About The champion newspaper. (Decatur, GA) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 15, 2024)
OPINION THE CHAMPION, THURSDAY. FEBRUARY 15 -21, 2024 • PAGE 5 Atlanta was the real winner of Super Bowl LVIII Super Bowl LVIII, held Feb. 11, didn't disappoint when it came to drama and flair; the first two quarters saw the San Francisco 49ers score as the Kansas City Chiefs fumbled, but in the second half, the Chiefs came back to pull out a 22- 25 win when the game went into overtime, a rare feat at the Super Bowl. While the game was an exciting spectacle, Atlanta-based performer Usher was the MVP of the night, delivering a halftime show that celebrated all things A-Town. Highlighting much of his impressive catalogue of hits throughout his halftime performance, Usher brought Atlanta to Las Vegas with everything from dancing the A-Town Stomp with Lil Jon to bringing out local legends Jeremaine Dupri and Ludacris as special guests, and even strapping on a pair of roller skates and busting a move in a giant roller rink (because, of course, the man can sing, dance, has six-pack abs, and can do it all while rolling on eight wheels). With his high-energy, fast-paced halftime show, Usher reminded the world - or at least everyone tuning into the Super Bowl - that Atlanta is where some of the greatest talent, especially in hip hop, is born and bred. Those wanting to see more of Usher's talents on display may already have tickets to one of his three upcoming Past, Present, Future Tour shows coming up in Atlanta in October. But for those of us who won't be lucky enough to see him when he rolls through, Coming Home, the artist's first solo record in more than seven years, was released Feb. 9. Celebrating Georgia Day! On Feb. 12, the 13th of the original colonies, our blessed home state of Georgia, turns 291. The peach and peanut state is a place of greatness and wonders, but also some notable contradictions. The state of Georgia was founded by Gen. James Edward Oglethorpe along the Georgia coastline and in the modest colony of Savannah on Feb. 12,1733, with 114 settlers, primarily composed of debtors, former indentured servants, and a handful of British Redcoats. The journey crossing the Atlantic had taken nearly two months, and the colonists followed Oglethorpe climbing a 40-foot bluff above the Savannah River to plant a flag and declare the colony's founding. Oglethorpe was a loyalist to the crown, and the colony was named in honor of King George II and was managed by Oglethorpe as a military governor with a board of trustees. The colony was given a three-pronged initial mission of economic growth, philanthropy (allowing economic opportunity for former debtors and indentured servants) and providing military protection for South Carolina to the north. Along with Georgia's second city in Darien, to the south of Savannah, the fledging colony would only succeed initially with its third mission, acting as a buffer between Spanish Florida and the English colonies to the north. For fewer than 20 years, the trustees prohibited slavery (Oglethorpe was also a prominent abolitionist) as well as large landholdings. Georgians would initially work only for themselves, tending small farms. Capitalism, greed, and relocation from other colonies would bring plantations and slavery to the young colony in later decades. The Louisiana Purchase, under Pres. Thomas Jefferson in 1803 from France, would for a time give Georgia a western border that reached the Pacific Ocean. If we had been able to hang on to all that real estate, I dare say that Los Angeles, San Diego, and a good chunk of the "Left Coast" might well be more than a bit different today. The forced relocation of the Cherokee Nation between 1830- 1850, initiated by Pres. Andrew Jackson from the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in northwest Georgia, would create the horrific Trail of Tears and result in the deaths of more than 15,000 Native Americans, primarily women and children, making the trek on foot. The Georgia coast is also where the last slave ship in the United States made berth with its by-then illegal cargo (on Jekyll Island and The Wanderer on Nov. 10,1858). In north Georgia, the Ku Klux Klan was reborn in 1915 atop Stone Mountain, also where the Civil Rights Movement saw the birth of its best-known spiritual leader, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) was formed on Jan. 10, 1957, at Ebeneezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. Though Georgia was among the original seven states of the Confederacy and contributed nearly 100,000 troops to the conflict, most in service to the armies of Virginia, fighting would primarily be waged within 100 miles of Richmond, and would not make its way into Georgia until Sherman's attack and burning of Atlanta in 1864. The burning of Atlanta was followed by his destruction of thousands of acres of farmland and smaller towns during his months-long march to the sea, which broke the southern spirit and is universally considered the pivotal turning point of that war. Georgia has only one native- born president of the United States in Jimmy Carter - also the nation's longest-living former president. Pres. Woodrow Wilson spent his childhood and formative years in Augusta, and later practiced law in Atlanta. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, our longest-serving president, made Warm Springs, Georgia, and his Little White Flouse there, almost his second home from his first visit to the hot springs on Oct. 3,1924, which gave him at times relief from the pain of crippling polio to his passing there on April 12,1945. As Georgia approaches 300, in a nation approaching 250 (in 2026), there is much to ponder, much to regret, and much to celebrate. The Georgia of today is still in the South, but most of its residents live in a region that no longer necessarily feels "of the South," in metro Atlanta. Southern hospitality, unlimited iced tea and coffee refills, and a bit more deference to civility and being good neighbors still matter here, and I would hate to still live in a Georgia that ever loses that. Bill Crane is political analyst and commentator in metro Atlanta, as well as a columnist for The Champion, DeKalb Free Press and Georgia Trend. Crane is a DeKalb native and business owner, living in Scottdale. You can contact him or comment on a column at biH.csicrane@ VISIT US ONLINE THECHAMPIONNEWSPAPER.COM
