Bleckley County, in central Georgia, was named for state chief justice Logan Bleckley. The 219-square-mile county was carved from Pulaski County by constitutional amendment in October 1912, when it became Georgia’s 147th county. The area was originally inhabited by the Creek Indians. The seat of Bleckley County, Cochran, originally known as Dykesboro, was incorporated in 1869 and named for Judge Arthur E. Cochran, president of the Macon and Brunswick (later Southern) Railroad.

Opened in 1924, Booker T. Washington High School was the first high school for African American students in Atlanta. Placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986, the school boasts such notable graduates as Lena Horne and Martin Luther King Jr. Renovations on the school began in 2004. ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7qLHOq56imZWjsLqvy6innpyZlnuwvsZomKusmZi5pr%2BOmqmtq12Ywq3A1KucaKuklsGmeceiqq2nop6wbrzRnqqeqqaWwaq7zWamn56ZmLJwrs6oop6qXal6uK3SoaCnn6Sku260yKCfZquTnbywuL5pZ2pn

Camp Oglethorpe, which opened in Macon in 1862, became most noted among Union prisoners for the number of escape tunnel operations beneath the enclosure. Although the facility was virtually abandoned in 1863 as a result of prisoner exchanges with the Union army, by 1864 more than 2,300 Union officers were imprisoned there. Courtesy of Massachusetts Commandery Military Order of the Loyal Legion, U.S. Army Military History Institute The New Georgia Encyclopedia does not hold the copyright for this media resource and can neither grant nor deny permission to republish or reproduce the image online or in print.

A 1981 flier from the group "Women for Andrew Young," founded by Jean Childs Young, promotes Andrew Young during his campaign to be elected mayor of Atlanta. The group supported Young through four U.S. congressional campaigns, two mayoral campaigns, and one Georgia gubernatorial campaign. Courtesy of Archives Division, Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture and History, Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System The New Georgia Encyclopedia does not hold the copyright for this media resource and can neither grant nor deny permission to republish or reproduce the image online or in print.

Between 6,000 and 10,000 people gathered in Atlanta on September 2, 1885, to watch the setting of the marble cornerstone for the new state capitol. Final construction on the building took place in March 1889, and the capitol was dedicated a few months later on the Fourth of July. The New Georgia Encyclopedia does not hold the copyright for this media resource and can neither grant nor deny permission to republish or reproduce the image online or in print.