Madame Mayor: A glimpse into the life of Shirley Franklin

This week our intrepid GPB team journeyed to West Atlanta for a conversation with two-term former Mayor Shirley Franklin, the first woman to hold the city's top job. In the months ahead, we will share her interview on the program Georgia Legends. 

Jeff: "Happy birthday! I know it's coming up in a few days. There is a famous line from Muhammad Ali about aging, he says: if you are not different at 50, than you were at 20, you have wasted 30 years of your life. Are you a different person at 81?"

Mayor Franklin: "Oh, absolutely! I am not just slower in movement, but slower to judge, to make judgments, to make decisions, much more intentional about what I do, how I spend my time, how I spend my money."

Jeff: "Are you still structured every day?"

Mayor Franklin: "I'm somewhat structured. I'm structured by some of the commitments that I've made. I serve on several not-for-profit boards. So, I have a calendar, and it's both on my phone and computer, but it's also in a book, and I prefer the book. I spend my days largely, reading. A lot of news options; and gardening, walking, exercising some, talking on the phone."

The Philadelphia native and Howard University alum has lived in her Cascade Heights home since 1972 — a charming, cozy, one-level residence ringed with art, sculptures, prints, and the memorabilia of an extraordinary American life.

Inside, you’ll find photos of Ambassador Andrew Young, Mayor Maynard Jackson, and U.S. Rep. John Lewis, alongside busts of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  and President Kennedy. There’s even framed political satire from her time in office by the celebrated, Pulitzer Prize-winning Atlanta Journal-Constitution editorial cartoonist, Mike Luckovich.

Other treasures include an ancient family piano, family photos, and a vibrant painting of Atlanta’s 58th mayor — hanging with a watchful gaze in the living room — alongside an autographed, framed photo of John Lewis facing down the Alabama State Patrol on Bloody Sunday in Selma.

It's really a celebration of strength and the African American experience in this country through the eyes of one its most impactful leaders of the past 54 years. 

Outside is riddled with flower gardens featuring blooming roses and amaryllis replanted from Christmas that are loaded with color, sunshine, and shade.

Mayor Franklin's home reflects her public Atlanta life, too: Consistent, without predictable pretense.

I listened to Mayor Franklin talk about an early experience as a teen that helped shape her life. She attended the August 1963 “March on Washington” to hear Dr. King’s “I Have A Dream Speech.” Decades later she would lead Atlanta's efforts to secure Dr. King’s papers for his alma mater Morehouse College and away from the auction house gavel. 

Jeff: "As you were listening to Dr. King speak that day in 1963, there was no way you could have imagined the role that you would play one day in his legacy."

Mayor Franklin: "I owe that opportunity both to the King family and to Andrew Young. The collection was being advertised for auction and I read about it in the newspaper. Andrew Young and I were at an event early one morning, and he proposed that I lead the effort to buy the papers for Atlanta. And I was like; 'I've got other things to do.' But I went back to the office, and I called five or six people who I got advice from time to time. Raymond King and Ingrid Saunders-Jones, John Alman were some of the people that I called. I asked them what they thought about the idea, and they all said, 'It's a great idea.' So, for the next 11 days, I worked on it full time. And we were successful. The community embraced the idea. I think if we'd had six months, it might not have worked, but the fact that we had a short period of time made the difference."

Jeff: "Did you have doubts at any time that maybe this wasn't going to happen, that you couldn't bring it together?"  

Mayor Franklin: "Well, I didn't give myself time to do that. So, we made cold calls. I made a cold call to everyone I knew and some people I didn't know. And the community was able to acquire the papers and then we did it through a loan."

Mayor Franklin's involvement with Atlanta government began in the early 1970s after moving to Atlanta to marry her husband David Franklin, from a Talladega College teaching job in Alabama.

She worked on the campaigns of Andrew Young, Maynard Jackson, and Zell Miller, eventually becoming Commissioner of Cultural Affairs under Mayor Jackson. “I had dreams of being a ballerina,” she told me. Her love of art apparent everywhere you turn in her home.

It’s an amazing impactful public career from a strong, physically diminutive woman who didn’t like giving speeches, sought professional counseling, and harbored no ambition toward public office. 

Her term ended in 2010, with no run toward Congress, the Senate or the governor’s office.

Life moves on. 

On to the garden, the books, the calls, and the projects of personal choice.

Look for our conversation on GPB down the road. Mayor Franklin's story is an American original.