Former Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin will have her name on part of the downtown campus she helped bring into being. The National Center for Civil and Human Rights has announced that one of the two wings in its expansion will be called the Shirley Clark Franklin Pavilion.
The news came as a surprise to Franklin herself. It was delivered on a Thursday night in late February 2025 at the Center's annual Power to Inspire gala, a sold-out dinner held at the Georgia Aquarium that was already organized around honoring her. A.J. Robinson, president of Central Atlanta Progress and a key figure in getting the Center built, called Franklin up to the stage and revealed the pavilion's name there.
The Center traces its roots to Franklin's two terms as mayor, from 2002 to 2010. During that stretch she led the effort to secure Martin Luther King Jr.'s papers for Atlanta, a campaign that raised more than $30 million in 11 days, and she pushed the idea of a civil and human rights center from concept toward reality. She later served as the Center's founding board chair. Egbert Perry took over that role in early 2024.
According to Perry, the original plan for the building was bigger than what opened, but the scope had to shrink during the Great Recession. The current expansion is meant to complete that earlier vision. Jill Savitt, the Center's president and CEO, told the gala crowd that Franklin was the person who insisted the institution include contemporary human rights in both its name and its scope, rather than focusing only on history.
Franklin, for her part, said Atlanta always needed a place to celebrate its history and host dialogue. She thanked many people who helped along the way, among them former Mayor Andrew Young and the late Rev. Joseph Lowery and Evelyn Lowery.
The pavilion will occupy the east side of the building. Inside, it is planned as flexible space that can serve as classrooms, a performance venue or an event room. Its roof is slated to hold a new ticketing area along with outdoor space for gatherings.
On the opposite, west side of the Center, a second new wing will carry the name of Arthur M. Blank, whose lead gift anchors the expansion. The Arthur M. Blank Inspiration Hall is planned to include a cafe and three galleries: a lobby-level Family Gallery designed for children under 12 and built around hands-on, immersive experiences about rights and justice; a gallery on the Reconstruction Era and what followed, featuring artifacts from the "Without Sanctuary" collection; and a Special Exhibitions Gallery for traveling and rotating shows.
The existing building is getting upgrades too. Plans call for a redesigned gallery of selected items from the Morehouse College Martin Luther King, Jr. Collection, a new Activation Lab where visitors consider how they can protect rights in their own communities, a larger version of the lunch counter sit-in experience, and refreshed permanent exhibits on civil and human rights.
At the time of the announcement, the Center was closed for construction and planned to reopen in the fall. Its fundraising campaign had brought in more than $53.8 million, with another $2.8 million still needed to reach the goal. The Center marked its 10th anniversary in 2024, and Savitt noted that because it does not receive federal funding, it is not subject to new policies on how history is taught.
For more on how the finished expansion turned out, see our coverage of the Center's reopening at double its former size.
Original reporting by Maria Saporta for SaportaReport.
