Red Clay, White Water, and Blues

"This is the first comprehensive history of the second-largest city in Georgia. It begins with the city's founding in the 1820s and brings its story to the present, examining economic, political, social, and cultural change over time. Virginia E. Causey ... focuses on three defining characteristics of the city's history: the role that geography has played in its evolution, specifically its location on the Chattahoochee River along the Fall Line making it an ideal place to establish water-powered textile mills; the fact that the control of city's affairs rested in the hands of a self-serving but 'mostly benevolent' business elite; and the endemic presence of violence that left a 'bloody trail' throughout local history. Causey peppers the essential facts about major events in the history of Columbus with telling anecdotes of some of its most colorful characters, including Sol Sullivan and his Dramatic Company, music phenom Blind Tom, the suffragette Augusta Howard, Peanut King Tom Huston, blueswoman Ma Rainey, novelist Carson McCullers, and insurance magnate John Amos. Because of her deep research into the desegregation of the Columbus school system, Causey's treatment of both the city's persistent racial discrimination and also its African American citizens' struggle for civil rights is particularly effective"--