Home to international businesses, including CNN and Coca-Cola, Atlanta is one of the fastest growing metropolitan areas in the United States. The city has a proud history as a major organizing center of the U.S. Civil Rights Movement. Atlanta is the birthplace of Martin Luther King Jr. and boasts the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site and Center for Nonviolent Social Change.
Atlanta has a humid subtropical climate, with hot, humid summers and mild, but occasionally chilly winters by the standards of the southern United States.
Atlanta's history is marked most notably by the Civil War and the Civil Rights Movement. In 1864, Confederate Atlanta participated in several violent battles, including the Battle of Peachtree Creek, which led to the surrendering of the capital to the Union army. A hundred years later, Atlanta became a major organizing center of the Civil Rights Movement, with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and students from Atlanta's historically black colleges and universities playing important roles in the movement's leadership.