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Albany is a city in the U.S. state of Georgia and the seat of Dougherty County. Located in southwest Georgia,〔(【引用サイトリンク】accessdate=2011-06-07 )〕 it is the principal city of the Albany, Georgia metropolitan area. The population was 77,434 at the 2010 U.S. Census, making it the eighth-largest city in Georgia.〔 ==History== The area where Albany is located was formerly inhabited by the Creek Indians, who called it ''Thronateeska'' after their word for "flint" because of the mineral flint that was found near the river. The Creeks used this flintstone to make tools and weapons such as arrowheads. American settlement began with Nelson Tift, a businessman from Connecticut, who took land along the Flint River in October 1836 after Indian removal. The Creek were forced to relocate to Indian Territory west of the Mississippi River. Tift named his new town Albany after the capital of New York; both were located at the navigable heads of rivers. Alexander Shotwell laid out the town in 1836. It was incorporated as a city by an act of the General Assembly of Georgia on December 27, 1838.〔() 〕 Tift for decades was its leading entrepreneur. An ardent booster, he promoted education, business, and railroad construction. During the Civil War he provided naval supplies and helped build two ships. He opposed Radical Reconstruction inside the state and in Congress and was scornful of the Yankee carpetbaggers who came in. Fair concludes that Tift became "more Southern than many natives." His pro-slavery attitudes before the war and his support for segregation afterward made him compatible with Georgia's white elite.〔Fair, John D. "Nelson Tift: A Connecticut Yankee in King Cotton's Court," ''Georgia Historical Quarterly'' (2004) 88#3 pp 338-374〕 The area was developed by planters using slave labor for clearing land and cotton cultivation. By 1840, Dougherty County's majority population was black, composed overwhelmingly of slaves. The market center for cotton plantations, Albany was in a prime location for shipping cotton to markets by steamboats on the river. In 1858, Tift hired Horace King, a former slave and bridge builder, to construct a toll bridge over the river. King's bridge toll house still stands. Already important as a shipping port, Albany later became an important railroad hub in southwestern Georgia. Seven lines were constructed to the town. An exhibit on trains is located at the Thronateeska Heritage Center in the former railroad station. While integral to the economic life of the town, the Flint River has flooded regularly. There was extensive property damage in 1841 and 1925. Late twentieth-century floods have been extreme. In 1994, a severe flood was caused by rainfall from Tropical Storm Alberto; it killed 14 people and displaced 22,000. The state supported a $150 million renovation of the Albany State University campus to repair storm damage and accomplish upgrades. In addition, new housing was built on the south side of town to replace what had been destroyed. In 1998, the Flint River crested at above its bed and flooded parts of the city. Because of flooding, the city has decided against redeveloping areas along the riverfront floodplain for commercial or residential purposes. It is being improved for other uses, with a riverfront walkway and a new aquarium built over a tributary creek. On February 10, 1940, a severe tornado hit Albany, killing eighteen people and causing large-scale damage. On April 11, 1906, the Carnegie Library, created by matching funds from the philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, was opened downtown. Originally a segregated facility under Jim Crow laws, it was not open to African Americans until after the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It functioned as a library through 1985. In 1992, after renovation, the building was reopened as the headquarters of the Albany Area Arts Council. In 1912, the downtown U.S. Post Office and Courthouse building opened. Other federal projects have been important to the city and region. In 1937, Chehaw Park was constructed as a part of a New Deal program under the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt during the Great Depression. Major changes came with the expansion of military facilities in the city. A U.S. Army Air Corps training base was built near Albany on land owned by the city and leased to the Air Corps for $1 a year. Construction of the base and airfield by the Army Corps of Engineers began on March 25, 1941. The airfield was temporarily deactivated after World War II between August 15, 1946, and September 1, 1947. After the beginning of the Cold War and the founding of the U.S. Air Force in late 1947, the airfield was reactivated and upgraded with runways for a U.S. Air Force base. It was named Turner Air Force Base. The Air Force used this base for heavy bomber jets, such as the B-52 Stratofortress. A number of other Air Force units were also housed at this Air Force Base. as the base was renamed. Among them were the 1370th Photomapping Group, and refueling and maintenance functions. In 1951, the U.S. Marine Corps established a logistics base on the eastern outskirts of Albany. During the 1950s and 1960s, so many white servicemen and associated workers arrived that the town briefly became majority white for the first time since 1870. In 1960, the population of Albany reached 50,000 people. In 1961–1962, African Americans in Albany played a prominent role in the Civil Rights Movement (see the Albany Movement). They led protests and non-violent demonstrations to end segregation of public facilities, gain the ability to vote, and restore their dignity. Assisted by activists from SCLC, CORE, SNCC, and the NAACP, African Americans and supporters took a stand to fight segregation through nonviolence. The city repealed its Jim Crow laws in 1963, but it took federal legislation to secure the franchise. In 1967, the Air Force closed all its operations at the base, which was transferred to the U.S. Navy and renamed Naval Air Station Albany. NAS Albany was used as the shore base of nearly all the Navy's RA-5C Vigilante twin-jet, carrier-based reconnaissance aircraft. The base was closed and the property was returned to the city in 1974. In 1979, the Miller Brewing Company purchased part of the old naval base's property to build a new brewery. The decline in military bases and railroad restructuring led to job losses. Much of the remaining white population moved to suburbs and newer housing out of the city, which became majority African American in the 1970s. Struggling with a poor economy, in 1988, Albany made national headlines as the "Murder Capital of America," with the highest murder rate per capita in the United States. Other cities have since taken that title. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Albany, Georgia」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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