Grace Towns Hamilton

He was born one of six children on March 5, 1870, in Albany, Georgia, to former slave Luke Towns Jr. and Mary Colt, said to be of Indian blood.

Luke Towns Sr., born to an enslaved woman, was fathered by a white man named John Towns, who was also the father of George Washington Towns.

Luke Towns Sr. wed a Cherokee woman named Maria.

She was born in 1879 to parents Felix and Hattie Cherry McNair, but at some point her father had left, and Hattie was the sole parent in the family.

The McNair family were all members of the First Congregational Church in Atlanta.

After marrying George Towns in 1902, she engaged in community outreach programs sponsored by her church.

She also helped found the Gate City Free Kindergarten Association for the children of working black parents.

She was the first black woman to serve on the board of Atlanta's YWCA.

Her mother Hattie McNair lived with the family until her death.

Her sister Helen had died in 1905.

Oglethorpe Practice School was established on Atlanta University's campus in 1905.

It offered grades K–7, with the senior class gaining experience in the teaching profession.

After several years of having a private tutor in her parents' home, Grace Towns transferred to Oglethorpe for her last two years at that level.

Her high-school education was the preparatory school at the university, the era's only city high school available to black students.

Grace Towns Hamilton (February 10, 1907 – June 17, 1992) was an American politician who was the first African-American woman elected to the Georgia General Assembly.

Grace Towns was born in Atlanta, Georgia, on February 10, 1907, to community activist parents George Alexander Towns Sr.

and Nellie McNair Towns.

She was the second of five children.

Grace was followed by siblings George Jr. in 1909, Myron in 1910 and Harriet in 1920.

The Towns family lived at University Place at Atlanta University, where the children's playmates were racially mixed.

At Atlanta University he taught English, Pedagogy and debate skills until his 1929 retirement.

His professional colleagues included James Weldon Johnson and W. E. B. Du Bois.

Towns was active in civic affairs, an officer of the NAACP, and an advocate for voter registration drives in the black community.

In Ware Memorial Chapel on the grounds of Atlanta University, 23-year-old Grace Towns married 31-year-old Henry Cooke "Cookie" Hamilton on June 7, 1930.

Both the Towns and Hamilton families had backgrounds with the university, as well as with Atlanta's First Congregational Church.

Cookie's father and grandfather were prominent African-American building contractors in Atlanta.

The couple's only child, Eleanor, was born in 1931.

As executive director of the Atlanta Urban League from 1943 to 1960, Hamilton was involved in issues of housing, health care, schools and voter registration within the black community.

George Alexander Towns Sr. died December 20, 1960.

Harriet Eleanor "Nellie" McNair had been a student of George Alexander Towns Sr., and later entered the teaching profession.

She was 1964 co-founder of the bi-racial Partners for Progress to help government and the private sector effect compliance with the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Nellie McNair Towns died on May 11, 1967.

In 1973, Hamilton became a principal architect for the revision of the Atlanta City Charter.

She was advisor to the United States Civil Rights Commission from 1985 to 1987.

Cookie died on January 2, 1987.

Atlanta University had been integrated since the 19th century.

The family belonged to the First Congregational Church, where the members were active in civic affairs.

Nellie Towns was involved in many outreach endeavors of the church.

Grace joined the church's Atlanta Interracial Student Forum, and also became an active member of the YWCA.

George Alexander Towns Sr. was an educator, poet and playwright who received degrees from both Atlanta University and Harvard University.