The Georgia Historical Society (GHS) will dedicate a new Civil Rights Trail historical marker recognizing African-American civic leader Lugenia Burns Hope (1871-1947) on Tuesday, June 13, 2023, in partnership with Mercedes-Benz USA and the Morehouse College Cultural Heritage Preservation Initiative. The dedication is open to the public and will take place at 11:00 a.m. at Graves Hall on Morehouse College’s Century Campus, 830 Westview Dr. SW, in Atlanta.
“The Georgia Historical Society partnered with Mercedes-Benz USA and the Morehouse College Cultural Heritage Preservation Initiative to erect a historical marker highlighting the accomplishments of Lugenia Burns Hope,” said Elyse Butler, GHS Marker Manager. “As a founder of Atlanta’s Neighborhood Union (NU), Lugenia Burns Hope advocated for African Americans to have increased accessibility to social services and living conditions. GHS is pleased to add this new historical marker to the GHS Georgia Civil Rights Trail.”
The marker will join more than 50 historical markers across the state that make up GHS’s Georgia Civil Rights Trail, an initiative that uses historical markers to document the struggle for human and civil rights from the period following Reconstruction to the modern movement in the mid twentieth century.
“As Founding President of the Neighborhood Union, Lugenia Burns Hope was very much in the tradition of the Black Women’s Club Movement, which sought to improve such things as housing, health care, and education for African Americans through self-help initiatives,” said Dr. Clarissa Myrick-Harris, professor of Africana Studies and co-founder of the Morehouse College Cultural Heritage Preservation Initiative. “However, Hope was also an innovative social justice activist, who fought for desegregation and political empowerment of African Americans—including voting rights for women. Within the NU and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) she led…
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