Archive Atlanta
A weekly history podcast sharing stories about the people, places and events that shaped the city of Atlanta.
Episodes
In the fall of 1971, a group of volunteers in Atlanta set out to build a radio station by the people, for the people. By 1973, WRFG was on the airwaves, amplifying voices that mainstream media refused to touch: Black activists, women, laborers, LGBTQ, ex-convicts, and musicians from every walk of life.
But just two months after launch, Atlanta police tried to shut it down — accusing the station of spreading radical politics. From 3...
Before it became Atlanta’s most iconic cemetery, Oakland Cemetery was just six acres of farmland owned by the Woodings. But as the city grew, so did its need to bury its dead. From Confederate obelisks to disinterred graves, this is the story of the cemetery that tells Atlanta’s story.
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This week, I am re-sharing an episode from 2021 where I cover the history of Atlanta’s City Hall...not just the Art Deco masterpiece you can see today, but also the places that no longer exist. Where they were, how we got them and what their fate was. Our current City Hall (the 4th one in history), was built in 1930 and brought forth something called the Atlanta Graft Ring - an epic corruption scandal that brought down a mayor and ...
Before Atlanta was crisscrossed with interstates and highways, there was a bold plan—born from the Great Depression, inspired by Germany’s Autobahn, and fueled by fears of another economic collapse.
In this episode, we rewind to the 1930s to unpack how the U.S. highway system began, why Atlanta jumped in headfirst, and how a single report—the Lochner Report—shaped decades of urban design, displacement, and, yes... gridlock.
From a...
This week, we’re talking about Atlanta’s most famous food franchises. Atlanta has been the birthplace of almost a dozen food franchises, including Chick-fil-A, Huddle House, Mellow Mushroom, Great American Cookies, Applebee's, Flying Biscuit and Moe's Southwest Grill.
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Email: thevictorialemos@gmail.com
Even though this is a bye week for me, I wanted to share a bonus episode related to a special project that I got to do recently.
I worked with Canopy fellow Damius Smith on his piece "Built for Legacy". Collier Heights was designed by and for Black people, with the architectural design of every house telling a story. From American Small Houses, to ranch-style, to mid-century, each home focuses on the symbolic power of the neighbor...
This week, we’re talking about the Lakewood Cutting - the story of the murder of Fred Thompson. I’ve said a million times that I’m not a fan of true crime, but centuries-old murders in Atlanta’s past seem to have worked their way into my heart. But this week’s story isn’t just a murder story, this is a story of an abduction, self defense, secret orders, ransom notes and the far and wide reach of the Ku Klux Klan.
This week, I am SO excited to share a conversation that I had with Marty Padgett about this new book, The Many Passions of Michael Hardwick: Sex and the Supreme Court in the Age of AIDS. Sodomy laws had been used to discriminate against queer people for centuries, but in 1986, the US Supreme Court ruled that the constitution did not guarantee a person the right to engage in homosexual conduct, even in the privacy of their own home....
This week, I am bringing you a short bonus story about the Bagby Family, mainly brothers William and Hubert, who were known throughout the Bolton area of Atlanta for living along the banks of the Chattahoochee River while evading arrest. In April of 1957, brothers Hubert and William - the “The Ghost” and “Cobb County Roosting Man” - were arrested. Police found them hiding in the chifforobes at their family home and they were charge...
This week, we’re talking about Roman Catholicism in Atlanta, mainly centered around the city’s historic Catholic churches from the 1850s through the 1950s.
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Email: thevictorialemos@gmail.com
This week, I'm sharing the short history of "Miss Sepia Atlanta", Atlanta’s African American beauty pageant that ran from 1947 until 1963.
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Email: thevictorialemos@gmail.com
This week, we’re talking about one of Atlanta’s most well-known attractions - it’s strip clubs. But why and how and when did we get this claim to fame? Why is Atlanta one of the few places that allows full nudity and alcohol? Why are the wings so good? Today we’re going to cover all of this and more; from the legislation battles to some of the iconic strip clubs from our history.
This week, I am so excited to share an interview episode with Mike Ayling, who is the writer and researcher behind Birds of Kirkwood. We talked about the story of how he moved into his home Kirkwood, Robert Windsor Smith, Atlanta first amateur ornithologist and we talked about birding and the natural environment of Kirkwood 122 years ago.
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This week, we’re talking about Druid Hills - one of the most iconic Atlanta neighborhoods known for its housing stock and connection to the Olmsted landscape architecture firm. From Joel Hurt's idea through the most recent annexation; we are talking about historic houses, prominent residents and schools and churches.
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This week, we are celebrating Women’s History Month by learning the history of three more women from Atlanta’s past; Eva Lovett, Emily Norman and Alexa Stirling. One who founded a well-known private school, another a prominent real estate firm and a pioneer in golf.
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Email: thevictorialemos@gmail.com
This week, we’re talking about “We Charge Genocide”, a 1951 petition accusing the United States government of genocide based on the newly adopted UN Genocide Convention. A strong content warning that this is going to be a heavy topic about racialized violence and murder across the US and specifically in Atlanta.
Life Magazine Photos of the Stone Mountain Klan Initiation
This week, we’re talking about WEB DuBois’ time in Atlanta, which spans two different periods and a total of 24 years. Arriving first in 1897, he lived here during the death of his son, the lynching of Sam Hose, the 1906 Race Massacre and the publishing of several books and magazines. His second arrival was in 1934, where is once again taught at Atlanta University and published several more books.
With my new bi-weekly format, there are two ways you can do this; a rolling schedule or what I did, which is say that the podcast will be out every first and third Friday. That means that a few times a year, we have months with 5 weeks. January is one of them!
So I thought I’d bring you a shorter, but fascinating topic to cover this bonus week. Today, we’re talking about Sevananda, the natural foods co-op in Little Five Points tha...
This week, we’re talking about Atlanta’s Veterans Hospitals. When I first put this topic on my list, I thought I’d be covering the 1960s-era hospital that is still operating over on Clairmont Road, but I was surprised to learn we had several other variations and the history of caring for veterans in Atlanta is over 130 years old.
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This week, we’re talking about Lustron Houses - prefabricated enameled steel houses developed in the post-World War II era in response to the shortage of homes for returning GIs. I’m going to cover the inventor, the Lustron Company, and more importantly, Lustrons in Atlanta - how many were built, who lived in them and how many remain?
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