Newnan, Georgia

Coweta County Courthouse

"Heart of Newnan Motel", postcard from the 1960s

Newnan was established as county seat of Coweta County (replacing the defunct town of Bullsboro) in 1828 and was named for North Carolinian General Daniel Newnan. It quickly became a prosperous magnet for lawyers, doctors, other professionals, and merchants. Much of Newnan's prosperity was due to its thriving cotton industry, which relied on slavery.

Newnan was largely untouched by the Civil War due to its status as a hospital city (for both Union and Confederate troops), and as a result still features much antebellum architecture.[6] Celebrated architect Kennon Perry designed many of the town's 20th century homes. During the Atlanta Campaign, Confederate cavalry defeated Union forces at the nearby Battle of Brown's Mill.

On April 23, 1899, a notorious lynching occurred after an African-American man by the name of Sam Hose (born Tom Wilkes) was accused of killing his boss, Alfred Cranford. Hose was abducted from police custody, paraded through Newnan, tortured, and burned alive just north of town by a lynch mob of approximately 2,000 citizens of Coweta County.

Newnan was also host to the trial in 1948 of wealthy landowner John Wallace, the first white man in the South to be condemned to death by the testimony of African Americans, two field hands who were made to help with burning the body of murdered white sharecropper Wilson Turner. These events were portrayed in the novel Murder in Coweta County. The film version starred Johnny Cash, Andy Griffith, and June Carter.

In 1968 Kmart opened a warehouse in Newnan which slowly established Newnan as a major hub for distribution in the area.[7] Around this time, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters attempted to unionize the warehouse, but the attempt was defeated when the employees voted 329 to 201 in favor of remaining union-free.[8] In 2015 the distribution center closed with a loss of 164 jobs.[9]

The city is home to one of the few Georgia counties with a museum that focuses mainly on African American history. The Coweta County African American Heritage Museum and Research Center, or Caswell House, was opened in July 2003 in a donated mill village house once owned by Ruby Caswell. The museum sits on Farmer Street on an old, unmarked slave cemetery. It has collected hundreds of family genealogical records by interviewing residents and going through the census records.[10] The museum also houses the Coweta Census Indexes from 1870 to 1920.[11]

The first black library in the county was the Sara Fisher Brown Library. Built in the 1950s, the library has since been converted into the Community Action For Improvement Center.[12]

The Farmer Street Cemetery is the largest slave cemetery in the South, and may be the largest undisturbed one in the nation. It is within the city limits of Newnan.

Newnan is located in the center of Coweta County at 33°22′35″N 84°47′19″W (33.376411, -84.788648).[13] U.S. Route 29 passes through the center of the city, leading northeast 13 miles (21 km) to Palmetto and south 7 miles (11 km) to Moreland. Interstate 85 passes through the eastern side of the city, with access from exits 41, 44, and 47. I-85 leads northeast 40 miles (64 km) to downtown Atlanta and southwest 125 miles (201 km) to Montgomery, Alabama. U.S. Route 27A leads northwest from the center of Newnan 22 miles (35 km) to Carrollton.

According to the United States Census Bureau, Newnan has a total area of 18.6 square miles (48.3 km²), of which 18.3 square miles (47.4 km²) is land and 0.35 square miles (0.9 km²), or 1.88%, is water.[5]

Newnan's population is approximately 33,039 and Coweta County's population is approximately 127,400. From 2000 to 2010, the population of Coweta County grew by 42.7% as compared to from 1990 to 2000, when the county's population grew by 65.7%. Newnan's population grew by 30% from 1990 to 2000 and by 103.4% from 2000 to 2010.

The ethnic makeup of the city was 57.8% white alone, 30.6% African American alone, 0.3% Native American alone, 2.8% Asian alone, 0.1% Pacific Islander alone, 5.6% from "some other race" alone, and 2.8% from "two or more races". Hispanic or Latino of any race were 11.4% of the population.

There were 13,783 households, out of which 34.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 42.5% were married couples living together, 17.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 33.4% were non-families. 28.6% of all households were made up of individuals, and 7.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.61 and the average family size was 3.17. In the city, the population was spread out, with 30.8% under the age of 19, 7.8% from 20 to 24, 29.8% from 25 to 44, 21.9% from 45 to 64, and 9.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 33.3 years.

The median income for a household in the city was $50,175 and the median income for a family was $64,615. Males had a median income of $50,753 versus $39,691 for females. The per capita income for the city was $19,081. About 17.3% of families and 22.0% of the population were below the poverty line, including 32.0% of those under age 18 and 5.7% of those age 65 or over.[17]

• Ellis Arnall, Governor of Georgia (1943–1947)
• Monica (singer), Grammy Award Winner singer, songwriter, actress, and entrepreneur
• Karsten Bailey, former National Football League (NFL) wide receiver with Seattle Seahawks and Green Bay Packers, Canadian Football League (CFL) Saskatchewan Roughriders
• Cam Bedrosian, Major League Baseball (MLB) pitcher for the Los Angeles Angels
• Steve Bedrosian, former MLB pitcher, winner of 1987 Cy Young Award
• Hamilton Bohannon, musician and record producer
• Keith Brooking, former linebacker with Georgia Tech and NFL's Atlanta Falcons, and Dallas Cowboys
• Erskine Caldwell, novelist and short fiction writer (1903-1987)
• Jack Tarpley Camp Jr., jurist
• Lewis Grizzard, author and newspaper columnist
• Drew Hill, former NFL wide receiver with Houston Oilers, Los Angeles Rams, and Atlanta Falcons
• Alan Jackson, Country Music Hall of Fame member
• Joe M. Jackson, United States Air Force colonel, Medal of Honor recipient
• Calvin Johnson, former All-Pro NFL wide receiver with Detroit Lions, second selection of 2007 NFL Draft
• John Keith, former NFL player
• Wil Lutz, NFL kicker with New Orleans Saints
• Mary Lyndon, first woman to receive degree from University of Georgia
• Warren Newson, MLB player with Chicago White Sox, Texas Rangers
• Alec Ogletree, NFL linebacker with Los Angeles Rams
• Stephen W. Pless, Marine Corps major, Medal of Honor recipient
• Rocky Roquemore, international golf course designer
• Jefferson Randolph "Soapy" Smith II, (1860–1898), infamous 19th Century gambler, confidence man and crime boss
• Will Smith, MLB pitcher for San Francisco Giants
• Doug Stone, country music singer-songwriter
• Jerome Walton, MLB player, 1989 Rookie of the Year
• Marie Robinson Wright (1853–1914), American journalist, traveler, historian, author
• William C. Wright, congressman (1918–1933)
• Steve Young, pioneer country rock musician

• The ABC television series October Road was filmed in Newnan,[22] which is set in the fictional town of Knights Ridge, Massachusetts.
• The TV movie Murder in Coweta County (1983), based on the book[23] by Margaret Anne Barnes, chronicles actual events that occurred around 1948.[24]
• The NBC series I'll Fly Away was filmed in Newnan from 1991–1993.[22]
• The 1995 movie Fluke was filmed in Newnan.[22]
• Pet Sematary Two (1992).[25]
• The 1979 movie The Sheriff and the Satellite Kid (Uno sceriffo extraterrestre... poco extra e molto terrestre) with Bud Spencer takes place and was filmed in Newnan.
• The Walking Dead TV series has several scenes filmed in Newnan, including Newnan High School and Sonrise Baptist Church.[26]
• The Netflix TV series Insatiable was filmed in Newnan.[27]
• Zombieland (2009)
• The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 (2014)
• The Founder (2016)
• The House with a Clock in Its Walls (2018)
• Lovecraft Country (TV series) (2019)
• Many More, Complete List

• City of Newnan official website
•  "Newnan" . Collier's New Encyclopedia. 1921.
• "Newnan" . New International Encyclopedia. 1905.