Why is Atlanta, Georgia not Charlotte, North Carolina the cultural and economic centre of the South? Charlotte has a larger population, is a major banking center, and is closer to the Boston-Washington Megalopolis so why is it less promient then Atlanta?
Measured by city limits Charlotte has a larger population than Atlanta, but the population of the Atlanta metropolitan area is three-and-a-half times larger than that of the Charlotte metropolitan area.
Atlanta has also been a major transportation hub since it was founded as Terminus before the War Between the States. I believe Atlanta has also hosted major educational and Federal Government institutions since before Charlotte became a wide spot in the road. What has Charlotte got, exactly, other than banks?
I thought Richmond was the Capital of the South. 
City population is meaningless in every way except as a local political issue (and for dispensing funding, which is also a political issue). In every other way, only the metropolitan population means anything.
I agree that Atlanta has both the historical importance and a much larger population. Charlotte also has to compete with Raleigh-Durham, which isn’t much smaller, has three major universities and a booming economy, and is the state capital. Except as a banking center, the Research Triangle beats Charlotte in most every measure of importance.
Atlanta got at an NFL team first.
I don’t know much about Charlotte, but I remember someone noting that in the 50s, Birmingham and Atlanta were of similar size and relative importance and chalked up Atlanta’s rise and Birmingham’s relative lag as a symptom of Alabama having to be dragged kicking and screaming out of the Jim Crow era.
Was North Carolina known for much of anything other than college basketball and tobacco and stock car racing until the 80s? Honest question. Georgia, being known as the Empire State of the South for many years, perhaps attracted the most varied business attention for the greater part of the 20th century.
Well, for one thing, Charlotte isn’t even the capitol of its own state, which Atlanta is.
New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Houston are not the capitals of their respective states, either.
Is Charlotte even the economic center of North Carolina? It’s got Bank of America, sure, but isn’t Raleigh-Durham/the Research Triangle doing better economically?
Banks (didn’t Wachovia leave, btw?) and a larger population and you think that entitles you to the distinction anymore than us?
Since we’re listing our accomplishments, I’ll give you ours and after you read it, you decide if it’s still debatable:
[ul]
[li]Busiest airport in the world.[/li][li]3rd most Fortune 500 company headquarters (UPS, Home Depot, Coca Cola, Delta Air, etc.) - only behind New York City and Houston.[/li][li]Major television and media outlets located in the city itself (CNN, TBS, TNT, Cartoon Network, Court TV, etc.)[/li][li]Prominent schools such as Emory University and Georgia Tech.[/li][li]Major government facilities such as the CDC headquarters and a Federal Reserve branch.[/li][li]Tourist attractions galore, including the world’s largest aquarium.[/li][li]A sports team in every major league. We even hosted the Olympics in 1996.[/li][/ul]
I’m not trying to turn this into a pissing contest but it’s silly to think Charlotte can contend for that title with Atlanta. Miami? Definitely. Charlotte? No way.
The OP’s question is phrased a little strangely but I have wondered about something similar myself. Charlotte, NC seems to be one of, if not the most, obscure large cities in the U.S. Most people from outside the area don’t know much about it at all in either a good or bad sense. I was shocked when I read how big it is and that was only a few years ago. It keeps a really low profile.
It’s only within the last few years that Charlotte has gained a decent reputation. When I lived there ~15 years ago, it was an economically depressed inner-city hellhole. And the humidity! Atlanta’s always had it going on. Charlotte? Not so much.
I grew up in Charlotte, early 1970’s to late 1980’s. Back then it was decidedly a small(ish), out of the way, unremarkable town. As others have already pointed out, it didn’t become “big” until the past 20-25 years. On the other hand, Atlanta has been a major city for 150+ years.
Charlotte always had (at least when I was there) an inferiority complex about Atlanta. Everything was measured in terms of Atlanta. Population, pro sports teams (none in the 1970’s, the Charlotte Checkers didn’t count, anyone remember the Charlotte Checkers?), even the height of the tallest skyscraper in downtown. As I recall, there were, literally, only 3 - 4 big buildings in downtown Charlotte in the 1970’s. And when they talked about building a new one, included in the selling points was something to the effect of “… and it’ll be taller than the tallest one in Atlanta!”
Douglas airport. Not “Charlotte-Douglas International Airport”, just “Douglas”. Many, many, many flights simply connected through Atlanta. No matter where you wanted to fly to from Charlotte, you had to go to Atlanta first. (Again, part of the inferiority complex.) There was a joke… when you died and went to heaven you had to change planes in Atlanta.
Atlanta has been a major player for 150+ years, Charlotte’s just arrived at the party.
Charlotte’s banking rep is largely due to BoA remove that and what have you got?
Throughout history, North Carolina has always been a large state population wise, usually in or near the top ten states. But North Carolina always had a huge rural population.
Atlanta going back to pre-Civil War (USA) days, was a hub.
Sherman needed to destroy Atlanta even though it was not that large of a city. A little less than 10,000, Savannah had over 22,000, more than twice as big and a huge port.
But Atlanta was where the (few) railroads in the south, the roads, and the trade passed through. Remember during the US Civil War, Atlanta wasn’t even the capital of Georgia. Even Augusta Georgia was bigger at 12,000.
But Atlanta is what connected the “border states” to the “Deep South” so population had little to do with it.
Cities like Birmingham, AL arose after the civil war and in Birmingham’s case was based on steel production. It was known as the “Pittsburgh of the South”
Atlanta is still where centers of population connect. Look at St Louis, a huge city historically because it was were the East met the West. Until railroads took over from river traffic and Chicago bested it. You will note St Louis conveniently has the Missouri and Mississippi, the two main “roads” of transportation till railroads replaced rivers.
Charlotte wants to be Atlanta and may some day long time off be it. Atlanta has huge problems 'caused by quick population and urban sprawl, the most important is “where to find water.”
I found Atlanta, like Nashville to be decidedly “un-Southern.” This is because of the influx of Northerners since the 60s.
I wouldn’t call Atlanta as representative of the “Southern culture” but it certainly is the main hub of the South
Can Charlotte boast of municipal corruption on Atlanta’s scale? Six public employees taking a full work-week to fill a half-mile of potholes? Bush league: Atlanta also has crews going around digging potholes in the middle of the night.
Charlotte has always wanted to be like Atlanta. The people there are all about promoting the city as a major city. They even went so far as to rename downtown as “uptown” because the word down is “negative”
Part of it could be because the title is meaningless. I live in the south and didn’t know Atlanta was called the capitol. But it makes sense, just look at a map of the interstate system. Atlanta is a hub, Charlotte just sits at an intersection
The history of Atlanta is all about transportation. It is well located in the center of the southeast. (There’s a lot of people who refer to the region as the southeast rather than the south.) Because of the angle of the coastline, it is actually surprisingly close to Ohio, etc. That makes it very convenient for lot of companies. Recent companies to move there include UPS and Rubbermaid. It is also the regional headquarters for a lot of companies. Virtually all Japanese electronics giants have major regional headquarters there, for example.
Charlotte started on the wagon road between towns near the fall line. Not much geographically to recommend it.
OTOH, banking is a major issue. Things grow where the money sits. (Even in this electronic age.) Charlotte has a lot more big banks than Atlanta. Atlanta’s last remaining major bank is SunTrust. If Charlotte hadn’t become a banking center, it wouldn’t be where it is today.
Since someone was comparing Charlotte to Raleigh- Durham the main difference is that Charlotte is pretty much 100% banking - which has led to a higher than average jobless rate now. RTP area is much more diversified - government, universities, software, electronics, medicine and biotech are all big here. In the last few years finance is growing here too with Fidelity, Credit Suisse and others opening centers here.
All the previous posters have given the best answers.
I just wanted to add that in 1900, the population of Atlanta was over four times that of Charlotte. And that would have been the surrounding 50 miles probably.
In 1940, Atlanta still had THREE times the population of Charlotte. This, before suburbs mostly.
It was only by 1990 that Charlotte equalled Atlanta’s population.