Atlanta owns up to legacy of convict labor that rebuilt city
By MICHAEL WARREN Atlanta's skyline is shown, with Bellwood Quarry Reservoir in the foreground, on Dec. 20, 2021. Atlanta was built with slavery’s successor: unpaid convict labor. Thousands of Black men worked in horrific conditions to break granite at the quarry, now a reservoir holding the city's backup water supply. (Elliott Augustine via AP) The City of Atlanta’s official seal shows a phoenix rising from the ashes of the Civil