The Atlanta Georgian

Articles from The Atlanta Georgian

French Soldiers Desperate to Leave the Trenches (The Atlanta Georgian, 1917)

So horrid was the terror of World War I trench warfare that more than a few of the Frenchmen serving in those forward positions (and others who were simply overcome with life in the military) began to post personal ads in French newspapers, volunteering to marry widows and divorcees with large families in order to be absolved of all military duty.


Read what the U.S. Army psychologists had to say about courage.

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‘Negroes Still Departing” (The Atlanta Georgian, 1917)

This short notice from a 1917 Georgia newspaper documented the heavy numbers involved in what has come to be known as the Great migration as more and more African-Americans abandoned their homes in the Southern states preferring life in the North. It is believed that between the years 1910 through 1940, some 1.6 million African Americans participated in this exodus. The Southern journalist who penned these three paragraphs clearly felt a sense of personal rejection:

The worthless ones are remaining here to be cared for… The departure of these Negroes is not spasmodic. It is a steady drain of the best class of laborers that the South now has. Just what remedy is to prevent it we do not know.


Another article about the great migration can be read here.

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Anti-Soft Drink Legislation Defeated (The Atlanta Georgian, 1917)

On the same day that it was announced that the state of Georgia was going to prohibit alcohol a full year and a half prior to the Congressional measure, a bill died in the state legislature that would have prohibited all alcohol substitutes that had caffeine, as well (Georgia, you’ll recall is the home of the Coca-Cola Company):

In an effort to force the bone-dry majority of the House to the greatest extreme, Representative Stark of Jackson, Friday offered an amendment which would have barred all substitutes for liquor, all patent medicines, and soft drinks containing caffeine.

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Prohibition Comes to Washington, D.C. (The Atlanta Georgian, 1917)

In 1917 Washington, D.C. had no mayor, no city council and no say as to the goings on in Congress – the city was lorded over by the President and a Congressional commission. It was set up that way by the founders – and that is how Prohibition came to Washington, D.C. two years earlier than the rest of the nation: with the flick of his wrist, President Wilson signed the Sheppard Bill, legislation that declared that after November 1, 1918 all alcohol would be prohibited in the District of Columbia.

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The French Navy Sank Their Own Submarine (The Atlanta Georgian, 1917)

This news piece appeared in a Georgia newspaper during the closing weeks of American neutrality. The first report of this French naval blunder involving a French torpedo boat sinking a French submarine came from Berlin, rather from Paris or London, where such events would never make it past the censors.

This brief notice makes no mention as to the original source or who witnessed the accident.

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The Effects of Unrestricted Submarine Warfare (The Atlanta Georgian, 1917)

The alarming rise in shipping losses due to the increased presence of German submarines (as foretold in the Zimmermann telegram) had made the American population sit up and take notice in a way that the war had never done before. The attached four notices were printed on the front pages of an Atlanta paper one month prior to the U.S. Congress’ declaration of war; each one pertains to military recruiting or the need for military equipment.


The widening of hostilities also served to outrage the Latin American republics: Guatemala would soon break off all relations with Germany and Brazil would declare war in October of that year.


Click here to read about the new rules for warfare that were written as a result of the First World War – none of them pertain to the use of poison gas or submarines.

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Theda Bara: Sex Symbol (The Atlanta Georgian, 1917)

An enthusiastic review of the Hollywood silent film, The Tiger Woman (1917) starring the first (but not the last) female sex symbol of the silent era, Theda Bara (born Theodosia Burr Goodman; 1885-1955).


This very brief review will give you a sense of how uneasily many men must have sat in their chairs when she was pictured on screen.

She is a very tigerish ‘Tiger Woman’ in this picture. Her heart, her soul, her finger tips, her eyelashes, her rounded arms, her heaving buzzum, all vibrate to a passion for pearls.

Theda Bara retired in 1926, having worked in forty-four films.


Click here to read articles about Marilyn Monroe.

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