page_title: Racial segregation in Atlanta
section_title: Civil Rights Movement
hierarchical_section_title: Racial segregation in Atlanta / Race Riot and aftermath / Civil Rights Movement
caption_attribution_description: Martin Luther King leaning on a lectern. Deutsch: 1964: Martin Luther King Português: Martin Luther King
context_page_description: Racial segregation in Atlanta has known main phases after the freeing of the slaves in 1865: a period of relative integration of businesses and residences; Jim Crow laws and official residential and de facto business segregation after the Atlanta Race Riot of 1906; blockbusting and black residential expansion starting in the 1950s; and gradual integration from the late 1960s onwards. A recent study conducted by Nate Silver of fivethirtyeight.com, found that Atlanta was the second most segregated city in the U.S. and the most segregated in the South.
context_section_description: In the wake of the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education, which helped usher in the Civil Rights Movement, racial tensions in Atlanta erupted in acts of violence. For example, on October 12, 1958, a Reform Jewish temple on Peachtree Street was bombed. The "Confederate Underground" claimed responsibility. Many believed that Jews, especially those from the northeast, were advocates of the Civil Rights Movement.
  In the 1960s, Atlanta was a major organizing center of the Civil Rights Movement, with Martin Luther King Jr. and students from Atlanta's historically black colleges and universities playing major roles in the movement's leadership. On October 19, 1960, a sit-in at the lunch counters of several Atlanta department stores led to the arrest of Dr. King and several students.  This drew attention from the national media and from presidential candidate John F. Kennedy.
  Despite this incident, Atlanta's political and business leaders fostered Atlanta's image as "the city too busy to hate." While the city mostly avoided confrontation, minor race riots did occur in 1965 and in 1968.
caption: Martin Luther King Jr.
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