Gracious God, on this, the 118th anniversary of her birth, we give you thanks for the life and witness of Grace Towns Hamilton, who in 1966 became the first women of African descent elected to the Georgia State Assembly. Raised in Atlanta in the relatively integrated settings of the Atlanta University campus and First Congregational Church, she was startled by her first direct experience of segregation as a Ohio State University undergraduate, which helped her discern a lifelong vocation of advocacy and justice work. May we follow her example of turning the experience of injustice into the energy for change. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
(Photo: AJCP416-180c, Atlanta Journal-Constitution Photographic Archives. Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library)