In the 1960s and 1970s , Cobb transformed from rural to suburban , as integration spurred white flight from the city of Atlanta , which by 1970 was majority-African-American . Real-estate booms drew rural white southerners and Rust Belt transplants , both groups mostly first-generation white-collar workers . Cobb County was the home of former segregationist and Georgia governor Lester Maddox ( 1966 – 71 ) . In 1975 , Cobb voters elected John Birch Society leader Larry McDonald to Congress , running in opposition to desegregation busing . A conservative Democrat , McDonald called for investigations into alleged plots by the Rockefellers and the Soviet Union to impose " socialist-one-world-government " and co-founded the Western Goals Foundation . In 1983 , McDonald died aboard Korean Air Lines Flight 007 , shot down by a Soviet fighter jet over restricted airspace . I-75 through the county is now named for him
Korean Air Lines Flight 007
Korean Air Lines Flight 007
Cobb County, Georgia