Time magazine observed in October of 1969 that Atlanta’s power elite had declared war on hippies.

The election started for Mayor of Atlanta and candidates tried to outdo each other on describing what they planned to do to the hippies. Suddenly city service people were very interested in the hippie areas and whether residents needed their house condemned for small code violations – developers wanted land!

Police gathered in advance Sunday September 20, 1969 to provoke a confrontation. Then they surrounded and attacked the crowd – hippies, children, old people, average citizens of Atlanta enjoying the music on a September morn in Piedmont Park. Yet “Law and Order” candidates arrived with film crews to use the riot as a background for railing about the hippie menace!

See pictures of the police attack!