DISTRICT V GIRL SCOUTS "HONOR" MURAL

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HELP FUND THE DISTRICT V GIRL SCOUTS "HONOR" MURAL, A LARGER-THAN-LIFE-SIZE WORK OF PUBLIC ART PAYING TRIBUTE TO ATLANTA’S FIRST BLACK GIRL SCOUT TROOP.

District V at their troop home, 145 ½ Auburn Avenue, the Atlanta Daily World Building.

HISTORY IN THE MAKING

"The work of today is the history of tomorrow, and we are its makers.” – Girl Scout Handbook, 1913

From its beginning in 1912, Girl Scouts founder Juliette Gordon Low was intent on the organization being inclusive for “all of America, and all the world.”

DISTRICT V – ATLANTA’S FIRST BLACK GIRL SCOUT TROOP

Low kept her promise, and in 1913 the first integrated troop was formed in Bedford, Massachusetts, followed by the first all-Black troop in 1917. However, progress did not occur so quickly in the South. In fact, before 1943 there were no Black Girl Scout troops in Atlanta, Georgia.

Then, history was made, and its makers were called District V.

Established in 1943 by Bazoline Usher, in a time when segregation and discrimination were law, the brave women and girls of District V showed what was possible. They worked, played, cared for others, and competed with pride – coming in 2nd for citywide cookie sales in their inaugural year. Of significant importance, District V also helped set the stage for civil rights successes to come.

District V was more than just a group spending time together, it was a troop of difference-makers. The ability to change the world – or their corner of it – was not limited by age. As teenagers, one Girl Scout became the first to integrate an Atlanta public school, another went on to pen 'An Appeal for Human Rights,' the manifesto which launched the 1960 student sit-in movement. Many worked behind the scenes making posters and writing and editing speeches.

Their little-known journey began in Sweet Auburn, birthplace of Dr. King and the Civil Rights Movement. A year after their founding, the troop moved into the historic Atlanta Daily World Building at 145 Auburn Avenue, sharing this new home with one of the country’s oldest daily Black newspapers – and the building’s namesake – the Atlanta Daily World. It was a sacred place that would become central to the cause as a megaphone for the movement, and as a steadfast meeting place in pursuit of equality for all.

WITHOUT WOMEN THERE WOULD BE NO HISTORY.

In 1956, Martin Luther King, Jr. recognized the Girl Scouts as “a force for desegregation.” Yet, even with praise, and the passing of the Civil Rights Act, even with great accomplishments made during the Women’s Rights Movement, and despite recent history and focused efforts on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, even so, 80 years after District V was formed, women, especially women of color, are still taking a back seat to their male counterparts socially, in business, and in recognition of achievement.

ISN’T IT TIME EQUAL REPRESENTATION AND RECOGNITION ARE HONORED?

Yes! And now it’s your turn and your chance to help make and share history. By supporting the District V Girl Scouts “Honor” Mural you are making a visible and forthright contribution to a life-changing cause worth fighting for.

Supporting this mural means you’re supporting Black history, women’s rights, civil rights, and human rights, and the important and vital role women have played throughout history and inspiring the next generation of women leaders and activists.

By joining the “Honor” Mural Troop, you get to support all these self-evident and inalienable rights in one place, through one powerful and moving work of art. Please join us and help make a positive difference in the world.

DONATE NOW!

Brownie Girl Scout Troop – October 2, 1950

CAMPAIGN OVERVIEW

SHOW YOUR SUPPORT FOR BLACK HISTORY, WOMEN'S RIGHTS, CIVIL RIGHTS, HUMAN RIGHTS, PUBLIC ART, AND THE GIRL SCOUTS OF GREATER ATLANTA.

ABOUT THE “HONOR” MURAL

This campaign supports the creation of and community outreach for the District V Girl Scouts “Honor” Mural, an original work of public art paying homage to the Atlanta Girl Scout Council’s first Black troop, to be displayed in the historic Sweet Auburn neighborhood, birthplace of Dr. King and the Civil Rights Movement.

The 55’ x 30’ mural will be proudly displayed on the Atlanta Daily World Building, one of the country’s most significant historic places and District V’s home from 1944 - 1972. Once completed (in the summer of 2023), a “Grand Unveiling” will be held at the site, with District V Girl Scouts in attendance, as well as City of Atlanta officials, civil rights leaders, mural team members, members of the community, cultural and creative partners – and donors to the campaign.

The project is being led by the same team that collaborated together on the John Lewis “Hero“ Mural – also in Sweet Auburn – which has transformed from work of art to monument to memorial celebrating one of the Civil Rights Movement’s most noteworthy and iconic heroes. It is also a work that, in John Lewis’s memory, inspires people to visit the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic District and continue to create “good trouble” in the world and fight for human rights wherever and whenever the call comes.

Located in Sweet Auburn, The John Lewis HERO Mural, by The Loss Prevention,

in community and cultural partnership with Gene Kansas | Commercial Real Estate

WHEN ASKED ABOUT THE IMPORTANCE OF ART, CONGRESSMAN JOHN LEWIS HAD THIS TO SAY:

Without the arts, without the painting, sculpt pieces, the drawings, without music, dance, theater, or whatever you want to call it, the Civil Rights Movement would have been like a bird without wings. Somehow, and some way, artists were able to tell us something about the distance we’ve come, about our past, our present, but also about our future. Art moves people in different ways and different forms. It may move you to laugh or just to smile. It may move you to cry and shed some tears. But it could move you to stand up and make you more determined to engage in a struggle to make things better for all humankind.

Congressman John Lewis,

on Sidewalk Radio with Gene Kansas

THE WAY THE WALL LOOKS NOW