Southern Bell Telephone and Telegraph Company was once the regional Bell Operating Company 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 ...

North Carolina North Carolina () is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 28th largest and List of states and territories of the United ...

, 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. It also covered the states of

Alabama (We dare defend our rights) , anthem = " Alabama" , image_map = Alabama in United States.svg , seat = Montgomery , LargestCity = Huntsville , LargestCounty = Baldwin County , LargestMetro = Greater Birmingham , area_total_km2 = 135,7 ...

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 ...

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 bord ...

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 U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 36th-largest by ...

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 498,7 ...

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 ...

, 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 when they denied her application for pro ...

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 citi ...

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 Sylvia Roberts (1933-2014) was an American lawyer known for legal work on behalf of patients at the East Louisiana State Hospital’s Forensic Unit, for the National Organization for Women’s (NOW) Legal Defense and Education Fund (LDEF), as an edu ...

, 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, 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 ...

, was based in Georgia, it was more practical to have Southern Bell incorporated in the same state. Southern Bell was renamed BellSouth Telecommunications until it was merged into AT&T in 2006. Southern Bell was headquartered in (what is now) the AT&T Midtown Center building in

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

Dallas Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

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 ...

telephone exchange 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 syste ...

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 Unit ...

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