Buckhead Activist Tosses Hat in the Ring

Eighteen days before qualifying starts in the 2021 race for Mayor of Atlanta, Georgia, Buckhead activist Rebecca King woke up the heretofore dull mayoral contest. King, the Chief Executive Officer of Cover Your Assets, an insurance documentation business, announced she is entering the campaign to become the next mayor of Atlanta.

Qualification for all municipal offices begins on August 17 and runs through August 21. …

15th Annual Event Brings Out Black Baseball Moms In Support of Their Sons

On this mid-July weekend, a beautiful ocean blue sky with a couple of white puffy clouds, painted, perhaps by the almighty, a fleeting summer breeze cooled the sun’s rays that beamed down on Black teenage baseball players showcasing their talent in the 15th annual Mentoring Vital Prospects (MVP) tournament.

While the kids from Chicago, California, North Carolina, Virginia, and Atlanta competed on the Georgia State University baseball field, smoke bellowed from a black barbeque grill made from a big drum. …

While Evidence in Pervis Payne Case for Killing White Woman Disappears

Last week President Joe Biden hosted an impressive list of civil rights leaders at the White House. They came to discuss national efforts by Republican officials to restrict voting rights and criminal justice reform considering an alarming uptick in police killing of Black people since the 2008 election of Barack Obama.

Those present included Marc Morial, President of the National Urban League, Al Sharpton, President of the National Action Network Damon Hewitt, President and Executive Director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under the Law, Wade Henson, President…

Atlanta Mayor’s Race Coming Into Focus

One month ago, I published a piece on the Atlanta mayoral race, May Day, May Day, the golden fleece has been hacked: Can Kasim Reed Restore Order, Save The Airport, and Keep Buckhead Happy (https://hmichaelharvey.medium.com/mayday-mayday-the-golden-fleece-has-been-hacked-1dda2469aa63?sk=cc7de30372aff4d2a1dc8f374c8b8a09).

In that piece, I posited that Sharon Gay, an attorney with Dentons, a global law practice with a footprint in every nook and cranny on the planet, “is the sleeper in the race. While she lacks name recognition, she can raise the money to make her name a household word.”

Several political pundits said there is no way a…

Can Kasim Reed Restore Order, Save the Airport, and Keep Buckhead Happy?

By far, Atlanta is the most prosperous city in Georgia and arguably in the top five municipal economies in the southeastern region. Her strength lies in the two cities within a town, Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport and the Buckhead commercial and residential district. Tax revenues from Hartsfield-Jackson and Buckhead are the driving force behind Atlanta’s prosperity.

As Atlanta moves into the third decade of the 20th century, it is doubtful that she can keep Hartsfield-Jackson and Buckhead under her control. For several years, the Republican-led Georgia legislature has toyed…

A Powerful Flame That Burned Brightly

I called him “Doc.” He called me “Brother Harvey.” In public, he introduced me as “Michael Harvey, my neighbor.” He wanted his friends and associates to know that he and I were neighbors. As if to say, you may know Michael Harvey, the professional, but I know him as a neighbor. His introductions always brought a smile to the corners of my lips.

Watching Vivian on television maneuver a southern sheriff into an act of violence caused me to want to know more about this man, but he seemed to fade from public view…

Black Parents, They Say Should Shut Up

I’ve been writing about Black College baseball for the better part of a decade. As a former HBCU baseball player at Fort Valley State College and Tuskegee Institute in the early 1970s, I have a long history in the sport. I have watched the sport change over the years, and I have, on numerous occasions, documented those changes.

In 1973, the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC) played the only All-Star game in its history, dating from 1913. The Conference All-Stars played the conference champions, Tuskegee Institute. I was an outfielder on the 1973…

While the Face of Black College Baseball Grows Whiter and Whiter

When I was a high schooler in Macon, Georgia, I dreamed of playing collegiate baseball at Georgia Tech in Atlanta during the early days of school desegregation. In 1969, the year I graduated from the majority white high school that I had integrated four years earlier, there were no Black American baseball players on the Georgia Tech baseball team.

Barely 20 Blacks had sat in a classroom at Georgia Tech. …