Herman Russell

A generous, behind-the-scenes philanthropist, Russell was the first black member of the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce (invited by “mistake” via form letter) and its second black president.

Andrew Young

In MLK’s inner circle, Andrew Young was the refined diplomat.

S.C.L.C.: What’s Happened to the Dream

On a Memphis motel balcony four years ago this month, a 30.06 slug tore the life from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. His colleague and intimate friend, the Rev. Ralph David Abernathy, was standing inches behind him when the bullet struck.

Is it 1974 all over again?

In the media scrum to celebrate the fortieth anniversary of Hank Aaron’s record-breaking home run, the undercurrent—the moral—of the story was the blatant racism he faced while chasing down Babe Ruth in 1974. In many of those commemorative stories, Aaron explained that he held on to the epithet-laced letters to remind him that racism still exists. Well more than a few “fans” have gone out of their way to prove Aaron right.

50 Who Made Atlanta: Martin Luther King Jr.

The greatest orator of the twentieth century inspired seismic changes at home that reverberated around the world.

Ralph McGill

McGill won the Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing after he denounced the 1958 bombing of the Temple on Peachtree Street. The lionhearted journalist, who had covered the rise of Hitler, linked the bombing to the racial hatred of the South’s white leaders.

The Atlanta Student Movement: A Look Back

At breakfast tables across Atlanta on March 9, 1960, quiet consumption of coffee, grits, and eggs was disrupted as subscribers to the Atlanta Constitution and Atlanta Daily World opened their morning papers to discover a startling full-page ad.
John Lewis mural dedication downtown Atlanta 2012

Dedication of new downtown mural honoring John Lewis, civil rights hero.

John Lewis came to Atlanta five decades ago as a founding leader of SNCC—the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee—and with an already impressive resume as an activist.
Bernice King

Bernice King on her family’s legacy: “What was once something I resented, I now feel honored to carry.”

When Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968, his youngest child was just five. She had spent little time with her father; he was so often on the road—jailed in Birmingham a few weeks after her birth, addressing 200,000 people on the National Mall when she was five months old, marching from Selma to Montgomery when she was a toddler.

King Center honoree Muhammad Yunus: “Poverty is the denial of all human rights.”

This August will mark the fiftieth anniversary of the March on Washington and Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Dream” speech, the landmark oratory for which he is most remembered. Since then, a couple generations of school kids have learned about King and his dream—and for many, the two ideas—King and dreaming of equality—are so conflated we forget King crusaded against what he called the “triple evils” of poverty, militarism, and racism.

Follow Us

69,386FansLike
144,836FollowersFollow
493,480FollowersFollow

NEWSLETTERS