Civil rights champions, thought leaders and supporters of the National Center for Civil and Human Rights gathered Downtown on Tuesday, Nov. 4 to mark the Center’s renovations with a ribbon-cutting ceremony. If the anticipation of the Center’s reopening wasn’t exciting enough, it was also, coincidentally, Election Day.
Many attendees had passed through polling places that morning to cast their ballots and wore the distinctive Georgia voter peach stickers on their lapels. That evening, the city of Atlanta would await the results of high-profile mayoral, city council president, and public service commission elections, but that morning, all eyes were trained on the National Center for Civil and Human Rights. It was, unmistakably, a historical occasion.
The rooftop terrace of the new Shirley Clarke Franklin Pavilion sparkled in the sunlight as the former mayor made remarks — a full-circle moment for supporters of the Center, which was championed by Franklin, who served as the first female mayor of Atlanta during the project’s development in the early 2000s.
The Center officially reopened to the public on Saturday, Nov. 8, after a $57.9 million expansion, which added 24,000 square feet and six new galleries — a new chapter for the national attraction at a time when the Trump administration is waging war on museums.
“The ability for children to come into this space, understand the books, the history and the learnings of civil rights and human rights has never been more important than it is today,” philanthropist Arthur Blank said on Tuesday.
Blank, one of the Center’s biggest supporters and owner of the Atlanta Falcons, addressed the audience and helped cut the ceremonial ribbon. He praised President and CEO Jill Savitt and the staff for their work in making the Center more accessible to children.
“It was magnificent before, but frankly, many young kids didn’t feel comfortable,” Blank said. “Their parents didn’t feel comfortable bringing them in and exposing the story of the civil and human rights history in the country and in the world.”
Now, the exhibitions geared towards children aim to inspire the generation that will shape the future, he said. “Change Agent Adventure” is the Center’s new gallery geared towards children under 12 and their families, which will open to the public in the spring.
Blank has taken part in imagining the Center since its inception in the early 2000s. A new wing on the west side of the Center, Arthur M. Blank Inspiration Hall, honors Blank’s contributions with three new galleries, a cafe and a gift shop.
Savitt highlighted the expansion committee led by Board Chair Egbert Perry, Vice Chair A.J. Robinson, as well as board members Brett Jewkes and Michelle Moorehead.
Bernice King served as guest curator of the King exhibit, which features papers from the Morehouse College Martin Luther King Jr. Collection. Bernice King provided historical context to accompany the artifacts of her late father, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
“This partnership between the King Center and the National Center is a declaration that truth matters, that history must be told fully,” King said.
“My hope is that within this expanded space and this exhibit, every visitor is inspired to reject chaos and choose community — to see my father not as a figure of the past, but as a prophet of peace whose message remains urgently alive,” she said while also mentioning the contributions of her mother, Coretta Scott King.
“My father’s words always remind us that we are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality tied in a single garment of destiny, and what affects one directly affects all indirectly,” King said.
These words rang true upon viewing the galleries inside, where an “Action Lab” allows visitors to contemplate the question “What can I do?” after experiencing the featured stories of human rights issues.
“The artifacts of writers displayed in the exhibit are not relics. They are a living archive of conscience, speaking directly to our moment, and calling us into action,” King said.
“For too long, my father’s legacy has been reduced to one dimension, civil rights, when his work was expansive, extending to human rights,” she continued. “This exhibit refuses to reduce my father to a sanitized sound byte or a single chapter in history. It reveals the radical King, the global visionary and humanitarian who confronted and sought to eradicate what he called the triple evils of poverty or excessive materialism, racism and militarism, with fierce love and moral clarity.”
“My father’s words always remind us that we are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality tied in a single garment of destiny, and what affects one directly affects all indirectly,”
Poetry!