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Abstract
For over a century, civic leaders, businessmen, and city boosters sought to promote a united and harmonious image of Atlanta. Carefully thought-out slogans and long-range development plans have promoted Atlanta as a relic of the oft-romanticized Old South past, the birthplace of the New South, an icon of southern hospitality, and a model of racial moderation during the Civil Rights Movement. Yet this has frequently entailed a heavy dose of historical forgetfulness, if not downright amnesia. This dissertation explores the use of the history in metro-Atlantas public landscape, by examining key events, marketing campaigns, and tourism endeavors, which in turn, have contributed to the continual reinvention of the city. Utilizing private correspondence, master development plans, newspaper articles, tourist travel studies, and oral history transcripts, this dissertation explores the use of the past to develop a historical South in metro-Atlanta during the mid-late twentieth-century. It examines how human actorsincluding politicians, boosters, community leaders, and prominent businessmen along with a variety of organizations shaped the public landscape of history and to what effects. It traces how issues came to a head time and again as both concerned local observers and elected officials grappled with the ongoing changes: during the Civil War Centennial; in the purchase and development of Stone Mountain; the establishment of Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site; and in preparations for the 1996 Olympics. Ultimately, this dissertation underscores how these groups and individuals re-packaged metro-Atlanta as a booming paradise for both businesses and tourists all while capitalizing on the citys Confederate past and birthplace of human rights in the post-civil rights South.