Southern Bell Telephone and Telegraph Company was once the regional

Bell Operating Company The Bell System was a system of telecommunication companies, led by the Bell Telephone Company and later by the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T), that dominated the telephone services industry in North America for over one hundre ...

serving the states of

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

, and

South Carolina )''Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no) , anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind" , Former = Province of South Carolina , seat = Columbia , LargestCity = Charleston , LargestMetro = ...

prior to the

breakup of AT&T The breakup of the Bell System was mandated on January 8, 1982, by an agreed consent decree providing that AT&T Corporation would, as had been initially proposed by AT&T, relinquish control of the Bell Operating Companies, which had provided loc ...

. It also covered the states of

Alabama (We dare defend our rights) , anthem = "Alabama (state song), Alabama" , image_map = Alabama in United States.svg , seat = Montgomery, Alabama, Montgomery , LargestCity = Huntsville, Alabama, Huntsville , LargestCounty = Baldwin County, Al ...

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

, and

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

until 1968 when those were split off to form

South Central Bell South Central Bell Telephone Company, headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, was the name of the Bell System's operations in Alabama, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee. South Central Bell was created in July 1968 when the Bell tel ...

. The company was originally known as the Atlanta Telephonic Exchange, having been created to service citizens of

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

in 1879, before it was renamed in 1882. Southern Bell also operated in Charleston and other parts of

West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the Bur ...

, from 1883 until 1917, when the Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company of West Virginia took over operations there.

Split into South Central Bell & Southern Bell

Southern Bell originally served nine Southern states. On December 20, 1967, the western portion of the Southern Bell territory (Alabama, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee) was split off as

Telephone Company.

Landmark sex discrimination case

''Weeks v. Southern Bell'' was an important sex discrimination case in which

Lorena Weeks Lorena W. Weeks (born 1929) was the plaintiff in an important sex discrimination case, ''Weeks v. Southern Bell'' (1969). She claimed that Southern Bell had violated her rights under the 1964 Civil Rights Act of 1964, Civil Rights Act when they deni ...

claimed that Southern Bell had violated her rights under the 1964

Civil Rights Act Civil Rights Act may refer to several acts of the United States Congress, including: * Civil Rights Act of 1866, extending the rights of emancipated slaves by stating that any person born in the United States regardless of race is an American ci ...

when they denied her application for promotion to a higher paying position because she was a woman. She was represented in the case by Sylvia Roberts, a

National Organization for Women The National Organization for Women (NOW) is an American feminist organization. Founded in 1966, it is legally a 501(c)(4) social welfare organization. The organization consists of 550 chapters in all 50 U.S. states and in Washington, D.C. It ...

attorney. She lost the initial case but won in 1969 after several appeals. ''Weeks v. Southern Bell'' was an important case as it marked the first victory in which NOW used the Civil Rights Act to fight sex-based discrimination.

Reincorporation

Southern Bell, originally incorporated in New York, was reincorporated in

in 1983 as SBT&T Co. The original Southern Bell was then merged into SBT&T Co., at which point that company was renamed Southern Bell. Since

BellSouth BellSouth, LLC (stylized as ''BELLSOUTH'' and formerly known as BellSouth Corporation) was an American telecommunications holding company based in Atlanta, Georgia. BellSouth was one of the seven original Regional Bell Operating Companies after ...

, the new owner of Southern Bell and

upon the divestiture of

AT&T AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the world's largest telecommunications company by revenue and the third largest provider of mobile tel ...

, was based in Georgia, it was more practical to have Southern Bell incorporated in the same state. Southern Bell was renamed

BellSouth Telecommunications BellSouth Telecommunications, LLC was an operating company of AT&T that served the southeastern United States. It consisted of the operations of Southern Bell and South Central Bell. BellSouth Telecommunications was a subsidiary of BellSout ...

until it was merged into AT&T in 2006. Southern Bell was headquartered in (what is now) the

AT&T Midtown Center AT&T Midtown Center I (formerly known as BellSouth Center and Southern Bell Center) is a , 47-story skyscraper located in Midtown Atlanta, Georgia. Completed in 1982, it serves as the regional headquarters of BellSouth Telecommunications, which d ...

building in

. Most Atlanta operations have now been relocated to AT&T Headquarters in

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

Downtown Atlanta Downtown Atlanta is the central business district of Atlanta, Georgia, United States. The larger of the city's two other commercial districts ( Midtown and Buckhead), it is the location of many corporate and regional headquarters; city, county, s ...

telephone exchange A telephone exchange, telephone switch, or central office is a telecommunications system used in the public switched telephone network (PSTN) or in large enterprises. It interconnects telephone subscriber lines or virtual circuits of digital syst ...

is located in the

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

AT&T Communications Building.

References

{{Bell System AT&T subsidiaries Bell System Economy of the Southeastern United States American companies established in 1879 American companies disestablished in 1983 Defunct telecommunications companies of the United States Telecommunications companies established in 1879 Communications in Georgia (U.S. state) Communications in Florida Communications in North Carolina Communications in South Carolina Communications in Alabama Communications in Louisiana Communications in Kentucky Communications in Mississippi Communications in Tennessee

Split into South Central Bell & Southern Bell

Landmark sex discrimination case

Reincorporation

See also

References