Fayetteville ( ; locally ) is a city in and the

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...

of Fayette County,

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 18,957, up from 15,945 at the 2010 census. Fayetteville is located south of

downtown Atlanta Downtown Atlanta is the central business district of Atlanta, Georgia, United States. The largest of the city's three commercial districts (Midtown Atlanta, Midtown and Buckhead being the others), it is the location of many corporate and region ...

History

Fayetteville was founded in 1822 as the seat of the newly formed Fayette County, organized by European Americans from territory ceded by force the

Creek people The Muscogee, also known as the Mvskoke, Muscogee Creek or just Creek, and the Muscogee Creek Confederacy ( in the Muscogee language; English: ), are a group of related Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern WoodlandsIndian removal from the

Southeast The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, Radius, radially arrayed compass directions (or Azimuth#In navigation, azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A ''compass rose'' is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, ...

. Both city and county were named in honor of the Revolutionary War hero the French Marquis de Lafayette. Fayetteville was incorporated as a town in 1823 and as a city in 1902. The area was developed for

cotton Cotton (), first recorded in ancient India, is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus '' Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure ...

plantations, with labor provided by enslaved African Americans, who for more than a century comprised the majority of the county's population. Fayetteville became the trading town for the agricultural area. In the first half of the 20th century, as agriculture became more mechanized, many African-American workers left the area in the Great Migration to northern and midwestern industrial cities, which had more jobs and offered less oppressive social conditions. A reverse migration has brought new residents to the South, and the city of Fayetteville has grown markedly since 1980, as has the county. The city's population increased from 2715 in 1980 to 18,957 in 2020.

Demographics

As of the 2020 United States census, there were 18,957 people, 6,833 households, and 4,833 families residing in the city.

Government

The city has a mayor-council form of elected government. Five council members are elected

at-large At large (''before a noun'': at-large) is a description for members of a governing body who are elected or appointed to represent a whole membership or population (notably a city, county, state, province, nation, club or association), rather tha ...

, in non-partisan post, and the mayor is elected at-large in a non-partisan race. In 2015 Ed Johnson was elected mayor, the first African American to serve in the position. The retired US Naval Commander and pastor of Fayette County's oldest black church is described as a consensus builder. In 2011 Johnson was elected as the first black member of the city council after having served three terms as president of the local chapter of the

NAACP The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is an American civil rights organization formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. B. Du&nbs ...

.Tammy Joyner, "Fayetteville’s first black mayor is ‘bridge builder’"
''Atlanta Journal-Constitution,'' 7 November 2015; accessed 13 December 2016
''Al-jazeera'' (US), 16 February 2016; accessed 12 December 2016 Johnson was re-elected in 2019.

Education

The city is served by the Fayette County Board of Education. In 2016, a soundstage at Pinewood Studios was open for educational use by the Georgia Film Academy. In late 2020, the Georgia Film Academy partnered with Trilith and the University of Georgia to launch its Master of Fine Arts film program; students would work and live in Trilith during their second year. Trilith also has a small K-12 school called the Forest School.

Georgia Military College Georgia Military College (GMC) is a Public college, public military junior college in Milledgeville, Georgia. It is divided into the junior college, a military junior college program, high school, middle school, and elementary school. It was ori ...

has a campus in Fayetteville.

Points of interest

The Fayette County Courthouse, built in 1825 four years after the county and town's founding, is the oldest surviving courthouse in Georgia. It is located in the center of the Fayetteville town square. Since the construction of a new courthouse, the 1825 building has been adapted for use as the local welcome center. It holds offices for Fayetteville Main Street and the Fayette County Development Authority. The Holliday-Dorsey-Fife House was built in 1855 by John Stiles Holliday, uncle of the western gambler John Henry "Doc" Holliday. The

Margaret Mitchell Margaret Munnerlyn Mitchell (November 8, 1900 – August 16, 1949) was an American novelist and journalist. Mitchell wrote only one novel that was published during her lifetime, the American Civil War-era novel ''Gone With the Wind (novel), Gone ...

Library, built in 1948 and named in honor of the author, serves as the headquarters of the Fayette County Historical Society. Among its holdings are Civil War and genealogical records. The residence formally occupied by deceased professional wrestler

Chris Benoit Christopher Michael Benoit ( ; May 21, 1967 – June 24, 2007) was a Canadian Professional wrestling, professional wrestler. He worked for various pro-wrestling promotions during his 22-year career, but is notorious for Chris Benoit double-murd ...

and his

nuclear family A nuclear family (also known as an elementary family, atomic family, or conjugal family) is a term for a family group consisting of parents and their children (one or more), typically living in one home residence. It is in contrast to a single ...

until June 2007, within which a high-profile double-murder and suicide tragedy occurred, is located in Fayetteville. Trilith Studios, then Pinewood Atlanta Studios, opened here in 2014; it was a joint venture between British company Pinewood Group and River's Rock LLC, an independently managed trust of the Cathy family, founders of the

Chick-fil-A Chick-fil-A, Inc. ( , a Word play, play on the American English pronunciation of "wikt:filet#Pronunciation, filet") is an American fast food restaurant chain and the largest chain specializing in Chicken burger, chicken sandwiches. Headquarter ...

fast-food chain. In 2020 River's Rock bought out Pinewood's share of the studio. It is the largest film and television production studio in the United States outside the state of California. The studio has produced many large budget films, including several in the

Marvel Cinematic Universe The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is an American media franchise and shared universe centered on List of Marvel Cinematic Universe films, a series of superhero films produced by Marvel Studios. The films are based on characters that appe ...

such as '' Avengers: Infinity War'', '' Avengers: Endgame'', and ''

Black Panther A black panther is the Melanism, melanistic colour variant of the leopard (''Panthera pardus'') and the jaguar (''Panthera onca''). Black panthers of both species have excess black pigments, but their typical Rosette (zoology), rosettes are al ...

''. In 2016, the Pinewood Forest mixed-use complex was launched. Located across the street from the studio, it features homes along with plans for "a movie theater, restaurants, boutique hotels, retail and office space", built using environmentally friendly building materials. In 2020, when the studio was renamed Trilith Studios, Pinewood Forest was renamed the Town at Trilith. In April 2021, ''Atlanta'' magazine ranked the community ninth in their top ten metro Atlanta vibrant city centers list; the community was also the newest featured on the list.

Notable people

* Andrew Adams, football player for the

Tampa Bay Buccaneers The Tampa Bay Buccaneers (colloquially known as the Bucs) are a professional American football team based in Tampa, Florida. The Buccaneers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC S ...

*Aliyah Bah, musical artist known by her stage name Aliyah's Interlude * Brian Branch, football player for the

Detroit Lions The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit. The Lions compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. The team plays their home game ...

* Paris Bennett, ''American Idol'' Season 5: fifth place finalist *

, Canadian professional wrestler and murderer * Brandon Boykin, former NFL player for the

Philadelphia Eagles The Philadelphia Eagles are a professional American football team based in Philadelphia. The Eagles compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC East, East division. The team plays its ...

* Zac Brown, Grammy Award-winning country music singer * Tonya Butler, football player for the University of West Alabama Tigers * Phil Cofer, basketball player for the

Florida State Seminoles The Florida State Seminoles are the athletic teams representing Florida State University (FSU) located in Tallahassee, Florida. They compete as a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I, prima ...

* Matt Daniels, football player for the

St. Louis Rams The St. Louis Rams were a professional American football team of the National Football League (NFL). They played in St. Louis, Missouri, from 1995 through the 2015 season, before moving back to Los Angeles, California, where the team had played ...

* John Deraney, football player for the

Creflo Dollar Creflo Augustus Dollar Jr. (born January 28, 1962) is an American pastor, televangelist, and the founder of the non-denominational Christian World Changers Church International based in College Park, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta. Dollar also hea ...

televangelist Televangelism (from ''televangelist'', a blend of ''television'' and ''evangelist'') and occasionally termed radio evangelism or teleministry, denotes the utilization of media platforms, notably radio and television, for the marketing of relig ...

* Hugh M. Dorsey,

governor of Georgia The governor of Georgia is the head of government of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia and the commander-in-chief of the state's Georgia National Guard, National Guard, when not in federal service, and Georgia State Defense Force, State Defense Fo ...

* Kyle Dugger, football player for the

New England Patriots The New England Patriots are a professional American football team based in the Greater Boston area. The Patriots compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East division. The Pa ...

* Mike Duke, former CEO of

Walmart Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores in the United States and 23 other ...

* Niko Goodrum, Major League Baseball player for the Detroit Tigers * Mike Hilton, NFL defensive back * Ufomba Kamalu, NFL defensive end for the

Houston Texans The Houston Texans are a professional American football team based in Houston. The Texans compete in the National Football League as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC South, South division. The team plays its home games at N ...

* Emmanuel Lewis, actor, '' Webster'' * Sam Martin, football player for the

Buffalo Bills The Buffalo Bills are a professional American football team based in the Buffalo–Niagara Falls metropolitan area. The Bills compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East div ...

* Christopher Massey, actor, musician, director, film producer * Kyle Massey, actor, musician, ''Dancing with the Stars'' * Ann Nesby, Grammy Award-winning singer and actress * Kelley O'Hara, player for

United States women's national soccer team The United States women's national soccer team (USWNT) represents the United States in international women's soccer. The team is governed by the United States Soccer Federation and competes in CONCACAF (the Confederation of North, Central Ameri ...

and

Utah Royals FC The Utah Royals (formerly Utah Royals FC) are an American professional soccer team based in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area that competes in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). Established on November 16, 2017, as an expansion team, ...

in the National Women's Soccer League; Olympic and World Cup champion *

Paul Orndorff Paul Parlette Orndorff Jr. (October 29, 1949 – July 12, 2021), nicknamed "Mr. Wonderful", was an American professional wrestler and football player, best known for his appearances with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) and World Champions ...

, professional wrestler * Plumb (born Tiffany Arbuckle Lee), songwriter, recording artist, performer and author * Keshia Knight Pulliam, actress, ''

The Cosby Show ''The Cosby Show'' is an American television sitcom created by (along with Ed. Weinberger and Michael J. Leeson) and starring Bill Cosby that originally aired on NBC from September 20, 1984, to April 30, 1992, with a total of 201 half-hour e ...

'', ''Tyler Perry's House of Payne'' *

William Regal Darren Kenneth Matthews (born 10 May 1968), better known by the ring name William Regal, is an English retired professional wrestler. He is signed to WWE, where he serves as the vice-president of Global Talent Development. He is also known for ...

(born Darren Matthews), English professional wrestler * Nellie Mae Rowe, folk artist * Ferrol Sams, author * Jabari Smith Jr., NBA forward for the

Houston Rockets The Houston Rockets are an American professional basketball team based in Houston. The Rockets compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Southwest Division (NBA), Southwest Division of the Western Conference (NBA) ...

Speech Speech is the use of the human voice as a medium for language. Spoken language combines vowel and consonant sounds to form units of meaning like words, which belong to a language's lexicon. There are many different intentional speech acts, suc ...

, leader of

Arrested Development ''Arrested Development'' is an American satire, satirical television sitcom created by Mitchell Hurwitz. It follows the Bluths, a formerly wealthy, dysfunctional family and is presented in a Serial (radio and television), serialized format, inco ...

* Christian Taylor, track and field athlete, Olympic gold medalist * Anna Watson, "The World's Strongest Cheerleader" * Gary Anthony Williams, actor and star of ''Special Agent Oso'' on the

Disney Channel Disney Channel is an American pay television television channel, channel that serves as the flagship (broadcasting), flagship property of Disney Branded Television, a unit of the Disney Entertainment business segment of the Walt Disney Company ...

* Hossein Khosrow Ali Vaziri, professional American wrestler, also known as ‘The Iron Shiek’

References

External links

City of Fayetteville official website

Fayetteville Downtown Development Authority
{{authority control Cities in Georgia (U.S. state) Cities in Fayette County, Georgia County seats in Georgia (U.S. state)