Civil Rights Excursions and reminiscences of iconic activists: Tom Houck’s love story with Atlanta

By Allison Joyner and Hannah E. Jones

Tom Houck has witnessed key moments of the civil rights movement up close and since those fateful days has kept the spirit of racial justice in Atlanta primarily through his Bus tour for civil rights.

Houck started the tour six years ago, spending his days driving around town teaching people the history of the civil rights movement in Atlanta, peppered with personal anecdotes and wisdom. The reason for the start of the tour was “a void” in the history books of Atlanta.

“There were some walking tours, but they didn’t take people to places like South-View Cemetery, which is so important to Atlanta’s history,” he said. “It didn’t bring you [Ralph] Abernathy’s Church … or Alonzo Herndon’s house, Atlanta’s first black millionaire. “

Houck is determined to help fill in the gaps with his jam-packed memory bank in tow.

Meet the man behind the tour

Not many people can claim to have lived on a street named after their former boss and mentor. Thanks to Martin Luther King Jr., Houck can do it. Always hungry for activism and racial justice, Houck recalls that at the age of 13 he thought, “I’m going to help change the world.”

Houck attended a separate white high school in Jacksonville, Florida named after Nathan Bedford Forrest, a Confederate soldier and early leader of the KKK.

Despite the racist undertone, Houck spoke out loudly in support of integration at his school and, as the editor of the school newspaper, asked around 100 students to petition to change the name from “Forest Acorns” to “Justice”.

The school responded with a two-week ban.

Houck visits John Lewis and Andrew Aydin during their book signing. (Image credit: Kelly Jordan)

But his director’s opinion was not his greatest concern; Houck’s eyes were on the Selma-Montgomery March. Houck flew to Selma with a friend in tow, both around 17 years old, where he met members of members SNCC and SCLC.

“I was determined at that point to keep moving rather than going to college or quitting high school,” he said.

He was arrested during the protest, the first of about 20 times.

After these arrests and separation from his friends and fellow demonstrators in separate prisons, he helped file the 1966 Lee versus Washington Lawsuit filed in Birmingham, Alabama, when the Supreme Court ruled in favor of prison integration.

Houck met King at a Freedom House in Atlanta, where SNCC and SCLC members met to rejuvenate and discuss strategy. King needed help answering his letters and asked if there were any good writers in the room willing to help. Houck raised his hand.

He didn’t just answer mail. Houck spent a lot of time with the King family as a driver and helped set up an SCLC peace division to protest the Vietnam War.

Houck recalled some civil rights activists resisting King’s focus on war, but “He saw war and civil rights as the same thing.”

He also worked alongside King in the Campaign of the Poorwho advocates for workers’ rights and affordable housing.

“What Dr. King wanted to do with the poor people’s campaign was: [to] put on America’s agenda that there is no blank check for justice, ”said Houck.

After King was murdered, Houck stayed with the SCLC for another year and then worked on the Voter education project with John Lewis and Julian Bond. They focused on electoral mobilization and campaigned for lawmakers to ratify Amendment 26, raising the voting age to 18.

Houck with activist and friend CT Vivian (Image: Kelly Jordan)

In the 1970s, Houck worked on several successful political campaigns including Maynard Jackson, Andrew Young and John Lewis. He remained close friends with Lewis until his death last year.

Houck has worn several hats since, but keeps coming back to civil rights.

Thinking about what makes this city so special, Houck said, “I think the blacks made Atlanta great.”

SaportaReport Writer Allison Joyner recently took Houck’s tour to rediscover her hometown and learn about its rich history. Check out the tour through their eyes.

I thought I knew everything about the civil rights movement. I was wrong.

Houck is an Atlanta sweetheart. His local involvement in the civil rights movement and his close relationship with some of its key players give him a unique perspective and wealth of institutional knowledge from this critical period in American history.

Tom Houck outside the home of Martin Luther King, Jr. on Sunset Avenue (Image: Allison Joyner)

His path is purposeful and the training offered along the way is effective. Starting in the house where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. felt resonant and remembered that critical moment.

From King’s house, the tour visited 15 locations including the Freedom House on John Wesley Dobbs Blvd. where Houck lived and worked as a young man; and the new Rodney Cook Park in Vine City, where a statue of former Congressman John Lewis with the Presidential Medal of Freedom was recently unveiled.

While we were in Vine City, Houck took us to Sunset Ave and showed us Dr. King. As a frequent visitor to the house, Houck told us that the king’s house had a piano in the front room and a bust of Gandhi in the living room.

But when the tour came to an end, the tour bus took us to historic sites that I would never have considered historic and that were the final resting places of these foot soldiers of freedom.

However, there were many stops on the tour that weren’t that obvious. As the tour came to an end, we visited lesser-known historical sites including the final resting places of Rev. CT Vivian, Ralph McGill, and Joseph Lowery – all foot soldiers of freedom.

Many people have visited South-View Cemetery to pay their respects to the late John and Lillian Lewis. (Image credit: Allison Joyner)

In addition, the South-View Cemetery on Jonesboro Road is another important location. The President of Morehouse, Dr. Benjamin Mays, was interred there before being brought to his final resting place at the historically black college, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. lay there before he was transported to the King Center.

There a beautiful tombstone for the late John Lewis also struck a sombre note. Crosses, flowers, letters, and American flags were among the memorabilia of those who paid respect to the man who was in “good trouble.”

The last stop was Oakland Cemetery in the east of the city. Although Confederate soldiers are buried there, Houck told us that Maynard Jackson – the first black mayor of Atlanta – chose his property there to show how far the city has come.

Hope Moving Forward, MLK’s newest statue in Atlanta. (Image: Hannah E. Jones)

As we drove back to the King Center where Dr. King and his wife Corretta is resting, the thoughtfulness of Houck’s tour overcame me. The full circle of experience was evident at that moment. Hearing first hand experiences of how so many people fought to get me to write this article with my colleague – who doesn’t look like me – makes me appreciate my legacy a hundred times more.

Hundreds of Atlanta transplants like me move to the capital every year but never give themselves the opportunity to discover their new hometown. So if you’re new to town or have lived here your entire life, take the Houck tour, rediscover your hometown, and find out why Houck – and the community at large – needs to keep these stories alive.

Houck gives his Civil Rights Tour every Saturday at 11 a.m. To book a place for Tom’s tour, log on to the official website.