First day in Atlanta

Being in Atlanta has been an experience so far. Ive learned so much already. Our first day we got in an checked into our rooms and then went out to check the area around the school. We are right in the middle of downtown Atlanta. The conference is being held by Georgia State University, and they have accommodated us by letting us stay in their dorm rooms here on campus. They aren't the most luxurious of places to stay, but it seems to add to the experience of staying with 3 other teachers and getting to know them along the way. There are a total of 36 teachers from all over the United States at the conference. Such a great way to network and even have conversations about how things are working and what is different in all these different schools. The one thing that seems to be a common theme for all of us teachers is the fact that we want our students to learn more about the history of the Civil Rights Movement.

Yesterday was our first day out in Atlanta and what a full day it was. It started with breakfast at Waffle House, up the street from where we are staying. It's Waffle House, so it wasn't all that special, but it was cool to find out that Waffle House started in Atlanta, Georgia. We didn't eat at the original but cool nonetheless. At 8:30 our day started with a lecture from Wendy Venet. She had quite a lot to say and her lecture was all about "Slavery and Freedom in Civil War Era". In the time of 1860 Atlanta was the Gate City to the South. It was a huge railroad hub during this time frame. We learned about a man by the name of Roderick D. Badger who was owned by his father. His father was a White farmer and mother a slave. While living with his father, he learned the trade of dentistry from him and went on to be a Biracial dentist in Atlanta, one of the most popular at the time. Later in the morning we went on to Oakland Cemetery and actually saw where this gentlemen was buried. It was nice to hear the history of his life and then see where he was buried.

Oakland Cemetery had different sections when it first opened in 1850. One section was for the slaves and another section for the burial of Whites. This was back when they segregated cemeteries. They later moved the slave section to the "Colored Section" of the cemetery. This cemetery is also where most of the soldiers that fought in the Confederacy, named and unknown, are buried. Margaret Mitchell is also buried in Oakland Cemetery. If you are unfamiliar with who she is, she wrote Gone With the Wind which is a Civil-War era novel. Later in the day, we also got a chance to see the apartment she lived in while she wrote the novel. She was recovering from an ankle injury and her husband had been lugging loads of library books back and forth for her to the point where he ended up asking her to write one, instead of him having to keep bringing her books. This was around 1926 and would be her last book.

Once we left Oakland Cemetery we headed towards Morris Brown College, which happens to be where Atlanta University got its start. The Stone Hall building on Morris Brown College (which was originally Atlanta University) was where W.E.B Dubois took a professorship in 1897 in history and economics. He was a very powerful member of the African American community that in his writings made head way into the sociology and history of the U.S.

Lunch was at Mary Macs Tea Room, which was true Southern food. It was built in 1945 and is the last tea room of sixteen in the Atlanta area. The food was outstanding and true southern style, fried green tomatoes, fried chicken, sweet potatoes, collard greens, and banana pudding. We ended our day with Piedmont Park, where Booker T. Washington made his speech at the Cotton State Convention.

After we got back to Georgia State and had a few talks and lectures, we had pizza for dinner while watching the movie Driving Miss Daisy. Overall, it was a great day, very long and tiring, but a great day of information.