Americus, Georgia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Americus is a city in Sumter County, Georgia, United States. The population was 17,013 at the 2000 census.

The Windsor Hotel in downtown Americus

The city is the county seat of Sumter County^GR6.

1 Geography
2 Facts
3 Demographics
4 Trivia
5 External links

[edit] Geography

Americus is located at 32°4′31″N, 84°13′36″W (32.075221, -84.226602)^GR1.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 27.7 km² (10.7 mi²). 27.1 km² (10.5 mi²) of it is land and 0.5 km² (0.2 mi²) of it (1.87%) is water.

[edit] Facts

Americus is the birthplace and international headquarters to Habitat for Humanity International. It is also home to the Fuller Center for Housing and Georgia Southwestern State University. Koinonia Partners is located southwest of Americus on Hwy. 49.

Americus, Georgia, was named and chartered by Sen. Lovett B. Smith in 1832.

Nationally prominent citizens of Americus include four U.S. Congressmen, former Speaker of the House Gen. Howell Cobb (1849-51), Gen. Philip Cook (1871-81), Speaker Charles F. Crisp (1891-95), both of whom have Georgia counties named for them, and the latter's son, Ways and Means Committee chairman Charles R. Crisp (1912-32), Ruby Muhammad, widow of Nation of Islam founder Elijah Muhammad, playwright and actor Lonne Elder III ("Sounder" and "Ceremonies in Dark Old Men"), Millard and Linda Fuller, founders of Habitat for Humanity International (1976) and the Fuller Center for Housing (2005), Rev. Dr. M. William Howard, Jr., National Council of Churches president (1978) and New York Theological Seminary president (1992), baseball player "Shoeless" Joe Jackson (1923), Angel Myers-Martino, Olympic gold medalist swimmer (1992), and Joanna Moore, movie and television actress ("The Andy Griffith Show").

For its first two decades Americus was a small courthouse town. The arrival of the railroad in 1854 and, three decades later, local attorney Samuel H. Hawkins' construction of the only privately financed railroad in state history, made Americus the eighth largest city in Georgia into the twentieth century. It was known as the "Metropolis of Southwest Georgia," a reflection of its status as a cotton distribution center. In 1890, Georgia's first chartered electric street car system went into operation in Americus. One of its restored cars is on permanent display at the Lake Blackshear Regional Library.

The town was already graced with an abundance of antebellum and Victorian architecture when local capitalists opened the Windsor Hotel in 1892. A five-story High Victorian or Queen Anne edifice, it was designed by a Swedish architect, Gottfried L. Norrman, in Atlanta. Vice-President Thomas R. Marshall gave a speech from the balcony in 1917 and soon to be N.Y. Gov. Franklin D. Roosevelt spoke in the dining room in 1928. Famous guests of the Windsor included John L. Sullivan and William Jennings Bryan in 1893, Eugene V. Debs in 1896, Sarah Bernhardt in 1916, Sgt. Alvin C. York in 1921, Esther Rolle, Hume Cronyn, and Jessica Tandy in 1993, Rev. Jesse Jackson in 2001, and Martin Sheen in 2006.

For the local black community, Rev. Dr. Major W. Reddick established the Americus Institute for secondary education (1897-1932). Booker T. Washington was a guest speaker there in May 1908. Rev. Alfred S. Staley was responsible for locating the state Masonic Orphanage in Americus, which served its function from 1898 to 1940. Both men engineered the unification of the General Missionary Baptist Convention of Georgia in 1915, the former as president and the latter as recording secretary. The public school named in honor of A.S. Staley was designated a National School of Excellence in 1990.

Two other institutions of higher learning were also established in Americus, the Third District Agricultural and Mechanical School in 1906 (now Georgia Southwestern State University), and the South Georgia Trade and Vocational School in 1948 (now South Georgia Technical College).

In World War I, an Army Air Corps training facility, Souther Field, was commissioned northeast of the city limits. Charles A. Lindbergh, the "Lone Eagle," bought his first airplane and made his first solo flight there during a two-week stay in May 1923. Recommissioned for World War II, Souther Field ended the war as a German prisoner-of-war camp.

Koinonia Farms, an interracial Christian community, was organized near Americus in 1942. Founder Clarence Jordan was a mentor to Millard and Linda Fuller, who founded Habitat for Humanity International at Koinonia in 1976 before moving into Americus the following year. In 2005, they founded the Fuller Center for Housing, also in Americus.

The Civil Rights Era in Americus was a time of great turmoil. Violent opposition to Koinonia by racist elements led to the bombing of a store uptown in 1957. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spent a weekend in the courthouse jail in 1961, after an arrest in Albany. The "Sumter Movement" to end racial segregation was organized and led by Rev. Joseph R. Campbell in 1963. As a direct result, two Georgia laws were subsequently declared unconstitutional by a federal tribunal meeting in Americus. Color barriers were first removed in 1965 when J.W. Jones and Henry L. Williams joined the Americus police force. Lewis M. Lowe was elected as the first black city councilman ten years later. With their election in 1995, Eloise R. Paschal and Eddie Rhea Walker broke the gender barrier on the city's governing body.

In 1971, the city was featured in a Marshall Frady article, "Discovering One Another in a Georgia Town," in "Look Magazine." The portrayal of the city's school integration was relatively benign, especially considering the community's checkered past on race relations. Americus' nadir in this respect had occurred in 1913, when Will Redding was lynched by a mob uptown because he had shot Police Chief W.C. Barrow, who later died of his wounds.

Americus has hosted a large number of famous personalities over the years, in addition to those already cited. Confederate visitors included President Jefferson Davis (1887), Vice-President Alexander H. Stephens (1875,1882), Secretary of State Robert Toombs (1873), and Generals Joseph E. Johnston (1863) and John B. Gordon (1886,1900). Political figures of the twentieth century included presidential candidates Woodrow Wilson (1912) and George C. Wallace (1964). Presidential cabinet officials included Ezra Taft Benson (1960), Marion B. Folsom (1963), Orville Freeman (1964), and Dean Rusk (1980). Figures from the Civil Rights Era included Lester Maddox (1965), Dick Gregory (1965), Julian Bond (1974), and Dr. Martin Luther King, Sr. (1976). Sports figures included Ty Cobb, with the Detroit Tigers, (1922) and Grantland Rice, with his friend, cartoonist Rube Goldberg, (1934). Pulitzer Prize winning authors included MacKinlay Kantor (1958) and Robert Penn Warren (1966). Stage, movie and television figures included Laura Keene (1870), John Philip Sousa (1913), Gary Cooper (1929), Earl "Fatha" Hines (1936), Michael Rennie (ca. 1942), Dan Duryea (1951), Burl Ives (1958), Paul Anderson (1963,1965,1971,1973), Tom Brokaw (1965), Paul Harvey (1969), Roger Mudd (1970), Jimmy Stewart (1973), Dr. Norman Vincent Peale (1974), Johnny Cash and June Carter (1975), Lynda Carter (1976), Gary Merrill (1976), Victor French (1977), Gary Busey (1983), Dan Rather (1998), and Martin Sheen (2006). Miscellaneous visitors included temperance advocate Carrie Nation (1907), World War I hero Capt. Eddie Rickenbacker (1938), and United Mine Workers president John L. Lewis (1947).

Unusual visitors to Americus included the following: Bonnie and Clyde's death car (1936), Pearl Harbor Japanese submarine (1944), Adolph Hitler's limousine (1951), Emperor Hirohito's stallion (1952), Centennial Olympic Torch (1996).

[edit] Demographics

As of the census^GR2 of 2000, there were 17,013 people, 6,374 households, and 4,149 families residing in the city. The population density was 626.8/km² (1,623.1/mi²). There were 7,053 housing units at an average density of 259.8/km² (672.9/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 39.05% White, 58.26% African American, 0.23% Native American, 0.86% Asian, 0.01% Pacific Islander, 0.90% from other races, and 0.69% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.49% of the population.

There were 6,374 households out of which 32.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 34.2% were married couples living together, 27.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 34.9% were non-families. 29.6% of all households were made up of individuals and 10.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.52 and the average family size was 3.14.

In the city the population was spread out with 28.0% under the age of 18, 14.1% from 18 to 24, 26.1% from 25 to 44, 18.0% from 45 to 64, and 13.7% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 30 years. For every 100 females there were 79.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 70.4 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $26,808, and the median income for a family was $32,132. Males had a median income of $27,055 versus $20,169 for females. The per capita income for the city was $14,168. About 23.4% of families and 27.7% of the population were below the poverty line, including 44.1% of those under age 18 and 19.8% of those age 65 or over.

[edit] Trivia

Three Major League Baseball players were born in Americus...Jeff McCleskey (1891), Gene Martin (1947), and Mo Sanford (1966).
Americus has been facing a large bat infestation since the mid-1990's. Millions of bats are estimated to reside in the historic mansions there. ¹