Educating the urban new south : Atlanta and the rise of Georgia State University, 1913-1969 / Merl E. Reed.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Reed, Merl E., 1925-2016

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Georgia State University--History.

Georgia State University.

Education, Urban--Georgia--Atlanta--History.

Education, Urban.

History.

Georgia--Atlanta.

Physical Description:

xii, 321 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Macon, Ga. : Mercer University Press, [2009]

Summary:

From evening school in 1913 to university status in 1969, Georgia State went through many difficult times including misguided recommendations from an elitist General Education Board, inadequate state funding, the Depression, opposition of the University of Georgia, a hostile board of regents, and the segregation crisis, among others. When the Evening School opened in downtown Atlanta, it was the only public college of its kind in a major Southern city. It lacked dormitories and campus, and had no building of its own until 1931. Its presence, unwelcome to many, often confounded education leaders. In the late 1940s, its industrial appearance led one journalist to call it the "knowledge factory on Ivy Street." After several name changes-System (or Atlanta) Center, Atlanta Division (of the University of Georgia), Georgia State College of Business Administration, and Georgia State College-it finally received university status in 1969. Viewed in retrospect, GSU's symbiotic relationship with dynamic Atlanta, along with the stimulus from World War II and the GI Bill, made its ultimate success virtually unstoppable. This sympathetic but critical account of GSU challenges some of the traditional interpretations of Georgia's educational history.

Contents:

1 Progressive Atlanta and Georgia Tech's Downtown Evening School 1

2 Establishing Roots 9

3 Atlanta and the Evening School Face the Depression 19

4 Atlanta, the Evening School and the University System of Georgia 27

5 Whither the System Evening School? 35

6 Georgia Politics, the New Deal, Atlanta, and the USGES 45

7 Downsizing Degree Programs 51

8 Prosperity and War 59

9 Student and Faculty Activities before World War II 71

10 Accrediting the Atlanta Center 87

11 A Permanent Home 97

12 Postwar Expansion 107

13 Lost Opportunities 118

14 Reorganization, Recession, and Financial Rescue 127

15 Loosening the Ties 135

16 The Final Push for Accreditation 146

17 Searching for an Identity 159

18 Rising Support for the Atlanta Division 169

19 Separation 177

20 The Problems of Independence 189

21 The Challenge to Segregation 199

22 Surviving during the Segregation Crisis 215

23 Student and Faculty Activities after World War II 225

24 Atlanta and Georgia State 243.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780881461480

0881461482

OCLC:

310081532