Atlanta

Center for Human Rights receives $17 million grant from Arthur Blank foundation

ATLANTA — A huge grant from the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation is about to help the downtown Atlanta National Center for Civil and Human Rights make a gigantic expansion to its footprint.

The $17 million donation will include money generated from Blank’s recently published “Good Company” book. Blank has said any money raised by the book will go to the Center “in perpetuity”.

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$15 million of the $17 million grant will help the center add 20,000 square feet to its existing building. The new addition will be a three-story “West-Wing”.

The other $2 million of the grant, according to the Center, will be dedicated to new programming that connects our racial history to the present, bring diverse groups together and make progress through conversation and leadership.

“The most effective way to make progress together as a community is to shine a light on the issues that exist and to then do something about them so that everyone can feel a sense of understanding and support. We believe in the power of the National Center for Civil and Human Rights to educate, include and transform the whole of this community and this country so that together, we can create tangible, positive change,” said Blank.

Jill Savitt, CEO of the Center could barely contain her excitement over the donation.

“Arthur Blank invested in the idea of an Atlanta-based National Center for Civil and Human Rights more than a decade ago, before we had a building, and has been a champion ever since. This generous gift allows us to expand our vision, to be a national organization working to help people tap their own power to change the world and to live with purpose. We hope Arthur Blank’s leadership investment invites others to join us in promoting fairness and dignity for all,” said Savitt.

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The Center says the wing, which does not yet have a name, will have a 2,700 sq.-ft. gallery on the lobby to engage family and children, a 2,500 square-foot gallery for the Without Sanctuary postcard collection of lynching and anti-lynching artifacts, gallery space for temporary and visiting exhibitions and a 900 sq.-ft. café.

The top floor plans they say will feature the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. papers, which will be the final stop on the visitor journey.

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According to the Center, the Blank Family Foundation has donated more than $20 million to help them achieve their goal of connecting the American Civil Rights Movement to the struggle for human rights around the world today.

That money included the initial $1.5 million grant get construction started on the building in 2013.