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Black History Month

Learn about black history and the story of the civil rights movement in Atlanta, the birthplace of Martin Luther King Jr. Join The Atlanta Journal-Constitution as we take a look at some of the most prominent individuals, events and stories that have impacted America, over the course of Black History Month.
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Credit: AJC File Photos

On 10th anniversary, Black History Month Series explored how African Americans built Atlanta

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Credit: Richard Watkins

Lena Baker: ‘I am ready to meet my God’

Lena Baker was executed in 1945 for killing a white man whom she testified had regularly beaten and raped her. In 2005, Georgia granted Baker a formal pardon.

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In 2024, the Dungeon Family lost its ‘heart.’ The kids are saving it.

The next generation of the Dungeon Family, artists that pioneered Atlanta’s rap scene, is stepping into the void.

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Credit: Jim Alexander

Essential history of Neighborhood Arts Center, a space to celebrate Black creativity

The Neighborhood Arts Center opened in May 1975. Actors Samuel L. Jackson, Bill Nunn, author Toni Cade Bambara, visual artist Tina Dunkley were artists-in-residence.

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Credit: Mike Jordan

The Poitier family of north Atlanta

A series of racist experiences in the Southeast, made Sidney Poitier avoid Atlanta. Love and a cluster of family, who made the metro Atlanta their, home kept him coming back.

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Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

How Atlanta Life Insurance Co. created the Black middle class

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Credit: Ric Watkins

Atlanta Unveiled: Profiles in Black culture

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In 1961, Malcolm X took an eye-opening trip to Atlanta

Malcolm X had been a public critic of King and rejected the Nobel Peace Prize winner’s direction on race relations.

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Credit: Bloomsbury

Winfred Rembert documented the Jim Crow era with deeply personal paintings

Today, Rembert’s painting of a lively scene inside a juke joint in his hometown of Cuthbert, “The Dirty Spoon Café,” is on display in the High Museum of Art in Atlanta.

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Credit: Katelyn Myrick

Stop the presses? Savannah’s Black newspaper, the Tribune, prints on

Over its 150 year history, The Savannah Tribune, a Black-owned weekly, has overcome censorship, distribution challenges, an ill-timed closure, a legal challenge, even a fire.

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Credit: Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The rise and reign of Atlanta’s Black mayors

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Credit: Cornelius M. Battey

Atlanta Unveiled: How Black scholarship, movements and influences shaped Atlanta and America

It can be argued that even before the Harlem Renaissance, the concept of Black intellectualism was born right here in Atlanta.

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Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

Crowns of glory: New exhibit spotlights hats worn by King family women

“When it comes to hats, it is a crown of glory. ... They are honestly symbols of both defiance and dignity.”

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Atlanta & Georgia

A mourner is swept up in gospel song during the homegoing of Marcus Johnson at Willie Watkins Funeral Home chapel on Nov. 11, 2023. (Arvin Temkar / arvin.temkar@ajc.com)

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

A Homegoing to Remember

Willie Watkins honors the dead with funerals that celebrate Black lives with dignity and flourish.

The past was bright but the future looks bleak for Herndon Stadium

Herndon Stadium was one of HBCU football's most storied venues, even hosting Olympic events, before Morris Brown College was forced to sell it. Now it might be demolished.

After 37 years, Atlanta’s OG graffiti crew resurfaces

Operating in the early 1980s when graffiti was a bad word, United Kings was the city’s first graffiti crew.

History

“Something Good – Negro Kiss,” starred noted vaudeville performers Saint Suttle and Gertie Brown, who were members of The Rag-Time Four, a vaudeville quartet out of Chicago.

Credit: University of Southern California’s HMH Moving Image Archive

Why an early silent film kiss between two Black actors is so important

The 1898 silent film "Something Good - Negro Kiss" is thought to be the earliest known cinematic depiction of intimacy between Black actors.

Georgia’s 12-string master left a lasting musical legacy

Blind Willie McTell, the Georgia-born 12-string guitar bluesman, recorded dozens of songs in the 1920s and 1930s, and is a member of the Georgia Music Hall of Fame.

Atlanta’s Black Streaks reached top of early 20th century motorcycle racing

Atlanta's Black Streaks were Black motorcycle racers who raced the tracks at Atlanta Motordrome and Lakewood Speedway more than 100 years ago.

Arts & Music

Georgia’s Mount Rushmore of music — James Brown, Otis Redding, Ray Charles and Little Richard all came out of poverty, changing the world with soulful sounds. (Illustration by Richard Watkins/richard.watkins@ajc.com)

Credit: Ric Watkins / AJC

Georgia’s Mount Rushmore of music

James Brown, Ray Charles, Otis Redding and Little Richard all came out of poverty, changing the world with soulful music. They are Georgia's Mount Rushmore.

The legend of Mattiwilda Dobbs

Atlanta native Mattiwilda Dobbs, aunt of Maynard Jackson, was one of the first African-American opera singers to perform on major stages around the world.

The museums at Atlanta’s HBCUs are treasure troves of Black art

The art museums of Clark Atlanta University and Spelman College, two of the HBCUS in Atlanta, are treasure troves, including works by Henry Ossawa Tanner, Hale Woodruff, Eliza...

Resistance

Cecil Williams

Credit: Courtesy Cecil Williams

Cecil Williams’ high-risk drink of water

Cecil Williams: how his defiant photo at a white water fountain changed him and defined a movement.

Black hairstyles take a stand against white beauty standards

Since the 1930s, Atlanta hairstylists and beauty influencers have made the city a hub for the celebration and preservation of Black hair culture and its history.

Black gays practice resistance daily being their authentic selves

SUNDAY LIVING: 021923 BHM Peon Resist – In 1921, a white farmer and a black man who worked for him were convicted in the murders of 11 black men in Newton County.

Health

The McCown family is busy with their 2-year-old Priya McCowan, who turns three in early March and just added to her painting at their home. Emanuel and Penelope McCowan struggled for years with fertility issues. Penelope now has a blog and a small business to help others in her situation. (Jenni Girtman for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

Credit: Jenni Girtman

Black women, long ignored in infertility discussions, speak out

Black women are more likely to face infertility issues than white women, studies show.

Despite progress, HIV remains disproportionately Black in Georgia

Though African Americans make up only about 32 percent of the state’s population, around 71 percent of the roughly 2,500 Georgians who were newly diagnosed with HIV in 2019 we...

Study: Toxins in blood of Brunswick residents who live near factories

As some Superfund sites around Brunswick, Georgia, are clearned up, a team of Emory scientists have found evidence of contaminants in some residents' blood.

Trauma

View of the destruction of the Greenwood District in Tulsa after the 1921 massacre. CONTRIBUTED BY GREENWOOD CULTURAL CENTER

Tulsa Race Riots: White mobs reduced Black community to rubble in 1921

The story of the Tulsa race massacre from 1921: The Greenwood neighborhood, a Black community in Tulsa, Oklahoma once nicknamed the Negro Wall Street, because of its thriving

To My Old Master

‘The Weeping Time’: Largest sale of enslaved blacks in U.S. history

In 1859, Pierce Mease Butler decided to sell 436 enslaved African Americans who worked his plantations in order to settle his massive debts.

The Black Woman

Tina McElroy Ansa, at her home in St. Simon's Island, recalls her time as the first Black woman to work at The Atlanta Constitution. (AJC Photo/Stephen B. Morton)

Credit: Stephen B. Morton for The Atlanta Journal Constitution

Novelist Tina McElroy Ansa was a trailblazer at The Atlanta Constitution

Tina McElroy Ansa became the first Black woman to be hired at The Atlanta Constitution newspaper in 1971.

In Atlanta and across U.S., legacy of ‘Queen of Salsa’ as strong as ever

The inimitable Celia Cruz helped popularize Afro-Caribbean rhythms – and Spanish-language music overall. But to one metro Atlanta rwoman, she was just "tia."

‘Sister President’ Johnnetta Betsch Cole: The voice of Spelman

Author Tayari Jones writes about Johnnetta Cole. As a first year student, Jones recalls being transfixed and transformed by the college’s first Black woman president.

The Black Man

Major Taylor was a cyclist who began his professional career in 1896 at the age 18. By the time this photo was taken in 1907 at the Vélodrome Buffalo race track in Paris, Taylor already had a distinguished career and was staging a comeback. (National Library of France)

Credit: National Library of France

The long, sad ride of Major Taylor

The story of pioneering Black cyclist Major Taylor. the first authentic and recognized Black sports superstar in America.

Lo Jelks, Atlanta’s first Black television reporter

When Lorenzo Jelks joined WSB-TV in 1967, the station didn't show his face on air to avoid angering many white viewers.

Tiger Flowers: Trailblazing southpaw left indelible legacy on Atlanta

Long before Evander Holyfield, Atlanta had another champion who helped put the city’s boxing scene on the map.

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Credit: Getty Images

NURSES ENTER NOW: Win a Zoo Atlanta Family membership today!
Northside Hospital and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution are teaming up to give away Zoo Atlanta Family Memberships.
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Credit: RCT

Dive into the unique festivals of Daytona Beach this spring
Get ready for a unique experience that will leave you exhilarated and wanting more.
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Credit: RCT

Springing into fun: Alpine Helen awaits your family
Alpine Helen is your destination for outdoor activities to get the blood pumping.
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Reclaiming the narrative of Br’er Rabbit

Enslaved griots were the originators of the tales of Bre’r Rabbit, sharing adapted West African fables after long days working. "This is Black history," says one historian.

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Credit: Eric Pace

Georgia native establishes first Black-owned record label in 1921

Before LaFace Records and So So Def Recordings, there was Black Swan Records, a record company by Georgian Harry Pace that released music by Black artists for Black listeners.

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Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

H.J. Russell helped build Atlanta. His family is expanding that legacy

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Credit: Photo by AP/Shutterstock (5995534a)

Elizabeth McDuffie: The maid from Atlanta who had the ear of FDR

Born to former slaves, the Morris Brown graduate championed rights for Black people

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Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

Atlanta Unveiled: The images and sounds that tell Atlanta’s Black history

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Credit: Bob Andres

Atlanta Unveiled: 10 historic moments that shaped Atlanta

Here are 10 landmark moments that capture the essence of Black culture and have defined Atlanta.

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Credit: Olivia Bowdoin

Carrie Steele: ‘Mother of Orphans’

In 1888, struck by the number of orphans she was continuing to find around Atlanta, she founded the Carrie Steele Orphans Home.

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Credit: Alyssa Pointer

‘Lift Every Voice and Sing’: Whether anthem or hymn, song evokes pride

Often referred to as the Black National Anthem and composed more than a century ago, “Lift Every Voice and Sing” came along after Reconstruction, when a newly awakened black r

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‘Daddy Loves You’: Gil Scott-Heron’s son talks about life lessons from his iconic father

Nearly 14 years after Gil Scott-Heron's death, his son is determined to protect his legacy and to make sure younger generations hear his messages.

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Credit: Library of Congress

How a brotherhood of sleeping car porters shaped Black America’s middle class

The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters became the first labor organization led by African Americans and left a big impact.