The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Atlanta Mayor-elect Bottoms will be sworn in Tuesday
Here are five things to know about the city’s new leader.
Atlanta Mayor-elect Keisha Lance Bottoms will be inaugurated Tuesday, along with incoming City Council President Felicia Moore, city councilmembers and municipal court judges.
The ceremony will be held at the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel at Morehouse College, 830 Westview Drive SW, at 1 p.m. Doors open at 11:30 a.m. Mayor Kasim Reed is expected to attend the ceremony.
The inauguration will be streamed live by Channel 2 Action News on AJC.com and WSBTV.com. The city also plans to livestream the event on Twitter via @cityofatlanta.
Before the ceremony, Bottoms will speak publicly at the Inaugural Interfaith Worship Service at Impact Church, 2323 Sylvan Road, at 8 a.m. Afterward, she’ll host a citizens’ reception in the City Hall Atrium, 55 Trinity Ave. SW. The free and public event begins at 5:30 p.m.
Bottoms’ first community service project will run from Wednesday through Jan. 8. The public can donate school supplies and backpacks for Atlanta Public Schools teachers and students in the City Hall atrium.
Five things to know about the Mayor-elect
1. Bottoms, 47, beat out fellow Atlanta City Councilwoman Mary Norwood in a December runoff election for mayor. Bottoms was elected to Atlanta City Council in 2009 and re-elected in 2013, representing District 11, which covers a large portion of southwest Atlanta. Outgoing Mayor Kasim Reed endorsed her to succeed him as the city’s next mayor.
2. Bottoms is the daughter of Sylvia Robinson and the late R&B singer Major Lance known for his song “Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um.” In campaign speeches and her YouTube bio-flick, Bottoms tells the story of how her grandparents came to Atlanta in a horse and buggy. Major Lance was a boxer-turneddancer-turned singer who opened for the Beatles on their first U.S. tour in 1964.
3. She was executive director of the Atlanta Fulton County Recreation Authority, which has maintained public facilities including Philips Arena, Zoo Atlanta and the Olympic cauldron, from 2015 until she stepped down in April. In that role, Bottoms helped broker the $30 million sale of Turner Field and surrounding parking lots to Georgia State University and private development group Carter.
4. Bottoms is married to Derek W. Bottoms, and they have four children. In a debate, Bottoms said some early liens against her stemmed from financial difficulties the couple had because of medical expenses involving unsuccessful attempts to have children. In her YouTube bioflick, she says her children were “born of my heart. There were plans for us to have children biologically but God had another way and I’m so grateful I get to be their mom.”
5. Derek Bottoms is an attorney and executive vice president for Home Depot. Andrew Young, the former U.N. ambassador and mayor, recently said the most influential man in Bottoms’ life is her husband. Young said that Keisha and Derek Bottoms are both lawyers who earned their degrees from Georgia State University law school and called them “basically good, solid Christian people.”