Memorial Services Set For Sanders, Russell

The public is set to pay tribute to former Georgia Governor Carl Sanders and business icon Herman Russell this weekend.

A memorial service is scheduled Saturday for Sanders at Second Baptist Church in Atlanta. He died last week at the age of 89.

Russell, who passed away last weekend at age 83, is being honored at a wake at Ebenezer Baptist Church Friday. Funeral services will be held at Saint Phillip’s AME Church Saturday morning.

Civil Rights Icons

Both men are being praised for contributions they made during the civil rights era.

Former Governor Roy Barnes, says Sanders will be remembered as having moral and political courage. He says the former governor continued to support President Lyndon Johnson, even though Johnson alienated much of the south over the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

In the 1960's, Herman Russell became the first black member of the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, a benchmark his close friend, former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young remembered.

"Atlanta decided it did not want to put integration or desegregation on the backs of the children.” Young said on the GPB’s Political Rewind. “They wanted the business community to take the leadership. So, Herman was invited to be a member of the Commerce Club.”

“The thinking about how Atlanta moves forward has always been black and white together."

Contributors: Associated Press

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