LONNIE KING
Lonnie C. King Jr. is known here in Atlanta as a civil rights pioneer. In the 1960s, Mr. King was a Morehouse College student, as well as a Navy veteran, starting football player, boxer, and natural leader. During his senior year of college, he was inspired by the actions of college students at North Carolina A&T to bring the battle against racial injustice to Atlanta. Mr. King is a founding chairman of The Committee on Appeal for Human Rights, founding member of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), co-organizer of The Atlanta Inquirer newspaper, one of the authors of “An Appeal for Human Rights,” as well as, a founder and leader of what is now known as The Atlanta Student Movement.
Through involvement in these various civil rights groups and activities he worked alongside friends Julian Bond, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (no relation), and students to successfully challenge segregation and discrimination. The Atlanta Student Movement helped organize boycotts of downtown businesses which were accompanied by marches, picketing, and nonviolent sit-ins. Most notably, Mr. King led The Atlanta Student Movement in the first tests of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling outlawing segregation in interstate transportation, using the tactics which later became known as Freedom Rides. He was also the plaintiff in the law suit that desegregated all court houses, public parks, swimming pools and recreational centers in Atlanta. Overall, actions taken by Mr. King and The Atlanta Student Movement helped the city begin to live up to its slogan, “A city too busy to hate.”
After graduating from Morehouse College in 1969 and earning a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Baltimore, Lonnie continued his leadership for human and civil rights as the youngest president of the Atlanta Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) where he negotiated the hiring of the first black superintendent of the Atlanta Board of Education Alonzo Crim, Ph.D.
Mr. King is passionate about education and has held teaching positions from the elementary to the collegiate level. He opened the Peachtree Hope Charter School in the city of Atlanta in 2010 and plans to organize several more charter schools throughout the state in neighborhoods where students are not achieving. More recently, Mr. King has been working towards fulfilling requirements for his Ph.D. in History at our very own Georgia State University.
In 2014, the members of the Atlanta City Council, on behalf of the citizens of Atlanta, proclaimed March 17th as Lonnie C. King, Jr. Day in the City of Atlanta. Mr. King has led and continues to lead campaigns for human rights, civil rights, and voter registration today. The outstanding and profound contributions of Lonnie King Jr. to our city, the nation, and the world over a period of more than 50 years have laid the foundation for making Atlanta, Georgia the international, progressive city it is today. Mr. King has many accomplishments and recognitions all of which cannot be deduced to a few paragraphs, but we here at Georgia State University are honored to have such an accomplished and inspirational leader available to speak to us at this year’s SE ECO Conference.