By MICHAEL WARREN
Atlanta's skyline is shown, with Bellwood Quarry Reservoir in the foreground, on Dec. 20, 2021. Atlanta was built with slavery’s successor: unpaid convict labor. Thousands of Black men worked in horrific conditions to break granite at the quarry, now a reservoir holding the city's backup water supply. (Elliott Augustine via AP)
ATLANTA (AP) — The City of Atlanta’s official seal shows a phoenix rising from the ashes of the Civil War. What it doesn’t show is that Atlanta was rebuilt with slavery’s successor: convict labor, working in horrific conditions to break granite at the Bellwood Quarry and burn clay at the Chattahoochee Brick Company.
Thousands of Black men, women and children were pulled off the streets and convicted of petty or nonexistent crimes before vanishing into camps and factories where many were worked to death. The peonage system lasted across the South for seven decades until World War II, yet many Americans have never heard of it.
Restoring this long-ignored chapter of U.S. history to public memory is the goal of a coalition of politicians, executives, foundation chiefs, historians, educators and grassroots activists that has taken shape over the past few months.
“In the same way we served as an example during the civil rights movement of what’s possible in America, I believe that that moment is before us now,” Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms told The Associated Press. “I think it’s very important for our children and for adults to know what that history is all about.”
ATLANTA (AP) — The City of Atlanta’s official seal shows a phoenix rising from the ashes of the Civil War. What it doesn’t show is that Atlanta was rebuilt with slavery’s successor: convict labor, working in horrific conditions to break granite at the Bellwood Quarry and burn clay at the Chattahoochee Brick Company.
Thousands of Black men, women and children were pulled off the streets and convicted of petty or nonexistent crimes before vanishing into camps and factories where many were worked to death. The peonage system lasted across the South for seven decades until World War II, yet many Americans have never heard of it.
Restoring this long-ignored chapter of U.S. history to public memory is the goal of a coalition of politicians, executives, foundation chiefs, historians, educators and grassroots activists that has taken shape over the past few months.
“In the same way we served as an example during the civil rights movement of what’s possible in America, I believe that that moment is before us now,” Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms told The Associated Press. “I think it’s very important for our children and for adults to know what that history is all about.”
A marker in English Park, seen on Dec. 20, 2021, in Atlanta, honors James W. English, a Confederate Army captain, police official and Atlanta mayor who exploited the convict labor system to force unpaid Black men to work in his Chattahoochee Brick Company. They endured whippings and other atrocities while producing hundreds of thousands of bricks a day at the turn of the 20th century. (AP Photo/Michael Warren)
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