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One hundred sixteen years ago, former Confederate officers Nathaniel Edwards Harris and Major J.F. Hanson had a vision which later became a driving force in pulling agrarian Georgia into the midst of the industrial age and beyond. To these two men we owe the South's progression into the computer age as well as all-nighters and the ever beloved SHAFT. But why blame Edwards and Hanson for that incomprehensible e-mag assignment?
The story begins on a mid-winter day of 1882. Major Hanson called upon Nathaniel Harris and brought up a proposal for a technical school in Georgia. Harris, upon hearing the idea, was so taken with Hanson's proposal that he declared that "I would rather be the author of a law establishing such a school than be the Governor of Georgia."
With this first convert, Major Hanson set into motion the founding of the Georgia School of Technology.
Harris, who would later become Governor of Georgia despite his declaration, was as good as his word. He ran for the state seat from Bibb County, with the founding of a technical school in the state as a large plank in his platform.
His effort in running for the office was aided, beginning on March 4, 1882, by editorials and endorsements given by the Macon Telegraph and Messenger's Harry S. Edwards. Edwards was the South's best-known newspaper writer at the time, and his editorials were written in favor of the establishment of a technical school in the state. Edwards' endorsement called upon the state to, "Turn out... each year, a class of skilled mechanics, Architects and Engineers," so that "there will be no want of skilled labor."
After Macon, other newspapers and periodicals gave weight to the campaign, including the Augusta newspaper and Atlanta's publisher, Henry W. Grady. Grady, in his Atlanta Constitution, endorsed, fought for and praised the efforts to build and grow the school until his death in December of 1889.
Harris won the election and took his seat on November 24, 1882. He began the task to establish the school by introducing a resolution to form a committee to investigate the question. The resolution was passed without dissension on December 8, 1882, for a body of seven legislators, including Harris, to "investigate and consider the propriety and expediency of establishing in the state a school of technology."
The committee, which eventually would grow to ten members, began a series of meeting and fact-finding missions to various institutuins that the committee felt embodied "the best concept of industrial education."
This commission returned a favorable report to the House on July 24, 1883 in the form of House Bill 732, calling for the establishment of a technical school in Georgia.
The bill, after a favorable review by the finance committee, was introduced on December 14, 1883, and was promptly defeated. Opposition to a relatively new form of education in an established agrarian economy, regard for the classical education in the South, and funding issues were powerful forces working against the school.
Harris was undaunted. He garnered political support from influential representatives and political groups. Harris was finally able to persuade Chancellor P. H. Mell and other prominent faculty members of the University of Georgia, which would act as the parent college for the Institute, to come out in favor of the technical school.
With this new support Harris reintroduced the old Resolution 792 as House Bill 8 to the floor. After a bitter fight in the house and senate, including a reconsideration vote, the bill passed by 69 to 44.
Governor McDaniel signed the bill into law on October 13, 1885. This act officially founded the Georgia School of Technology.
The meteoric rise of the New South was lead in large part by Georgia, and Atlanta in particular. Tech, having been founded to offer Georgia and the South the tools to enter into the twentieth century, would play a substantial part in building that prosperity by providing the education needed to build the new South.