Former State Sen. Vincent Fort is well known by his family, friends and even critics as a man who would do anything to get the job done — whether that meant being arrested in the governor’s office alongside protesters calling for Medicaid Expansion, or posing at a press conference in a gas mask as part of the effort to shutdown the Live Oak Landfill in DeKalb County.
“He loves Atlanta so much that he will protect it,” Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens said of his friend and close confidant. “Always has and always will.”
The mayor was just one of a mass of politicians, powerful lobbyists, labor union heads, faith leaders, lawyers and longtime city employees who crowded into the City Council chambers Monday to celebrate Fort’s impact on Atlanta.
Credit: BRANT SANDERLIN / AJC
Credit: BRANT SANDERLIN / AJC
Fort, a Democrat, was first elected to the state legislature in 1996 and served until 2017. He also launched an unsuccessful bid for mayor in 2017 and, most recently, challenged U.S. House Rep. David Scott in 2022.
During his time under the Gold Dome, State Sen. Nan Orrock said that Fort always kept his Republican colleagues on their toes.
“You could hear the chamber when he would get in the well, they were shaking in their boots — because they knew he was going to tell it and tell it all,” she said. “He was going to speak truth to power. He wasn’t going to bite his tongue, he wasn’t going to hold back.”
In 2001, Fort worked tirelessly to pass what at the time were the nation’s strongest predatory lending laws and was also the first Georgia legislator to sponsor a hate crimes bill. As the second-highest ranking Democrat in the state Senate, Fort pushed Peach State Democrats to fight for more progressive policies.
“There’s no other elected official that I’ve ever met who has been as centered on the people, on the needs of the people, on the unhoused, the uninsured, the working class, the workers, the seniors — all of us,” said civil rights attorney Mawuli Mel Davis.
Credit: KENT D. JOHNSON / AJC
Credit: KENT D. JOHNSON / AJC
Former Atlanta City Council member Derrick Boazman said Fort is single-handedly responsible for keeping many Black Atlantans from losing their homes, earning him national recognition for his fight to stop foreclosures.
“I will say this without equivocation: this man sitting here, because of his unrelenting effort, has saved more people’s houses than anything I’ve ever seen,” he said.
Fort sat in a wheelchair on Monday as his friends and family shared their favorite memories of the longtime politician, and praised his advocacy for Black and impoverished residents. Council member Andrea Boone called him “the peoples’ champ.”
But while his fellow city leaders refer to Fort as a “warrior,” daughter Zoe Fort said she sees him in another light.
“Most of all, I find him kind and warm,” she said. “I’m so grateful for today and so grateful to have my dad here, to be a street soldier and a freedom fighter for people, but also just to be our dad.”
Fort’s son, Zan Fort, said as a child he would huddle at his father’s feet as Fort met with influential city leaders and pushed for change.
“You didn’t give an inch to those people who — not just stood against you, but stood against what you believed in,” he said.
