It’s been four years since Juneteenth became a federal holiday, and Black revelers in metro Atlanta are finding unique ways to mark the occasion. The annual commemoration of the day in 1865 when formerly enslaved Black Americans in Galveston, Texas, learned of Abraham’s Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation takes place on Thursday. Juneteenth celebrations in Atlanta, which […]
History
Posted inEconomic Justice, History, Politics & Policy
With Inauguration Day on MLK Day, King’s Family Reflect on His Legacy
Sitting in his Atlanta home office with his wife and fellow civil rights activist Arndrea Waters King, Martin Luther King III can’t help but reflect on a deep irony: Martin Luther King Jr. Day coincides with the second presidential inauguration of Donald Trump on Jan. 20. He worries about the fact that his father’s only […]
Posted inCulture, Education, History
Georgia’s First High School for Black Students Celebrates 100-Year Legacy
The first-ever Georgia high school to serve Black students got its flowers in an elaborate centennial celebration hosted in the atrium of Atlanta City Hall last week. Dozens of Booker T. Washington High School alumni gathered on Sept. 16 to pay homage to the Atlanta school’s 100-year history, which includes graduating icons like Martin Luther […]
Posted inHistory
Blazing The Trail: Atlanta’s Black Women Fire Chiefs
In a field where Black women are few and far between, metro Atlanta has had four Black women leading fire departments. While the boys’ club that has dominated firefighting certainly isn’t going anywhere, Black women are making their mark in the fire service. From East Point appointing the country’s first ever Black woman fire chief […]
Posted inHistory
Big Bethel AME Church Receives $200,000 Grant to Preserve Black Cultural Legacy
If you have ever driven along the Interstate 75/85 interchange in downtown Atlanta, amongst the skyline, you have likely seen a tall gray structure with a blue illuminated sign that reads “Jesus Saves.” The iconic yet simple message is a foundational doctrine to the building’s occupants, the congregation of Big Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, […]
Posted inHistory
43 Years Later: Former Bowen Homes Residents Remember Daycare Explosion
The day was normal, as far as Venida Harris could remember. On the morning of Oct. 13, 1980, she was a fifth-grader in class at A.D. Williams Elementary School, across the street from the Bowen Homes housing projects in west Atlanta where she and her family lived, off the former Bankhead Highway, which has since […]
Posted inHistory
ATL’s Love for Hip-Hop: Residents Share How They Got Hooked
Aug. 11 marks Hip-Hop’s 50th birthday. And while Atlanta isn’t the birthplace of Hip-Hop, few cities have influenced the genre’s history, current popularity, and future like ATL, letting everyone know that “The South has something to say.” So, in honor of the anniversary, Capital B Atlanta set out to ask residents a simple (yet loaded) […]
