The city of Atlanta lived in terror from 1979 to 1981, as the community sought answers for the deaths of 30 Black boys and girls citywide. Atlanta now has a lasting memorial to honor those victims in the form of an “eternal flame.”
Mayor Andre Dickens, former Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and the Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs hosted an unveiling ceremony Tuesday morning for the Atlanta Children’s Eternal Flame Memorial. The art piece is a Corten steel wall with the names of those murdered or left missing. It also features a torch enclosed in a clear container in the right side of the wall. It is located at the Atlanta City Hall Grounds, near the corner of Mitchell Street and Washington Street.
Atlanta made international headlines more than 40 years ago when several Black children and teenagers were abducted and killed in what became known as the Atlanta Child Murders. The relentless dread from the killing flooded the community until freelance television cameraman and music promoter Wayne Williams was taken into custody in 1981, when he was charged with murdering 27-year-old Nathaniel Cater.
The killings stopped after the arrest, and Williams was convicted of killing two adults in 1982. Williams says he’s innocent, but the police linked him to the deaths of the other victims.
To this day, the families of the victims still want law enforcement to definitively say who killed their children or to investigate further, so much so that Bottoms reopened the case in 2019.
“Progress has been made in analyzing the DNA and I know that there’s still many answers to be had, but it’s my hope that one day soon Mayor Dickens will be able to share that information with the public as well as whatever information may be available, so that it can continue to bring solace and comfort to the families who are here today,” Bottoms said during the event.
Bottoms and Dickens led attendees in a moment of silence after the mayors took turns reading aloud the names of the victims from the murder cases. Local student Kofi Martin also did a live mellophone performance at the event, which was attended by former Mayor Shirley Franklin and several current city lawmakers and administrators.
Credit: Natrice Miller/AJC
Credit: Natrice Miller/AJC
Valerie Jackson, the widow of Mayor Maynard Jackson, was also present. Dickens lauded Jackson for creating what became known as Camp Best Friends in order to offer a safe haven for the city’s youth during the murders. Dickens said it is now one of the largest city-operated summer programs nationwide.
“I was about four, five or six years old and we were in the midst of it on the west side of Atlanta, and also the east side of Atlanta,” Dickens said. “That was a time of growing up that really fortified us and brought us all together.”
Dickens continued and said “you had to be in when the streetlights were on. You would see vans go in your neighborhood and you would clear the streets to make sure that you would not be a victim. Everybody was on edge at that time.”
Camille Russell Love, executive director of Atlanta’s Office of Cultural Affairs, said the memorial also represents the city’s gratitude to those who aided in the community’s search, recovery and healing efforts. The department of Enterprise Assets Management, the Department of Parks and Recreation, and the Atlanta Children’s Memorial Taskforce also worked on the $280,000 memorial that was approved by city council in 2019.
Atlanta also exhibited the Atlanta Children’s Memorial Portraits in honor of the victims in the atrium at Hartfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in 2020. That year, Mayor Bottoms also displayed more than 100 works of art memorializing the victims in the Mayor’s Gallery at City Hall.
Artist Gordon Huether said he designed a curvature shape within the memorial wall to embrace, hold, hug, and cherish the victims while educating the younger generations.
“This is a really beautiful event to remember this and to keep this out front because this same thing can happen again,” said the Rev. John Luther Bell.
Bell attended the ceremony to honor his son, Yusuf Bell, who went missing in October 1979. Bell’s wife, Sarah Bell, said the authorities ultimately cleared Bell’s name as a suspect in the case. Bell stood in front of his son’s name in the wall as he lauded the city for the tribute.
“Community awareness will make it very hard for this to happen again,” Bell said. “So this is very wonderful time for me to see the love from the community and the care and most importantly the authorities for how much energy they put into it.”
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