Black Woman Of The Day: Grace Towns Hamilton - 1st Black woman to hold a public office in the Deep South

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Grace Hamilton

Hamilton, Grace Towns (1907– 1992)

Hamilton was born February 10, 1907, and was the first African-American woman to hold a public office in the Deep South. She was elected to the Georgia General Assembly in 1966. She served her district in Atlanta for 18 years and was known as "the most effective woman legislator the state has ever had." Hamilton was later credited for helping Andrew Youngbecome the first black to represent Atlanta's Fifth District in Congress in 1972.

Before holding public office, Hamilton was the executive director of the Atlanta Urban League (AUL) and led efforts in education, health care, housing, and voting rights for African Americans while still working within the confines of segregation. She held only one other public position, as advisor to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission from January 1985 to January 1987, and passed away on June 17, 1992.

 

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On this date in 1907, Grace Towns Hamilton was born. She was an African American civil rights advocate, feminist, and politician.

From Atlanta, she was the eldest of four children to George and Nellis McNair Towns. Towns graduated from American University in 1927, enrolling in graduate school at Ohio State University where she paid her way through school as a secretary at the YMCA. In 1930, she married Henry C. Hamilton, dean and professor of education at Lemoyne College. Grace Hamilton was the first African-American woman to serve in the Georgia legislature (1966-1984).

She was elected to the house after a court-ordered reapportionment in 1965 created eight new Fulton County seats; increasing political opportunities for Blacks. She was the major architect of the current Atlanta city charter, which became law in 1973. This reduced at-large representation and paved the way for Black self-government through district voting. Hamilton and fellow Commissioner Everett Millican developed the current political map of Atlanta, with its twelve voting districts. Before then, whites had used at-large voting to maintain control.

Council members were not required to live in districts they represented; consequently Atlanta had no Black council members until 1966. Seven years later in 1973, Maynard Jackson was elected the first Black mayor of a major southern city. Hamilton was one of Atlanta’s greatest activists, serving as executive director of the Atlanta Urban League from 1943 to 1961. Supporting greater opportunities for Black school children she successfully acquired of the 9.9 million dollar school-bond issue for the Black community in 1946.

Her work for school betterment in Tennessee led to the executive council of the Highlander Folk School in Monteagle, where she provoked racist response. In 1957 Georgia governor Marvin Griffin sent a state employee to take photos of Black attendants at the school. The governor then published the prints on a four-page hate sheet charging that Highlander was a hotbed for communist activism. With her many accomplishments in many branches of government, Hamilton’s only political miscalculation was her support of Walter Mondale, and not Jesse Jackson, for the Democratic nomination for president in 1984.

This resulted in her loosing her legislative election in a run-off vote later that year. Described as “the quiet warrior,” she fought hard for better health facilities, improved education, help for the indigent, and rights for the disenfranchised. She brought the power to minority voters in the state of Georgia. Grace Hamilton died on July 17, 1992.

http://www.aaregistry.org/historic_events/view/grace-hamilton-fought-those-less-fortunate

 

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http://www.blackpast.org/aah/hamilton-grace-towns-1907-1992

Grace Towns Hamilton was the first African American woman elected to the Georgia General Assembly. She was a lifelong advocate of rights for the disadvantaged, and was instrumental in key district reapportionment efforts and black voter registration that helped bring minority representation into Georgia politics.

Hamilton was born in Atlanta, Georgia on February 10, 1907 to Harriet McNair and George Alexander Towns. Her father was a professor of English and pedagogy at Atlanta University. Hamilton was educated from grade school to college on the Atlanta University campus, from which she received an undergraduate degree in 1927. Hamilton left Atlanta to attend Ohio State University where she received a master’s degree in psychology in 1929.

Hamilton returned to Atlanta in 1929 to take a position as an assistant professor at Clark College (now Clark-Atlanta University) where she taught psychology. While there she met her future husband Henry Cooke Hamilton who was a fellow faculty member. The couple married in 1930 and had one daughter born in 1931.

In 1931, Grace and Henry Hamilton moved to Memphis, Tennessee where they taught at Le Moyne College. In 1941 they moved back to Atlanta when Henry was selected to head Atlanta University’s high school program. Instead of returning to teaching, Grace Hamilton was appointed executive director of the Atlanta Urban League (AUL) in 1943, becoming one of the first women to hold such a post in the National Urban League. Hamilton focused on working within the confines of segregation to improve schooling, housing, health care and voting rights for African Americans. However, her seeming acceptance of racial segregation led to her resignation in 1960.

In 1965, Hamilton and seven African American men were elected to the Georgia Legislature, representing newly reapportioned districts with significant numbers of African Americans voters. The special election came as a result of a 1962 U.S. Supreme Court decision that increased the power of urban areas and created the dramatic growth of black registered voters in the city. Hamilton was one of the leaders in that voter registration campaign.

Hamilton represented her inner city Atlanta district from 1965 to 1985. While in the legislature she worked continuously to expand political representation for African Americans across the state. She was the principal architect of the 1973 Atlanta City Charter, which for the first time allowed blacks to be elected to the city council from districts. She also led a congressional reapportionment battle that placed most Atlanta blacks in the Fifth Congressional district. Andrew Young, who in 1972 became the first black Congressman from the new district, credited Towns with making his election possible.

Hamilton lost her seat in 1985 however when she sided with white leaders and refused the demands of black leaders in the early 1980s to insure that the Fifth Congressional District become gerrymandered into a black majority district. After her defeat Hamilton served as an advisor to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission (1985-1987).

Grace Towns Hamilton died in Atlanta on June 17, 1992 at the age of 85.

- See more at: http://www.blackpast.org/aah/hamilton-grace-towns-1907-1992#sthash.MTbCB9YC.dpuf

 

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Stacey Abrams bump

 

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Grace Towns Hamilton: First Black Woman in Deep South to Hold Public Office

Grace Towns Hamilton was the first black woman in the south to hold a public office. She was elected to Georgia's General Assembly in 1965. Hamilton was among eight Blacks sent to the state legislature in a special election. She went on to represent her district in mid-Atlanta for the next 18...

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