It has been more than 40 years since the Atlanta Child Murders terrorized the city of Atlanta between 1979 and 1981.
Yet it still brings up strong emotions for those who lived through those days, including former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms.
“We were children. We remember the fear,” she said. “We remember our parents holding us close. We remember communities. Frozen.”
Current Mayor Andre Dickens also lived through those days.
“I was about 4,5,6-years old and we were in the midst of it, on the west side of Atlanta and also the east side of Atlanta as well,” he said. “And so that was a time of growing up that really fortified us and brought us all together. You had to be in when the street lights were on, you would see vans going in your neighborhood and you would clear the streets to make sure that you would not be a victim. Everybody was on edge at that time.”
Most of the victims were Black boys.
Dickens and Bottoms helped unveil a new memorial to them on the grounds of Atlanta City Hall on Tuesday.
The memorial is a long, curved piece of weathered steel that is rusty to the touch. Thirty names are in raised stainless steel letters. And at the highest point is a glass-enclosed eternal flame.
California-based artist Gordon Huether created the memorial.
“My thinking was to create a place that would memorialize, celebrate and eternally love these souls that were taken too soon,” he said. “The shape of the sculpture is such that it, it’s an embrace, it’s there to hold you, it’s there to hug you. It’s there to cherish you and keep the memories of these young lives fresh.”
Huether hopes the memorial also helps to educate people about the Atlanta Child Murders.
‘I was the last one who spoke with him’
Valerie Mathis says she did not expect the tears to flow all these years later. Her then 10-year-old brother Jeffery Mathis was one of the victims.
“I came here as a, you know, willing and strong spirit,” she said. “But once you get here and see this for yourself, I have so much to think about because I was the last one who spoke with him. So it’s a lot of things that go to my head or through my mind as I see his name written on this wall.”
She calls the memorial “awesome” and hopes it keeps the memory of the victims alive for future generations.
Bottoms played a key role in the building of the memorial, including appointing the Atlanta Children’s Memorial Taskforce in 2019.
“So that every single person who passes the grounds of Atlanta City Hall remembers that those children matter to us, they matter to us now and they will matter to us for generations not yet born,” she said.
Wayne Williams was convicted in 1982 for two of the cases.
He has maintained his innocence as he serves his life sentences at a Southeast Georgia jail. He was denied parole in 2019.
The Atlanta Police Department reopened the cases in 2019 to take another look at the evidence, including DNA.
“We still have an investigation that is ongoing,” Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum told reporters after the event. “There was a commitment under Mayor Bottoms to reopen the investigation. Look at those that may not have had a resolution yet. And so that is ongoing by the Atlanta Police Department.”
The memorial sits on the grounds of Atlanta City Hall near the corner of Washington and Mitchell Streets.
