Tag: Civil Rights

"The lasting memory I’ll have of him is how much he made me and my community feel seen and known, especially during a time when we were the most in need of help," writes Asian Americans Advancing Justice—Atlanta founder Helen Kim Ho.

A civil rights legend and representative of Georgia’s 5th District since 1987, John Lewis served his Atlanta constituents and the nation as the “moral conscience of Congress.” Lewis died on July 17, 2020 at age 80.

Because the documentary explores John Lewis’s life, it is also, by necessity, a contemplation of heroism and sacrifice, by people like him who came from the humblest of origins.

If you live in Atlanta, you probably have a John Lewis story. Maybe you sat next to him on a flight or gave him a hug at a festival. We want to hear your stories.

Over four consecutive days in February 1961, roughly 80 activists—including nine at a coffee shop on Forsyth Street—were arrested and refused bail, testing the limits of the county jail.

Civil Bikes owner Nedra Deadwyler, who leads tours on local history and preservation, highlights some unsung places in Atlanta’s civil rights past.

Starting January 18, the Atlanta History Center will honor Campbell, one of the first black men elected to the General Assembly, and more of the state’s pre–World War I civil rights advocates as part of the New-York Historical Society’s Black Citizenship in the Age of Jim Crow.

There’s a street in Montgomery that locals say is one of the most historic in America. A large fountain sits at the western end, the site of the city’s once-booming slave market. At the eastern end is the Alabama State Capitol, where Jefferson Davis was sworn in as president of the Confederacy. In between is Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. served as pastor in the late 1950s.

Partnering with the NFL and the King Center, the Ross Initiative in Sports for Equality (RISE) hosted its fourth Super Bowl Town Hall on Thursday, bringing together players, NFL execs, owners, and Bernice King to talk about criminal justice and activism, and what place they have in America’s favorite sport.

Hosea Williams was standing below the Memphis motel balcony when he saw his friend and mentor, Martin Luther King Jr., assassinated. Williams, a pugnacious lieutenant in the civil rights movement, the bad cop to Andrew Young’s good cop, wondered “whether America lost its last chance.”