Description

View of Georgia State Representative Grace Towns Hamilton during a legislative session at the Georgia State Capitol in downtown Atlanta, Georgia.Grace Towns Hamilton (1907-1992), the first African-American woman to serve in the Georgia General Assembly, represented Atlanta's Vine City neighborhood from 1966-1984. She also served as Executive Director of the Atlanta Urban League from 1943-1961. During the 1940s, she was active as an advocate for African-American schoolchildren and voter registration. She was also instrumental in the construction of the Hughes Spalding Pavilion at Grady Memorial Hospital in 1952. Hamilton is considered the architect of Atlanta's 1973 city charter which reduced at-large representation and gave African Americans an increased presence in city government through district voting.

Record Contributed By

Atlanta History Center

Record Harvested From

Digital Library of Georgia