Civil Rights

Honoring the legacy of baseball player, racial equality activist, and historic home run record breaker, Hank Aaron.

Congressman Andrew Young and his son Bo run down the hallway of the Rayburn House of Representatives Building in Washington in June, 1975.

An employee works in the production room at the offices of the Atlanta Inquirer, a Black-owned newspaper, on Parson Street, ca. 1970.

Atlanta Mayor-elect Maynard Jackson makes a speech on election night on October 3, 1973 at the Sheraton-Biltmore Hotel in Midtown.

African American students integrated Atlanta high schools on August 30, 1961.

Born and raised in segregated Atlanta, Martin Luther King, Jr. grew to be the leader of the modern Civil Rights Movement and was recognized worldwide for his campaign of nonviolent social change. In 1955, while a pastor in Montgomery, he began his struggle to end segregation.

Ivan Allen Jr. served as mayor of Atlanta from 1962 to 1970, bringing significant economic growth and providing pivotal leadership during the turbulent years of the Civil Rights Movement.

Andrew Young came to Atlanta in 1961 to work with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) after serving as a pastor in Thomasville and leading voter registration drives.

Elected mayor of Atlanta in 1973, Maynard Jackson was the first African American to be mayor of a major Southern city.

East of downtown Atlanta, African Americans established a vibrant business and entertainment district along Auburn Avenue.

Atlanta is often called the cradle of the modern Civil Rights Movement. A strong infrastructure created by the organizations and businesses of “Sweet Auburn” Avenue combined with the city’s historically black colleges and universities helped establish positive change during the 1950s and 1960s.

As Atlanta moved into the twentieth century, it was two separate cities, one white and one black, reflecting inherent inequality. Separate was not equal, as expressed in the 1896 U.S. Supreme Court decision Plessey v. Ferguson.

Future Georgia Governor Lester Maddox opened the Pickrick Restaurant in 1947 on the edge of the Georgia Tech campus.

Ralph McGill was the Pulitzer Prize-winning editor of the Atlanta Constitution.