From early rail crossroads to one of Georgia’s most diverse communities, DeKalb has shaped the region’s past, present, and future
Before there was a city called Atlanta, there was DeKalb County—created in 1822 on Muscogee (Creek) and Cherokee land and named for Revolutionary War hero Baron Johann de Kalb. When Decatur’s leaders rejected an early rail terminus in the 1830s, the tracks pushed a few miles west and the settlement of Terminus—later Marthasville, then Atlanta—rose from former DeKalb soil. Across towns like Lithonia, Doraville, and Tucker, railroads, quarries, and postwar industry turned farm country into a connected suburban engine that powered metro Atlanta’s growth. Today, from the refugee gateway of Clarkston to the international corridors of Chamblee and the thriving Black middle‑class neighborhoods that ring the county, DeKalb stands as one of Georgia’s most diverse and globally connected communities.
Read the full story at: DeKalb County… Where It All Began