Atlanta, Georgia, is the capital of southeast America; although America's southern states were the last to abolish slavery and segregation, Atlanta has always tried to set itself apart from these places as a more liberal, forward thinking city.

Since the 1960s, Atlanta as been linked to civil rights movements, and was a major centre of action in these regards. Atlanta's most famous resident was Martin Luther King, who was born there in 1929 and went on to be a major campaigner of civil rights for blacks and other disadvantaged Americans.

King is now recognised as one of the most widely revered figures in American history, and is credited with advancing racial equality by a massive amount. He has received a whole host of prizes including the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize, the Margaret Sanger Award, The Marcus Garvey Award, while he was elected the third Greatest American of all time by the American public in a survey conducted by the Discovery Channel and AOL.

It was King who was part of many pushes for equality in Atlanta. In the 1960s, black Atlantan students published an "Appeal for Human Rights", which condemned segregation and laid justification for direct action against it. Waves of sit-ins followed, and slowly but surely things began to change for the better, with the Mayor Ivan Allen Jr. becoming one of the few Southern white mayors to support desegregation of Atlanta's public schools.

However, Atlanta's claims of a city in racial harmony were not always supported by history and not all Atlantans were "too busy to hate"; members of the Ku Klux Klan certainly found the time, as archive pictures of them marching to protest against the desegregation of a hotel in Atlanta show. And this wasn't an isolated event; during the Atlanta race riots of 1906, at least 27 died and over seventy were injured, while Jewish groups who were speaking out against segregation were violently attacked by white supremacists.

Despite these troubles, compared to other cities in the USA, and especially those in the traditionally more racist south, Atlanta was more liberal, and has tried to present its racial diversity as a strength rather than a weakness. The 1996 Olympics helped to regenerate certain areas of the city with millions of dollars being spent on sprucing up its downtown area, which in turn helped to create a pleasant, pedestrian-friendly business district. Other initiatives carried out by the city to reduce segregation include action by the Atlanta housing authorities that has put low income housing in mixed-income neighborhoods, which helps to increase integration.

So, it may not be perfect, but Atlanta's forward thinking city has certainly been busy trying not to hate, and on the subject of racial discrimination, it seems it's still doing ok.

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