Georgia (state)

I

Trade

The sheltered passage between the Sea Islands and the mainland is part of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway. Savannah and Brunswick handle Georgia’s foreign trade, with the leading exports being clay, wood pulp, and paper products. Savannah is the nation’s leading port for the shipment of naval stores and is an important trade outlet for Tennessee. Savannah now boasts one of the largest ocean port facilities on the South Atlantic Coast, which is having a tremendous impact on opening Georgia to international markets. Among ports in the region, the Port of Savannah ranks second, after Charleston, South Carolina, as the largest container port and first in terms of overall tonnage handled. More than 1,700 ships call at the port annually. Kaolin, wood pulp, linerboard (a thin paperboard used as a lining), and machinery are major exports while iron, steels, food products, petroleum, and chemicals are major imports.

IV

The People of Georgia

A

Population Patterns

According to the 2000 federal census, Georgia ranked 10th among the states, with a total population of 8,186,453. This represented an increase of 26.4 percent over the 1990 census figure of 6,478,216.

The population density for the state as a whole was 62 persons per sq km (162 per sq mi) in 2006. However, the population is not evenly distributed. About one-half of the population lives in metropolitan Atlanta while the other half is widely dispersed throughout the state. Atlanta ranks among the largest urban areas in the country.

The 1960 census was the first to record more people living in urban than in rural areas. In 2000 some 72 percent of the state’s total population lived in towns and cities.

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Most white Georgians are of British descent. The first settlers in Georgia came mainly from England but also included some Germans, Austrians, and Swiss. They settled mainly along the coast. Northern Georgia was settled during the 1830s, mostly by people of Scottish and Irish descent, who came mainly from North Carolina, Virginia, and Pennsylvania.

By 1860, blacks, most of them slaves, accounted for nearly one-half of the state’s population. They lived mainly on plantations in the Coastal Plain and the Piedmont. After the Civil War many blacks were unable to survive as farmers and moved to Northern cities. The black portion of the population of Georgia declined, until they represented only about one-quarter of the people. By the 1970s, however, a trend of reverse migration began, with many blacks returning to the cities of Georgia seeking industrial and service employment, and the percentage of blacks in the state began increasing.

In 2000 whites made up 65.1 percent of the population and blacks 28.7 percent. The percentage of black residents is much higher in some cities. In Atlanta they are nearly two-thirds of the people, in Savannah more than one-half. Asians are 2.1 percent of the population, Native Americans 0.3 percent, Native Hawaiians and othe Pacific Islanders 0.1 percent, and those of mixed heritage or not reporting race 3.8 percent. Hispanics, who may be of any race, are 5.3 percent of the people.

B

Principal Cities

Atlanta, with a population of 486,411 (2006) in the city and 5,138,223 (2006) in the metropolitan area, is the capital, largest city, and leading commercial center of the state. It is also the principal city of the entire southeastern United States. Growth in the white-collar service economy, led by expansion of corporate headquarters and services such as giving legal advice, computing, and advertising, accounts for a large part of Atlanta’s recent expansion. The metropolitan area centered on the city now contains three suburban cores in addition to the original central business district. These suburban cities, sometimes called edge cities, each possess an impressive skyline of tall buildings and major retail shopping centers. The Atlanta region’s economy was also boosted when the city hosted the 1996 Summer Olympic Games.

Georgia’s second largest city is Columbus, with 188,660 (2006) people, which grew initially as an industrial city. Fort Benning, a large United States Army infantry base, is near the city. Savannah, with a population of 127,889, was the largest city in Georgia until the rise of Atlanta in the 20th century. A bustling industrial center and seaport, Savannah is the oldest city in the state and has retained much of the aura of its gracious past. Other major cities include Macon, with 93,665 inhabitants, Albany, with 75,335 people, and Augusta, with 195,769 inhabitants.

C

Religion

Protestant faiths have predominated in Georgia since colonial times. In 1733 a congregation of the Church of England was organized at Savannah. By 1735, Presbyterians from Scotland and Lutherans and other German Protestants had settled in Georgia. Although Jews and Roman Catholics were to be excluded from the colony, a small group of English Jews organized a synagogue at Savannah in 1733. Near the end of the 18th century a Roman Catholic church was founded by English settlers from Maryland. Georgia’s first Baptist church was organized in 1772. Methodism flourished in the state after the American Revolution.

Today, more than half the church members in Georgia are Baptists. Methodists are the second largest religious group. There are Roman Catholic churches and Jewish synagogues in most of the larger communities in Georgia.

V

Education and Cultural Institutions

A

Education

The Georgia constitution of 1777 provided for state-supported schools in each county, but no funds were appropriated to implement the plan. In the 1780s a few academies were established with state endowments of land. In the 1830s religious groups founded manual labor schools where students worked to help pay for their education. A system of public education was finally organized in 1872 by Gustavus John Orr, the state school commissioner. State-supported education was limited to elementary schools and the state university until 1912, when high schools were included. In 1949 a foundation program was authorized to expand educational facilities. Some 9 percent of the state’s students attend private schools.

School attendance is compulsory for children between the ages of 6 and 16. The public school system is supervised by the state board of education. There are also numerous private educational institutions in Georgia.

Until the 1960s whites and blacks had to attend separate schools. In 1954, however, the Supreme Court of the United States had outlawed segregation in public schools. After several years of officially-sanctioned resistance, integration of high schools was begun in Atlanta in 1961 and in Athens, Macon, and Savannah in 1964. Integration spread slowly thereafter.

In the 2004–2005 school year Georgia spent $9,134 on each student’s education, compared with a national average of $9,910. There were 14.3 students for every teacher (the national average was 15.5 students). Of those older than 25 years of age in the state, 82.9 percent had a high school diploma, compared to the nation’s average of 84.5 percent.

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