Political, Cultural, and Social Movements
The Rose Library collects materials that document the history, culture, and politics of Atlanta, Georgia, and the South. These collections highlight the remarkable changes in the region since the end of the Civil War.
Atlanta and the South emerged from the war defeated and out of step with the national mainstream. During the 20th century, activists, artists, athletes, business leaders, elected officials, journalists, and organizations challenged and transformed the region into a bellwether for American politics, culture, and the country’s economy.
At the Rose Library, you can examine a Ron Sherman photograph to see how Atlanta’s skyline has changed, read Dr. Jesse R. Peel’s journals to understand how to confront a public health crisis, learn how to respond to a church bombing by pouring over Eugene Patterson’s newspaper columns, or analyze the plays of Rebecca Ranson to understand how to live a life of art and activism. These are some of the stories you can discover about our city and our South in our library.
- The Southern Christian Leadership Conference, 1968-2002
- Vincent Harding, founder of the Institute of the Black World
- Doris A. Derby, one of the founders of the Free Southern Theater
- Ralph McGill, editor of the Atlanta Constitution
The collections that make up Modern Politics at the Rose Library document the birth of the Sunbelt South, and the politicians, individuals and organizations who shaped and created the South's contemporary political landscape. In this area, the Rose Library continues to develop its activist and political collections, particularly with the recent addition of the LGBTQ collection. Other strengths include the personal papers of the United States Senator, Sam Nunn and the United States Representatives, James C. Davis and James A. Mackay in addition to the papers of a broad range of political figures from Georgia politics.
- United States Senator, Sam Nunn (This collection is closed for processing.)
- United States Representatives, James C. Davis and James A. Mackay
- Representative of the U.S.A. to the European Office of the United Nations (Geneva), Morris Berthod Abram
- James V. Carmichael
- Peggy Childs
- J. Robin Harris
- James Solomon Peters
- Human rights activists Frances Freeborn Pauley and Eliza K. Paschall
- Georgia Woman’s Christian Temperance Association
- Suffragist Eleonore Raoul, the first female graduate of Emory’s law school
- League of Women Voters of Dekalb County