Going to Atlanta, where should I go for good southern food and sights, civil war and civil rights sights.?

Go to Kennesaw Mnt! The view from the top is amazing. It closes at 7pm. If you plan on walking it... well you better make some time! You can drive up it... but ppl make fun of you. Try The Varsity... its not Southern... but its Atlantan!

Civil War and Civil Rights are the two big parts of Atlanta's history. Start at the Atlanta History Museum, where there is a good permanent exhibit of the Civil War and Atlanta's place in it, and a temporary right now on Civil Rights. I don't know their hours, though, so it may be closed in the evenings. For Civil Rights, the place to start is the Martin Luther King Center on Auburn Avenue. Visit the park's visitors center, see MLK's tomb, and tour the MLK birthplace and Ebenezer Baptist Church. The park rangers will have some more suggestions. Even if the visitor center is closed, you can see the outside of Ebenezer and the Birth House, and pay your respects at MLK's tomb, then walk west on Auburn Avenue to see one of the most important African-American business districts in the U.S., with the headquarters of the SCLC, the Atlanta Daily World, etc. In regard to the Civil War, the problem is that the Civil War sites around Atlanta have been pretty well buried by development. There are three places you have pretty good view of what happened. Two are are open all the time so you could look at them after work; these memorialize two results of John Bell Hood's disastrous "strategy." The first is the memorial to the Battle of Peachtree Creek on Collier Road (Collier road is off Peachtree Street just south of Piedmont Hospital, and the Memorial is on the south side of Collier just after you see a cluster of historical markers on the right that say "Tanyard Branch". If you come to Northside Drive, you've gone too far west). This Battle was pivotal, and you can read the history and walk around in the adjacent park area. There is limited parking in front of the memorial, but I've never seen more than one or two cars there. The other outdoor site is the memorial to the Battle of Ezra Church on Martin Luther King Boulevard west of downtown. Park in Mozley Park. At the southeast corner of Mozley Park, right along MLK Blvd. are a number of historical plaques describing the battle. You can then walk around Mozley Park and the nearby streets if you want to see what happened. There are lots of other "stand alone" historical markers in the neighborhood of both of the above that commemorate various details of the battles. The third is Kennesaw Mountain. I'm not sure of the hours, but you can probably visit the outlook at any reasonable time. It is quite a ways outside Atlanta. Take I-75 North and follow the signs. I'll let someone else answer about food.