City of Atlanta to host exhibit remembering victims of “Atlanta Child Murders”

An exhibition memorializing the victims of the “Atlanta Child Murders” will be unveiled during a reception on Thursday, Jan. 16, 5:30 to 8:30 p.m., Atlanta City Hall, 55 Trinity Ave. S.W.

At least 28 children, adolescents and adults were slain during theseries of murders that took place in Atlanta from July 1979 to May 1981.Wayne Williams, who was 23 at the time of the last murder, was arrested, tried, and convicted of two of the adult murders and sentenced to two consecutive life terms. Police subsequently have attributed a number of the child murders to Williams, although he has not been charged in any of those cases,

Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms’ Office of Cultural Affairs and the Atlanta Children’s Memorial Taskforce are hosting the  “Atlanta Children’s Memorial Portraits” exhibition through Feb. 6 at City Hall, officials said.

The curated gallery will showcase select artworks from more than 100 submissions by Atlanta visual artists. In addition, the winning portrait artist, Dwayne Mitchell, will be introduced. His portraits memorializing victims of the Atlanta Child Murders will be displayed in the Atrium of Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport from May 28 – July 22, 2020.

In 2019, Mayor Bottoms issued an Administrative Order to establish the Mayor’s Advisory Committee: Atlanta Children’s Memorial Taskforce. The task force—comprised of mayoral appointees from the community—was charged with determining an appropriate acknowledgment of the lives cut short during the Atlanta Child Murders. The Atlanta Children’s Memorial Portraits was one of two projects determined by the task force to acknowledge the memory of the lives lost. The second project, the Atlanta Children’s Memorial Eternal Flame, is currently under review and will be i

installed on the grounds of Atlanta City Hall.