The Maynard Jackson inaugural
Maynard Holbrook Jackson Jr. made history as Atlanta’s first black mayor, and his January 7, 1974, inaugural itself shattered precedent. The traditional City Hall ceremony for a few hundred was traded for a riotous ninety-minute gala at the Civic Center.
John Lewis
One of the youngest heroes of the civil rights movement, John Lewis moved to Atlanta in 1963 to head the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.
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.
The Day King Died
On the night of Thursday, April 4, 1968, Louise and I were in our bedroom at home watching television and reading the newspaper when a bulletin flashed on the screen: MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR., SHOT IN MEMPHIS.
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.
Flashback: The 1895 Cotton States Exposition and the Negro Building
The Negro Building was the first designated space, since Emancipation, for the showcase of African-American achievement in a white-dominated setting. Without it, the Exposition committee could have not received federal backing, and those funds appropriated from Congress, are what helped make the fair an international success.
Q&A with Night of the Living Dead’s Judith O’Dea
Q: Here we are 45 years later and people are still clamoring to talk to you about this film, made for a reported $114,000. Does that ever make your jaw go slack?
Dear Mammy
Sometime after midnight, in the early morning of December 16, 1939—more than five hours after settling into their seats—the city’s elite flowed out of Loew’s Grand Theatre, overjoyed at the spectacle they’d just witnessed. Margaret Mitchell emerged, enormously relieved. Hollywood had not destroyed her story after all.
The Last Dreamer
John Lewis was on the front lines in Selma, Birmingham and Montgomery. Today, the fight has changed. This article originally appeared in our August 2003 issue.
Resegregation
Mary McMullen Francis doesn’t remember many details of August 30, 1961: the dress she wore or what her mother said before she walked out the door or the names of her teachers. But she remembers how eerily empty the street was of cars and people.
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