Atlanta activist Lugenia Burns Hope honored with historical marker at Morehouse
(Georgia Historical Society)
ATLANTA - The legacy of African-American civil leader and social activist Lugenia Burns Hope will live on at Atlanta's historic Morehouse College.
A historical marker honoring Hope's commitment to social justice was erected at Morehouse College near Graves Hall Tuesday morning.
A native of St. Louis, Hope moved to Atlanta after marrying Georgian Dr. John Hope, who got a job teaching at Atlanta Baptist College - the predecessor to Morehouse.
She and several other women formed the Atlanta Neighborhood Union in 1908 and she served as its president until 1935. The organization advocated for African Americans to have increased accessibility to social services and worked to find out what neighborhoods in segregated Atlanta needed and advocated for them.
Hope also fought for desegregation and causes including voting rights for women and the formation and implementation of anti-lynching laws.
"Within the NU and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) she led initiatives that laid the foundation for grassroots social and political activism during the Civil Rights Movement and became a model for community building around the world," said Dr. Clarissa Myrick-Harris, professor of Africana Studies and co-founder of the Morehouse College Cultural Heritage Preservation Initiative.
The marker was placed near where Hope's ashes were scattered after her death in 1947. It's one of more than 50 markers across the state that now make up the Georgia Historical Society's Civil Rights Trail.