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Published: February 12th 2012
King tombs
The tombs of Martin Luther and Coretta Scott KingMy main goal for today was to delve into the history of Atlanta’s most famous resident,
Martin Luther King Jr. He was born in
Sweet Auburn, a neighborhood that at the time was Atlanta’s equivalent of Harlem.
As it turns out, touring the most important site, the house where he was born,
requires tickets.
They are hard to get, because they are limited to 15 per half-hour tour.
I managed to get one, but had several hours to kill before my tour.
I went to Grant Park.
Grant Park
Grant Park is a landscaped city park located in southeast Atlanta.
It is NOT named for the victorious Union general in the Civil War, and suggesting otherwise will cause social difficulties.
It’s named after a local philanthropist who donated the land.
The park was designed by famous landscape architect Frederick Law Olmstead.
He created a series of hills, streams, and curving roads.
Many of the roads are lined with magnolia trees, which were in full flower while I was there.
The park, by complete accident, also contains the single remaining Civil War site in the entire metropolitan area (see
History, for a City that Doesn’t Like Any)
A single flat mound
Grant Park
Road in Grant Park with magnolia trees on top of a hill is the remains of a defensive battery.
It’s not marked, but my guidebook listed the spot.
Atlanta Cyclorama
Most people go to Grant Park to see the
Zoo and the
Cyclorama.
Both are the odd legacy of a travelling circus and a local businessman.
The Cyclorama is a painting of the final Battle of Atlanta painted in the round.
Spectators would stand in the middle of the circular painting and see the battle on all sides around them.
This
type of painting was very popular in the years after the Civil War, mostly as a celebration of Union military successes.
This painting is the size of a football field.
It was
commissioned by a general in the battle, John Logan to use as propaganda for an upcoming political campaign.
He died before it was finished.
His heirs sold it to a travelling circus.
The circus went bankrupt, in Atlanta ironically enough, and one George Gress bought the entire contents in a bankruptcy auction in 1889.
He donated everything to the city.
The animals became the Atlanta Zoo and the painting became the centerpiece of the
Atlantas only Civil War Site
This hilltop, the remains of a defensive battery, is the only intact Civil War site in Atlanta Cyclorama Museum.
The Cyclorama Museum is the official Civil War museum of the city.
It’s rather cheesy compared with the displays in the Atlanta History Center.
The discussions of the causes of the war and tactics for winning it have an even more Southern slant than the history center.
This museum does have
three things worth seeking out.
The first is a set of detailed maps of the battles to defend Atlanta.
They were created by one Joseph Luks, who was Atlanta’s premier Civil War historian in the late 1890s.
Since the battlefields were redeveloped soon afterwards, his maps are the only documentation of what they looked like.
The second is an old steam locomotive, the Texas.
It was
stolen near Atlanta by a group of Union spies.
Their plan was to take it to Chattanooga, sabotaging railroad equipment as they went.
Unfortunately, they ran out of coal after eighty miles and were caught.
The incident was dramatized by a Disney movie, the
Great Locamotive Chase.
The final item is a series of displays on how
Texas
Steam Engine stolen by Union troops intending to destroy area railroads. the cyclorama painting was made.
The initial design was based on Joseph Luk’s map.
The designer picked a particular point on the map, and then made a sketch of what everything would look like from that point.
The artists then expanded the sketch to full size and drew it out on the canvases.
The painting was done in eleven sections, which were then attached to the circular wall like wallpaper.
Shows of the actual cyclorama are timed.
First, visitors have to sit through a sixteen minute film.
It dramatizes the story of the battles to defend Atlanta from General Sherman.
Personally, it felt like the educational films I had to sit through in grade school.
People then pass through a tunnel to a room with tiered seats.
The inside wall of this room has the painting.
The seats revolve so people can see the entire thing.
Taped narration describes the action.
The start is a brick house that has just been captured by Confederate forces.
The Union troops are trying to take it back.
The general who commissioned the painting appears
King birth home
The home of Martin Luther King Sr. in Sweet Auburn, where his famous son was born in it of course, leading a cavalry charge.
The narrator claims he is depicted more much more heroic than he actually was during the battle.
In front of the painting are models of figures and landscapes, which were added in the 1930s.
Their purpose is to make the action seem more real by making part of it three dimensional.
A piece of trivia is that one of the dying Union officer models looks like
Clark Gable.
He saw the Cyclorama while in town for the premiere of Gone With the Wind, and commented that he would love to be part of it.
The sculptor obliged 😊
Sweet Auburn
After the Cyclorama, I hustled back to Sweet Auburn for my house tour.
Martin Luther King Jr. was born at his
parents’ house, as were both of his siblings.
The colored hospitals were so bad at the time that anyone who could afford it paid a doctor for a home birth.
Martin Luther King Sr was a middle class preacher, and his father was also a minister.
Their house looks modest and small by modern standards, but it was quite luxurious
Eternal Flame
The eternal flame burning at the King Center for Non-violent Action. for an African American family in the early 1900s.
The tour first goes through the front parlor.
It has a piano.
Martin Luther King Sr. insisted that all of his children learn to play music.
All of them ultimately joined the church quire.
The next room is one of the most significant, the dining room.
The family had dinner together every night.
The elder King was an ardent proponent of ending segregation, and he made sure his children followed in his footsteps.
Every night, each child had to repeat a bible verse before dinner.
They also had to talk about incidents of segregation they experienced that day, and how it made them feel.
The bedrooms are upstairs.
The first room is the parents’ room, where all three children were born.
The next room is the one shared by the children.
The floor is covered in toys.
All three loved to play games and make jokes.
The guide tells of one famous incident where Martin Luther King Jr. wanted to take revenge on his older sister.
His
Sweet Auburn shotgun houses
Shotgun houses in Sweet Auburn, across the street from Martin Luther King's house. parents prohibited him from hitting her, so he grabbed her favorite doll and threw it out the window!
After the house tour, I wandered around the neighborhood for a bit.
At the time King lived there, African Americans from all economic groups lived together, and the architecture reflects this fact.
Many of the buildings have signs in front of them placed by the park service explaining their history.
Middle class housing looks like other Victorian buildings with decorative elements on the walls and yards.
Poorer housing consisted of three rooms (front room, bed room, kitchen) in a row, with multiple crammed together on a single block.
These were called ‘
shotgun houses’, because one could fire a shotgun on the porch and hit everyone in the house.
Near the birth home is the
King Center for Non-Violent Action, which was founded by Coretta Scott King after his assassination.
The centerpiece of the center is a long tiered reflecting pool.
At the end of the pool are the tombs of Martin Luther King and his wife.
Martin’s epitaph is the final words of his famous
Ebinezer Baptist Church
Ebinezer Baptist Church, where Martin Luther King Sr. preached for 40 years. “I Have a Dream” speech: “Free At Last! Free At Last! Thank God Almighty We're Free At Last!”.
Tourists love to take pictures of themselves in front of the tombs.
On the other side of the path lies an eternal flame.
The final important sight in the neighborhood is
Ebenezer Baptist Church.
It’s located four blocks from where King was born.
Martin Luther King Sr (who the congregation called “Old Man King”) was the chief minister here for almost forty years.
His son also preached here after he returned from Montgomery.
On the inside, the church bears a strong resemblance to Sixteenth Street Baptist in Birmingham (see May 6
th).
The church sound system plays old sermons by Martin Luther King Jr.
These speeches were designed for a church audience, and they show his religious side very strongly.
The basement has a small museum.
I spent the next two nights in a bed and breakfast called
Sugar Magnolia.
It is a restored Victorian house in one of Atlanta’s older residential neighborhoods.
The room did not have an attached bath, which kept the rate
Birmingham Jail Replica
Replica of the place King wrote one of his most important document: "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" down.
The owner is a bit quirky, but I had no issues.
Be sure to see the smiling face sculpture nailed to one of the trees in the yard.
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