Atlanta, Georgia
The A — our home for the weekend. Here's everything you need to know.
Register for the ReunionLocation
Atlanta, GA
Dates
June 24–27, 2027
Airport
Hartsfield-Jackson (ATL)
Drive Time
~20 min from ATL
Atlanta & the Civil Rights Movement
Atlanta is not just a city — it is the cradle of the American Civil Rights Movement. More than any other place in the United States, Atlanta shaped the fight for freedom, dignity, and equality that changed the nation forever. As the Wade family gathers here, we walk the same ground where history was made.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
On January 15, 1929, Michael King Jr. was born at 501 Auburn Avenue NE in Atlanta, Georgia — the son of a Baptist minister and the grandson of a sharecropper. He would later take the name Martin Luther King Jr., and he would become the most transformative moral leader in American history.
King grew up in Atlanta's Sweet Auburn neighborhood, attended Booker T. Washington High School, and enrolled at Morehouse College at just 15 years old. Atlanta shaped him — its Black churches, its HBCU community, its proud but segregated streets — and he carried that formation into every march, every sermon, and every jail cell.
He was assassinated in Memphis on April 4, 1968, at age 39. He is buried in Atlanta, at the King Center on Auburn Avenue, just steps from where he was born.
A Timeline of the Struggle
Atlanta Race Massacre
White mobs attacked Black residents across Atlanta for four days, killing dozens and destroying Black-owned businesses. The massacre exposed the violent reality of Jim Crow and galvanized Atlanta's Black community to organize.
MLK Born on Auburn Avenue
Martin Luther King Jr. is born in the Sweet Auburn neighborhood, then the most prosperous Black business district in America — known as "the richest Negro street in the world."
King Enrolls at Morehouse at 15
Atlanta's Morehouse College — one of the nation's most storied HBCUs — becomes the intellectual home that shapes King's theology, philosophy, and commitment to nonviolent resistance.
Montgomery Bus Boycott
King, then pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, AL, leads a 381-day boycott after Rosa Parks' arrest. The Supreme Court rules bus segregation unconstitutional. The movement has its first major victory.
SCLC Founded in Atlanta
King and other Black ministers found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in Atlanta. The city becomes the organizational headquarters of the Civil Rights Movement, coordinating campaigns across the South.
Atlanta Student Sit-Ins
Students from Atlanta's HBCUs — Morehouse, Spelman, Clark, and Morris Brown — launch coordinated sit-ins at segregated lunch counters. King joins them and is arrested. The movement's youth wing is born.
"Letter from Birmingham Jail" & the March on Washington
King writes his landmark letter defending nonviolent protest while imprisoned in Birmingham. That August, 250,000 people march on Washington, D.C., where King delivers "I Have a Dream" — one of the greatest speeches in American history.
Civil Rights Act Signed
President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964, outlawing discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. King is present at the signing. That same year, he receives the Nobel Peace Prize.
Selma to Montgomery & the Voting Rights Act
Marchers are brutally beaten on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama — "Bloody Sunday." The images shock the nation. Congress passes the Voting Rights Act of 1965, one of the most consequential laws in American history.
Assassination & Legacy
King is assassinated in Memphis on April 4, 1968. He is brought home to Atlanta, where over 100,000 people line the streets for his funeral procession. He is buried at Ebenezer Baptist Church, where he once preached.
MLK Day Becomes a Federal Holiday
After years of advocacy led by Coretta Scott King and others, Martin Luther King Jr. Day is observed as a federal holiday for the first time. Atlanta — his birthplace and burial site — remains the spiritual center of his legacy.
The Atlanta University Center — HBCU Capital of the World
No city in America has a higher concentration of Historically Black Colleges and Universities than Atlanta. The Atlanta University Center Consortium — the world's largest association of HBCUs — sits in the heart of the city and has produced generations of Black leaders, scholars, and activists.
Morehouse College
Est. 1867MLK's alma mater. All-male HBCU. Home of the "Morehouse Man."
Spelman College
Est. 1881The nation's top HBCU for women. Produced Stacey Abrams, Alice Walker.
Clark Atlanta University
Est. 1869Formed from Clark College & Atlanta University. Research powerhouse.
Morris Brown College
Est. 1881Founded by formerly enslaved people. The only HBCU founded by Black Methodists.
Interdenominational Theological Center
Est. 1958Graduate school of theology training Black ministers and chaplains.
Morehouse School of Medicine
Est. 1975One of only four HBCUs with a medical school. Focused on underserved communities.
"Taking It Back to the South — to Continue the Fight"
Our reunion theme isn't just a slogan. It's a declaration. The South is where our roots run deepest — where our ancestors endured, resisted, built, and survived. Atlanta is the city that turned that survival into a movement that changed the world.
When we walk through Sweet Auburn, visit the King Center, or stand at the steps of Ebenezer Baptist Church, we are not tourists. We are descendants. The fight for dignity, equity, and justice that Dr. King and so many others waged is not finished — and the Wade family has always been part of that story.
Coming to Atlanta means coming home to the movement. Let's honor it together.
Civil Rights Sites to Visit
Several of these are on our Day 3 itinerary. We encourage every family member to make time for at least one.
MLK National Historic Site
Day 3 ItineraryKing's birthplace, Ebenezer Baptist Church, and his tomb. Free admission. One of the most visited national parks in America.
National Center for Civil & Human Rights
Day 3 ItineraryImmersive exhibits connecting the Civil Rights Movement to global human rights today. Includes a lunch counter sit-in simulation that will move you.
Sweet Auburn Historic District
Day 3 ItineraryThe neighborhood that raised Dr. King. Walk Auburn Avenue, see the APEX Museum, and feel the history in every block.
Ebenezer Baptist Church
Where King was baptized, ordained, and preached. His father and grandfather also served here. A living monument to the movement.
APEX Museum
African American Panoramic Experience — chronicles the history of Sweet Auburn and Atlanta's Black community from the 1800s to today.
Morehouse College Campus
Walk the campus where MLK studied. The Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel is open to visitors and worth a quiet moment of reflection.
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