia]] was one of the [[Thirteen Colonies]] that revolted against [[Kingdom of Great Britain|British]] rule in the [[American Revolution]] by signing the 1776 [[United States Declaration of Independence|Declaration of Independence]]. The State of Georgia's first constitution was ratified in February 1777. Georgia was the 10th state to ratify the Articles of Confederation on July 24, 1778,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/articles.html |title=The Articles of Confederation: Primary Documents of American History (Virtual Programs & Services, Library of Congress) |publisher=Loc.gov |date=July 10, 2014 |access-date=July 27, 2014}}</ref> and was the 4th state to ratify the [[United States Constitution]] on January 2, 1788.

After the [[Creek War|Creek War (1813–1814)]], General [[Andrew Jackson]] forced the [[Muscogee (Creek) Nation|Muscogee (Creek) tribes]] to surrender land to the state of Georgia, including in the [[Treaty of Fort Jackson|Treaty of Fort Jackson (1814)]], surrendering 21 million acres in what is now southern Georgia and central Alabama, and the [[Treaty of Indian Springs (1825)]].<ref name="Remini">{{cite book|last=Remini|first=Robert|title=Andrew Jackson: The Course of American Empire, 1767–1821. Vol. 1|publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press|year=1998|isbn=0801859115|chapter=The Creek War: Victory|orig-year=1977}}</ref> In 1829, gold was discovered in the [[North Georgia mountains]] leading to the [[Georgia Gold Rush]] and establishment of a [[United States mint|federal mint]] in [[Dahlonega, Georgia|Dahlonega]], which continued in operation until 1861. The resulting influx of white settlers put pressure on the government to take land from the [[Cherokee Nation (19th century)|Cherokee Nation]]. In 1830, [[President of the United States|President]] [[Andrew Jackson]] signed the [[Indian Removal Act]], sending many eastern Native American nations to [[Indian reservation|reservations]] in present-day Oklahoma, including all of Georgia's tribes. Despite the Supreme Court's ruling in ''[[Worcester v. Georgia]]'' (1832) that U.S. states were not permitted to redraw Indian boundaries, President Jackson and the state of Georgia ignored the ruling. In 1838, his successor, [[Martin Van Buren]], dispatched federal troops to gather the tribes and deport them west of the [[Mississippi River|Mississippi]]. This forced relocation, known as the [[Trail of Tears]], led to the death of more than four thousand Cherokees.

[[File:Battle of Kenesaw Mountian.png|thumb|left|The [[Battle of Kennesaw Mountain]], 1864]]
In early 1861, Georgia joined the [[Confederate States of America|Confederacy]] (with secessionists having a slight majority of delegates)<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/government-politics/georgia-secession-convention-1861|title=Georgia Secession Convention of 1861|website=georgiaencyclopedia.org|publisher=Georgia Humanities|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190127205831/https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/government-politics/georgia-secession-convention-1861|archive-date=January 27, 2019|access-date=January 27, 2019}}</ref> and became a major [[Theater (warfare)|theater]] of the [[American Civil War|Civil War]]. Major battles took place at [[Battle of Chickamauga|Chickamauga]], [[Battle of Kennesaw Mountain|Kennesaw Mountain]], and [[Atlanta]]. In December 1864, a large swath of the state from [[Atlanta]] to [[Savannah, Georgia|Savannah]] was destroyed during General [[William Tecumseh Sherman]]'s [[Sherman's March to the Sea|March to the Sea]]. 18,253 Georgian soldiers died in service, roughly one of every five who served.<ref>"[http://www1.legis.ga.gov/legis/2011_12/versions/hr989_LC_94_5133_a_2.htm A Resolution] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121030065659/http://www1.legis.ga.gov/legis/2011_12/versions/hr989_LC_94_5133_a_2.htm |date=October 30, 2012}}". Georgia General Assembly. Retrieved June 26, 2012.</ref> In 1870, following the [[Reconstruction Era]], Georgia became the last Confederate state to be restored to the [[United States|Union]].

With white Democrats having regained power in the state legislature, they passed a [[Poll tax (United States)|poll tax]] in 1877, which [[Disfranchisement after Reconstruction era|disenfranchised]] many poor blacks and whites, preventing them from registering.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.atlantahighered.org/civilrights/essay_detail.asp?phase=1 |title="Atlanta in the Civil Rights Movement", Atlanta Regional Council for Higher Education |publisher=Atlantahighered.org |access-date=July 27, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141009111816/http://www.atlantahighered.org/civilrights/essay_detail.asp?phase=1 |archive-date=October 9, 2014 |url-status=dead}}</ref> In 1908, the state established a [[white primary]]; with the only competitive contests within the Democratic Party, it was another way to exclude blacks from politics.<ref name="auto">{{cite journal|jstor=2716218|title=Racial Violence and Social Reform-Origins of the Atlanta Riot of 1906|first=Charles|last=Crowe|date=January 1, 1968|journal=The Journal of Negro History|volume=53|issue=3|pages=234–256|doi=10.2307/2716218|s2cid=150050901}}</ref> They constituted 46.7% of the state's population in 1900, but the proportion of Georgia's population that was African American dropped thereafter to 28%, primarily due to tens of thousands leaving the state during the [[Great Migration (African American)|Great Migration]].<ref name="pop/perc">[http://fisher.lib.virginia.edu/collections/stats/histcensus/php/state.php Historical Census Browser, 1900 Federal Census, University of Virginia] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070823030234/http://fisher.lib.virginia.edu/collections/stats/histcensus/php/state.php |date=August 23, 2007}}, accessed March 15, 2008</ref> According to the [[Bryan Stephenson|Equal Justice Institute]]'s 2015 report on lynching in the United States (1877–1950), Georgia had 531 deaths, the second-highest total of these extralegal executions of any state in the South. The overwhelming number of victims were black and male.<ref name="appendix">{{Cite web|url=https://eji.org/sites/default/files/lynching-in-america-second-edition-supplement-by-county.pdf|title=''Lynching in America: Confronting the Legacy of Racial Terror'', "Supplement: Lynching by County" 2nd edition, Montgomery, Alabama: Equal Justice Institute, 2015|website=Eji.org|access-date=April 17, 2021|archive-date=June 27, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180627005306/https://eji.org/sites/default/files/lynching-in-america-second-edition-supplement-by-county.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref> Political disfranchisement persisted through the mid-1960s, until after Congress passed the [[Voting Rights Act of 1965]].

[[File:MLK Memorial in Atlanta, Georgia by George Paul Puvvada..jpg|thumb|left|[[Martin Luther King Jr.]]'s tomb, on the grounds of Atlanta's urban [[Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park]]]]
An Atlanta-born [[Baptists|Baptist minister]] who was part of the educated middle class that had developed in Atlanta's African-American community, [[Martin Luther King Jr.]], emerged as a national leader in the [[civil rights movement]]. King joined with others to form the [[Southern Christian Leadership Conference]] (SCLC) in Atlanta in 1957 to provide political leadership for the Civil Rights Movement across the South. The civil rights riots of the [[1956 Sugar Bowl]] would also take place in [[Atlanta]] after a clash between [[Georgia Tech]]'s president [[Blake R. Van Leer]] and Governor [[Marvin Griffin]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.fromtherumbleseat.com/2019/11/14/20914927/rearview-revisited-segregation-and-the-sugar-bowl-georgia-tech-pittsburgh-bobby-grier-1955-1956-game |publisher=Georgia Tech|title=Rearview Revisited: Segregation and the Sugar Bowl|author=Jake Grantl|date=November 14, 2019|access-date=November 14, 2019}}</ref>

On February 5, 1958, during a training mission flown by a [[Boeing B-47 Stratojet|B-47]], a [[Mark 15 nuclear bomb]], also known as the [[Tybee Bomb]], was lost off the coast of [[Tybee Island, Georgia|Tybee Island]] near Savannah. The bomb was thought by the Department of Energy to lie buried in silt at the bottom of [[Wassaw Sound]].<ref>{{cite news |title=For 50 Years, Nuclear Bomb Lost in Watery Grave |url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18587608&t=1566568815867 |work=NPR |date=February 3, 2008}}</ref>

By the 1960s, the proportion of African Americans in Georgia had declined to 28% of the state's population, after waves of migration to the North and some in-migration by whites.<ref>[http://fisher.lib.virginia.edu/collections/stats/histcensus/php/state.php Historical Census Browser, 1900 US Census, University of Virginia] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070823030234/http://fisher.lib.virginia.edu/collections/stats/histcensus/php/state.php |date=August 23, 2007}}, accessed March 13, 2008</ref> With their voting power diminished, it took some years for African Americans to win a state-wide office. [[Julian Bond]], a noted civil rights leader, was elected to the state House in 1965, and served multiple terms there and in the state senate.

Atlanta Mayor [[Ivan Allen, Jr.]] testified before Congress in support of the Civil Rights Act, and Governor [[Carl Sanders]] worked with the [[John F. Kennedy|Kennedy]] administration to ensure the state's compliance. [[Ralph McGill]], editor and syndicated columnist at the ''[[Atlanta Constitution]]'', earned admiration by writing in support of the Civil Rights Movement. In 1970, newly elected Governor [[Jimmy Carter]] declared in his inaugural address that the era of racial segregation had ended. In 1972, Georgians elected [[Andrew Young]] to Congress as the first African American Congressman since the [[Reconstruction era of the United States|Reconstruction era]].

In 1980, construction was completed on an expansion of what is now named [[Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport]] (ATL). The busiest and most efficient airport in the world, it accommodates more than a hundred million passengers annually.<ref name=HJAA>{{cite web |title=Atlanta's Hartsfield–Jackson International: Facts About The World's Busiest Airport |url=http://amaconferencecentersspeak.com/atlantas-hartsfield-jackson-international-facts-about-the-worlds-busiest-airport/ |website=amaconferencecentersspeak.com |publisher=American Management Association |access-date=January 27, 2019 |date=March 30, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190128044530/http://amaconferencecentersspeak.com/atlantas-hartsfield-jackson-international-facts-about-the-worlds-busiest-airport/ |archive-date=January 28, 2019 |url-status=dead}}</ref> Employing more than 60,000 people, the airport became a major engine for economic growth.<ref name=HJAA/> With the advantages of cheap real estate, low taxes, [[right-to-work law]]s and a regulatory environment limiting government interference, the Atlanta metropolitan area became a national center of [[finance]], [[insurance]], [[technology]], [[manufacturing]], [[real estate]], [[logistics]], and [[transportation]] companies, as well as the film, convention, and trade show businesses. As a testament to the city's growing international profile, in 1990 the [[International Olympic Committee]] selected [[Atlanta]] as the site of the [[1996 Summer Olympics]]. Taking advantage of Atlanta's status as a transportation hub, in 1991 [[United Parcel Service|UPS]] established its headquarters in the suburb of [[Sandy Springs]]. In 1992, construction finished on [[Bank of America Plaza (Atlanta)|Bank of America Plaza]], the tallest building in the U.S. outside of New York or Chicago.