The first Black woman to serve on Atlanta’s City Council has died at 82.
Carolyn Long Banks, a fourth-generation Atlantan who graduated from Henry McNeil Turner High School before attending Clark College (now Clark Atlanta University) was hailed as one of the city’s most admired public servants after she became one of the lead organizers behind the Atlanta Student Movement.
In the 1960s, she served on the Committee on Appeal for Human Rights and worked alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. during the height of the Civil Rights Movement. She would later become a successful corporate executive after holding a management position at Magnolia Room at Rich’s, a high-end department store in the South. She was one of the first Black women to serve in a management role there.
Banks was a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. and was known to spend her Sundays at St. Paul of the Cross Catholic Church, where she was an active member. She also held a lifetime membership in the NAACP and led delegations to foreign countries in her role in public service.
Before Jimmy Carter became president, the then-Georgia governor appointed her to the Commission of Women. She was also present at the White House when President Bill Clinton signed his first piece of legislation, the Family Medical Leave Act.
“She was like a surrogate mother to me all of my life and a tremendous mentor to me in my public career,” council member Michael Bond said in a statement. “Her children, April and James, are some of my oldest and dearest friends. Her soul will continue to shine brightly in the divine presence of God and her impact will live on in the hearts and minds of all those who were fortunate enough to know her.”
Council Member Andrea L. Boone echoed Bond’s sentiments and added that people should “keep her family in our prayers as we all seek comfort and peace during this time of mourning.”
