In 1963, with Vice Mayor Sam Massell:
(via the Atlanta History Center)
(via. Does anyone know where/when this might have been taken? I’m not yet convinced this was Atlanta.)
And lots of WSB-TV news clips at UGA’s Civil Rights Digital Library.
Advertisement
Tags: robert f. kennedy










Day of the Evil Gun, 1968 per imdb
Oh, I bet that’s from Martin Luther King’s funeral. Thanks for doing what never occurred to me to do.
The title of the image is “atlanta1968.jpg”…
UH, I KNOW. But I don’t just trust strange blogs’ image names. My blog has integrity! I let the readers decide what the facts are.
I just wish Soulville Records was still next door to the movie theater and selling 78s like nobody’s business.
[re-post, with added info... is the third time the charm?]
This is Kennedy in 1968 in Atlanta for the King funeral, and he’s walking west on Auburn Avenue, away from Ebenezer Church.
As noted above, the movies place this in 1968.
Day of the Evil Gun: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062865/
Sol Madre: http://www.imdb.com/title/
Soulville Records had addresses in Atlanta and Greenville, SC (this is not that other Soulville up north, nor is it Soulsville, y’all).
Soulville Records: http://www.georgiasoul.com/gasoul/n-s.html
My mother immediately spotted the Royal Theater where she used to go with her aunts back in the day.
Royal Theater: http://theoddfellowsbuildings.com/more_history.htm
“The Odd Fellows Auditorium in the Annex became a center for entertainment as soon as it opened. The Royal Theatre was located in the Annex and was the only movie house in Atlanta where Blacks could be seated on the main floor. The roof garden created a space to dine and dance in an elegant atmosphere.”
In April 2009, Atlanta Magazine had an excellent feature on the King funeral.
Article: http://www.rebecca-burns.com/funeralarticle.aspx
Article: http://www.atlantamagazine.com/Channels/KingFile/Story.aspx?ID=1082472
The text of the article is easy to find online, but the excellent selection of photos that appeared with it is nowhere to be found. Maybe someone here can help out with that?
Hilary
Thank you!!
Seeing Soulville in the background is extremely cool. The address on the Atlanta 45s on the record label is 234 Auburn Ave. now the Sweet Auburn Bread Company. Didn’t the Atlanta Daily World occupy that space for a while too? I’m not sure. I’m still extremely interested in learning who ran the Soulville label/store. If anyone can provide any info, I’m all ears!
As several others have confirmed, this photo was, indeed, shot on Auburn Avenue at Atlanta after the funeral services for the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., on April 9, 1968. The man to the left of Bobby Kennedy is Earl G. Graves, who was then a New York-based staff assistant to Kennedy. He later became the founder-publisher of “Black Enterprise” magazine. During Kennedy’s ill-fated 1968 presidential bid, Graves helped to organize support for Kennedy in the “black” neighborhoods at Indianapolis, Omaha and other cities.
Graves would later become recognizable thru his bald pate and mutton-chop sideburns.