George Washington Carver State Park

Last updated April 03, 2019

George Washington Carver State Park was a state park in the U.S. state of Georgia. It existed from 1950 to 1975, when it was then leased to Bartow County as a county park. Red Top Mountain, located on Lake Allatoona, consists of 1,553 acres (6 km²) and derives its name from the rich red color of the soil that comes from the high iron content in the ground. In 1950, the state initially leased the land for 25 years from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The park served not only to preserve the area’s history, but also boost Bartow County’s growth and agricultural economy.

State parks are parks or other protected areas managed at the sub-national level within those nations which use "state" as a political subdivision. State parks are typically established by a state to preserve a location on account of its natural beauty, historic interest, or recreational potential. There are state parks under the administration of the government of each U.S. state, some of the Mexican states, and in Brazil. The term is also used in the Australian state of Victoria. The equivalent term used in Canada, Argentina, South Africa and Belgium, is provincial park. Similar systems of local government maintained parks exist in other countries, but the terminology varies.

In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are currently 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory and shares its sovereignty with the federal government. Due to this shared sovereignty, Americans are citizens both of the federal republic and of the state in which they reside. State citizenship and residency are flexible, and no government approval is required to move between states, except for persons restricted by certain types of court orders. Four states use the term commonwealth rather than state in their full official names.

Georgia is a state in the Southeastern United States. It began as a British colony in 1733, the last and southernmost of the original Thirteen Colonies to be established. Named after King George II of Great Britain, the Province of Georgia covered the area from South Carolina south to Spanish Florida and west to French Louisiana at the Mississippi River. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788. In 1802–1804, western Georgia was split to the Mississippi Territory, which later split to form Alabama with part of former West Florida in 1819. Georgia declared its secession from the Union on January 19, 1861, and was one of the original seven Confederate states. It was the last state to be restored to the Union, on July 15, 1870. Georgia is the 24th largest and the 8th most populous of the 50 United States. From 2007 to 2008, 14 of Georgia's counties ranked among the nation's 100 fastest-growing, second only to Texas. Georgia is known as the Peach State and the Empire State of the South. Atlanta, the state's capital and most populous city, has been named a global city. Atlanta's metropolitan area contains about 55% of the population of the entire state.

History

In 1950, Atlanta resident and former Tuskegee Airman John Loyd Atkinson Sr. was instrumental in establishing George Washington Carver State Park (1950–1975), the state’s only park ever named for an African American.

George Washington Carver, was an American agricultural scientist and inventor. He actively promoted alternative crops to cotton and methods to prevent soil depletion.

Atkinson had leased the 345 acres (1.4 km²) adjacent to Red Top Mountain Park from the Corps of Engineers with the intention of establishing a private resort for Blacks, like American Beach, Florida. Governor Herman Talmadge helped establish the park and open it next to Red Top Mountain State Park, although operated and maintained separately. Atkinson became the park superintendent, the first African-American park manager in the state, serving from 1950 to 1958. James Clarence Benham, father of Georgia Supreme Court Justice Robert Benham, became Carver Park's second park manager, serving for three years.

American Beach is a historic beach community in northeastern Florida popular with African-American vacationers. It is located north of Jacksonville on Amelia Island in Nassau County. During the time of segregation and the Jim Crow era, African Americans were not allowed to swim at most beaches in Jacksonville, and several black-only areas were created. American Beach was the largest and most popular, and was a community established by Abraham Lincoln Lewis, Florida's first black millionaire and president of the Afro-American Life Insurance Company. It contains American Beach Historic District, a historic district which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002.

Herman Eugene Talmadge was an American politician who served as a U.S. Senator from Georgia from 1957 to 1981. A staunch segregationist and a controversial figure, he was censured by the Senate for financial irregularities, which were revealed during a bitter divorce from his second wife. He previously served as governor of the state from 1948 to 1955, taking over after the death of his father Eugene Talmadge, the governor-elect. Talmadge was well known for his opposition to civil rights, ordering schools to be closed rather than desegregated.

Robert Benham is the second African-American graduate of the University of Georgia School of Law and the first African-American to serve on the Supreme Court of Georgia.

External links

History of George Washington Carver State Park

Coordinates: 34°08′21″N84°40′01″W / 34.139126°N 84.6669617°W / 34.139126; -84.6669617

Geographic coordinate system Coordinate system

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