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By John Ruch
The late Lottie Watkins, Georgia state representative and pioneering African-American real estate broker, is honored in the West End with a city landmark outside the building that bears her name.
The marker, approved by the Atlanta City Council on Aug. 15, is expected to be installed early next year at the Lottie Watkins Building at 1065 Ralph David Abernathy Blvd.
Lottie Watkins as pictured in a 2006 oral history interview with TheHistorymakers. (Photo from TheHistorymakers.)
Before her death in 2017 at the age of 98, Watkins was a longtime business and political leader. Post 1 City Councilman Michael Julian Bond, sponsor of the whistleblower law, was among her family friends and political allies. “This is literally a labor of love,” he said of the pointer. “Lottie Watkins They knew me when I was a twinkle in my parents’ eye.”
In the year Born in 1918, Watkins was the daughter of legendary blues and jazz musician Eddie Haywood Sr. (Her brother Eddie Jr. also became a popular jazz bandleader.) In 1960, she started her own business, Lottie Watkins Enterprises, and became Atlanta’s first African-American woman to become a real estate broker.
In the year She purchased the West End Building in 1954 and operated her business there for over 55 years. Her family still owns it.
In the year He was active in the civil rights movement, including organizing around the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and supporting the Atlanta student movement, a group of protestors including Bond’s father, Julian.
Watkins served in the Georgia House of Representatives from 1977 to 1980. She is buried in Westview Cemetery.
An oral history interview with Watkins is available on the website of the African American history organization TheHistorymakers.
“I thought she was a very sweet woman,” recalled Councilman Bond. “…She became a very wise mentor to me when I entered politics. After getting to know her in the political arena, in the political world, I have a new respect for her.
Bond is an advocate for historic markers, along with several others in the planning stages, including the Atlanta Student Movement and the Lightning Community, which displaced the Georgia World Congress Center. He also proposed that the Atlanta Historical Commission build such signs and create an app that visitors could use to learn more about historic places and people.
Bond said a council-sanctioned commission was set up a decade ago to consider how to honor Watkins, but after a long delay decided to move forward with the landmark legislation.
Watkins’ signage will cost about $2,000, Bond said, and will be paid for by the city.
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