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Raised in Social Circle, Georgia, Alonzo F. Herndon was the son of a slave mother and a slave master. He was the founder of what today is the second largest African American insurance company in the United States, Atlanta Life Insurance. The company gave African Åmericans mortgages when many other banks would not. By the time he was 69, he owned three barber shops, real estate, an insurance company, and two homes. His home is now a historic site open for visitation in Atlanta.
To learn more about Alonzo F. Herndon, see the story on page 39. |
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An educator and pioneer in secondary education, Lucy Laney was born into slavery in Macon. As a child, Lucy was tutored by the white children of her mother’s owners. By the time she was 12, she could translate complex Latin. Laney was educated at Lewis American Missionary School and at the age of 15, entered Atlanta University. She graduated and spent the next ten years teaching in Georgia public schools. She opened her own school in Augusta, and later named it the Haines Institute. The school grew rapidly, and graduates of Haines went on to attend prestigious colleges. A museum in Augusta bears her name.
Learn more on Lucy Laney on page 40. |
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In 2001, Shirley Franklin won the Atlanta mayor race. She became the first female mayor of Atlanta and the first African American woman to head a major southern city. Shirley has accomplished many things in her life. Perhaps the most important was her reorganization of Atlanta’s city government. She had to make major budget cuts, as she inherited a budget gap of $82 million. She took on the city’s chief challenges such as rebuilding the city’s deteriorating sewer and water system, initiating the Homeless Task Force Study, and implementing a regional transportation plan. |
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