60th Anniversary

AJC legend Jim Galloway and AJC chief political reporter Greg Bluestein on national political superstars, the state's shift to purple, and why "Georgia is the nexus now."

During his term as Atlanta mayor from 1970 to 1974, the city’s first Jewish mayor, Sam Massell, oversaw the campaign to create MARTA; began construction of the Omni, the city’s first enclosed sports coliseum; increased contracting opportunities for minority- and women-owned businesses; and appointed the first woman member of the Atlanta City Council. Since defeating a three-term incumbent to join the Atlanta City Council in 2013, Andre Dickens has become one of the legislative body’s most vocal champions of affordable housing, transit improvement, and equity.

Daniela Rodriguez organized the Savannah Undocumented Youth Alliance has twice been named one of the 50 Most Influential Latinos in Georgia. Helen Kim Ho founded the Southeast’s first Asian American civil rights nonprofit, now known as Asian Americans Advancing Justice - Atlanta.

Dr. Laura Emiko Soltis is executive director and a professor of human rights at Freedom University, an underground school for undocumented students in Atlanta. Charles Black is a living legend of the Civil Rights Movement in Atlanta.

Can meddling politicians and idealistic medicine mix without an explosion in the labs of the CDC?

The city was full of bravado in the days before the Great Recession. Plus, water woes, John Lewis, a spelling bee, Hurricane Katrina, our first guide to Buford Highway, and more.

The era was nothing if not optimistic. Our early days as a Chamber of Commerce publication.