The National Center for Civil and Human Rights is dedicated to teaching a more complete and inclusive account of the past, one that helps communities understand how we reached the present—with its conflicts, opportunities, and urgent needs.

Painful history, when explored accurately and empathetically, can inspire us to address persistent inequities that exist as legacies of history in our lives today — and can inform our shared understanding about who is seen or silenced and what we choose to venerate or disdain as we mold the future.

View of a page from Collier’s Weekly with an article and images of the State Militia halted on Marietta Street near Peachtree Street during the 1906 race massacre in Atlanta, Georgia.

This is the focus of the Center’s Truth and Transformation Initiative:  to create opportunities for Atlanta to engage with its past in ways that prove transformative.

Truth and Transformation will focus on people and events in our city that have not been recognized or memorialized, with a specific interest in addressing two glaring omissions: convict leasing atrocities at the Chattahoochee Brick Factory and Bellwood Quarry and the 1906 Atlanta Race Massacre, where at least 25 African Americans were lynched over a four-day killing spree.

 

 

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September 22, 2021, marked the 115th anniversary of the 1906 Atlanta Race Massacre. The Center supported commemorations of the 1906 Atlanta Race Massacre, amplifying this historic and tragic event.

Learn more about the Forced Labor Memorial at Bellwood Quarry. The Center is also working to honor the men, women, and sometimes children who were forced into labor through a practice called convict leasing, which took place at what is now Westside Park in Atlanta. Read the full Axios Atlanta article here.

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