Rail Was the Route to Atlanta

Last week I began to examine how the railroad running parallel to Douglasville’s central business district came to be. The railroad was an important ingredient used by town leaders to create a successful business district per the New South creed. The espousal of the New South creed reshaped villages into railroad towns, revitalized local economies and resurrected the cotton mill industry per Stephanie Aylworth, Douglasville’s Main Street Manager.

In his book, The Promise of the New South: Life After Reconstruction, Edward L. Ayers states,The New South era began in the 1880s after the biracial and reformist experiment of Reconstruction had ended and the conservative white Democrats had taken power throughout the Southern states.  

Atlanta Constitution editor, Henry W. Grady is credited with the term  'New South’ which represents an ideology that emphasized a new reliance upon railroads and industrialization to modernize the south.  

You can read the rest of this column over at Douglasville Patch.