Hip-Hop and the "Atlanta Child Murders"

Between 1979 and 1981, thirty black boys, girls and adults were found dead throughout the metro Atlanta area. These cases are sometimes referred to as the "Atlanta Child Murders." In 1982, Wayne Williams was convicted of the murders of two of the adults.

Dee Dee Murray was a pre-teen at the time of the Atlanta Child Murders. Years later, she opened OutKast's debut album Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik as Ms. Peaches.

"You didn't think that would happen in Atlanta," remembers legendary Dungeon Family member, spoken word artist, rapper and hip-hop producer Big Rube.

The Dungeon Family is Atlanta's game-changing hip-hop collective. Its members include Goodie Mob, OutKast, Big Rube, Cool Breeze, Organized Noize, Killer Mike and more. Dee Dee Murray started working with them when they were teenagers. "As we got to know each other, that was the one thing that we could all relate to," she says, "how scared we were during that time."

Goodie Mob is a reflection of the immediate aftermath of the Child Murders on music.

In his monologue at the end of Goodie Mob's "Thought Process" Andre 3000 says "the only thing we feared was Williams, Wayne." That verse has always stood out to Dee Dee Murray. "You took a deep dive into his soul," she explains, "and you understood one of the things that impacted him the most, and that was being scared as a little boy in Atlanta."

Press coverage of the victims portrayed them as "hustlers," as if the children bore some responsibility for their own murders. One article made note of a victim's "forged work permit." All of the victims were from Atlanta's working class communities. OutKast's "Git Up, Git Out" reminds us that in working class communities, children start working at an early age not by choice, but by necessity.

"Aquemini" is the titular track on OutKast's third album. While celebrating their accomplishments and elevation on the song, Big Boi and Andre 3000 also reckon with the Atlanta Child Murders. "Now you may see some children dead off in the pathway," Andre 3000 rhymes as his vibe changes, "It's them poor babies walkin' slowly to the candy lady."

The trauma of the Atlanta Child Murders has had a lasting impact on the city's music. Three years after Aquemini, Fate Wilson referenced them during his guest verse on Ludacris' "Growing Pains," and in 2010, Gucci Mane referenced them on Shawty Lo's "Atlanta, GA." He didn't live in Atlanta at the time of the murders, Gucci Mane explains in his 2017 autobiography, but when he moved to Atlanta, he saw how the city was still reckoning with the murders and unsatisfied with the verdict.

Andre 3000 has continued to reference the Atlanta Child Murders in his music. "It's almost as if he's trying to reckon with the fact of his own survival," says Michelle Hite, Associate Professor, Honors Program Director, International Fellowships and Scholarships Director at Spelman College where she researches trauma in African-American life and culture.

In 2016, Andre 3000 did a guest verse on Travis Scott's "The Ends." Dr. Hite describes his delivery and the structure of his verse as modeling a survivor's response to violence.

Governor Jimmy Carter and Atlanta Mayor Maynard Jackson put policies in place that fostered Atlanta's development as a center for black creative expression. Talent shows abounded, and many of the victims were connected to them, explains Dr. Maurice Hobson, author of "The Legend of the Black Mecca: Politics and Class in the Making of Modern Atlanta."

Bunnie Jackson-Ransom, who was previously married to Atlanta Mayor Maynard Jackson, played an instrumental role in establishing Atlanta's soul and funk music scene. Dr. Maurice Hobson, author of "The Legend of the Black Mecca: Politics and Class in the Making of Modern Atlanta" shares the story.

"It was a great time to be a kid...and then the light switch came on," says Dee Dee Murray. As Atlanta's music scene was building through talent shows, she and her brothers went from school to school watching other kids as they performed their renditions of Earth, Wind & Fire, Parliament and L.T.D, popped and locked, and breakdanced. When children started disappearing, she noticed additional police at the talent shows. She was scared for herself and for her little brothers.

Atlanta's cultural and economic prominence was growing, explains longtime news anchor Monica Kaufman Pearson who closed each evening's newscast with "It's ten o'clock, do you know where your children are?" But children were missing.

Maurice J. Hobson (top) and his family moved to Selma, Alabama after his father turned down a job at the Atlanta University Center. He turned it down because they were killing black children in Atlanta and nothing was being done, Hobson explains. He and his brothers fit the profile of the children being murdered--black boys with afro hairstyles within the age range--and their parents were hell bent on keeping them protected. Hobson later returned to Atlanta. He is a historian, Associate Professor of African American Studies at Georgia State University, and the author of "The Legend of the Black Mecca: Politics and Class in the Making of Modern Atlanta."

In 2019, Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms announced that the cases would be reopened. Bottoms grew up in Atlanta, and she was nine years old when the first child went missing. The Mayor's Office of Cultural Affairs is working with an Atlanta artist to create The Atlanta Missing and Murdered Children’s Memorial Portraits. The exhibit will be displayed at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in the main atrium.

Milton Harvey, 14
Yusef Bell, 9
Angel Lanier, 12
Jeffrey Mathis, 10
Eric Middlebrooks, 14
Christopher Richardson, 11
LaTonya Wilson, 7
Aaron Wyche, 10
Anthony Carter, 9
Earl Lee Terrell, 10
Clifford Jones, 13
Darron Glass, 10
Charles Stephens, 12
Aaron Jackson, 9
Patrick Rogers, 16
Lubie Geter, 14
Terry Pue, 15
Patrick Baltazar, 12
Curtis Walker, 13
Jo Jo Bell, 15
Timothy Hill, 13
Eddie Duncan, 21
Larry Rogers, 21
Michael McIntosh, 23
Jimmy Payne, 21
William Barrett, 17
Nathaniel Cater, 27
John Porter, 28