Fighting systemic racism and oppression in Decatur, Georgia.

The Beacon Hill Black Alliance for Human Rights empowers, advocates, educates, and organizes people of African Descent affected by systemic racism in our community.

We focus on issues of equity in education, housing, public art and monuments, and the legal system.

In 2015, a group of concerned citizens was convened by Mayor Emerita Elizabeth Wilson, the City of Decatur’s first and only African American Mayor, to address issues of equity in Decatur and the surrounding communities.

After years of successful advocacy as an Organizing Committee of the NAACP, the Beacon Hill Black Alliance for Human Rights was re-organized as an independent organization to better advocate for local change.

Some of the many victories of the Beacon Hill Black Alliance for Human Rights include:

• dramatically increasing attendance in City Schools of Decatur School Board Meetings
• successful advocating for the creation for an Equity Director position within the City Schools of Decatur
• hosting panel discussions on closing the achievement gap, alternative school discipline practices, and school safety
• organizing student participation in Let Us Make Man conferences and scholarship programs
• supporting the development of the first-ever Black Student Unions at  both Decatur High School and Beacon Hill Middle School
• co-sponsoring and organizing the Take Down White Supremacy March and Rally, which was attended by 5000 protesters in response to the white supremacist attack in Charlottesville
• successfully advocating for the re-hiring of an African-American police officer in the City of Decatur
• coordinating efforts to remove monuments to white supremacy in Decatur Square, including the Confederate “Lost Cause” obelisk and the “Genocide Cannon”
• sponsoring and fundraising for “Art for the People”, a public art project that puts works created by artists of African and Indigenous descent on display in the City of Decatur
• installing “What Sonia Said”, a sculpture by Ellex Swavoni celebrating Black women and Black communities, at the beacon Municipal Plaza
• presenting the Pan African Festival, a signature event in Decatur Square celebrating culture, cooperative economics, self-determination, and Black joy

The work continues. Despite all of our victories, the road to equity and justice remains long and fraught with challenges. There are many battles left to fight, and we won’t rest until all of them are won.