Boyd Lewis

Boyd Lewis
New Orleans family. War baby. Family moved a lot. Secondary and college education in Memphis, TN. Just before 1967 graduation, commissioning and tour of leafy, lovely Vietnam, banged up in auto accident. Decided to go into journalism. Tennessee mountain weekly, small Mississippi daily and nearly three decades in Atlanta. Black and alternative newspapers, freelance photojournalist, public radio news and documentary producer, news writer for CNN. Married Deborah James, followed her to Los Angeles for job. Quit the dismal trade and became middle school English teacher in LA barrio school. Quite happy.
Number of posts: 12
Email address: boyd.lewis90@yahoo.com

Posts by Boyd Lewis:


    People & Places, Politics, Talk

    The second death of Martin King

    by Boyd Lewis | 7, Add your Comment | Jan 9 10
    The second death of Martin King
    Tales of Old Atlanta - The photo journalism of Boyd Lewis 1969-79. How “the most dangerous man in America” was transformed into a feel-good platitude rolled out every January 15 to assure us racism is a thing of the past. [gallery columns="1" size="large"]   This free webzine is meant for your entertainment and information only. All photographs copyright Boyd Lewis/Atlanta History Center. Except as permitted under the Copyright Act of 1976, these images may not be reproduced in whole or in part with permission in writing from copyright owner. For information, contact Boyd Lewis. Or snail mail me at Boyd Lewis, 2858 Marengo Ave., ...
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    Life, Talk, Views

    Last of the Good Old Boys

    by Boyd Lewis | 5, Add your Comment | Jan 4 10
    Last of the Good Old Boys
    The last time I saw Paul Hemphill was in September 2007 at Manuel’s Tavern. I was in Atlanta for the opening of my first photo exhibit and wanted to get his opinion. I had suggested we get together for a few beers and chew over old times. Paul had been a legendary columnist for The Atlanta Journal, quitting the year I moved to the city to write his first and most successful book, The Nashville Sound. Paul arrived late and, looking more haggard than his usual Raymond Massey self, politely passed on the beers. “Those days are behind me,” he said ...
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    Sights & Sounds

    Christmas wishes from 1974

    by Boyd Lewis | 4, Add your Comment | Dec 23 09
    Christmas wishes from the guys in Summerhill circa 1974. The boys were members of a youth group organized by Emmaus House, an Episcopal Church outpost in Atlanta's worst slum.
    Christmas wishes from the guys in Summerhill circa 1974. The boys were members of a youth group organized by Emmaus House, an Episcopal Church outpost in Atlanta's worst slum. From Tales of Old Atlanta - The photo journalism of Boyd Lewis 1969-79. Copyright Boyd Lewis/Atlanta History Center. Except as permitted under the Copyright Act of 1976, this image may not be reproduced in whole or in part with permission in writing from copyright owner. For information, contact Boyd Lewis. Tales of Old Atlanta is also available at: www.talesofoldatlanta.com.
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    Life, People & Places, Talk

    The Rise of Andy Young

    by Boyd Lewis | 6, Add your Comment | Dec 6 09
    From Movement to Politics - Flanked by two veterans of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), just-elected Congressman Andy Young shares a laugh in 1972. At left is State Rep. Julian Bond and the late State Rep. Ben Brown is on the right. Both represented Atlanta districts in the legislature.
    Tales of Old Atlanta - The photo journalism of Boyd Lewis 1969-79. These are the photographs of a bygone time and place. Paris had the 1890s. New York City the 1940s and 50s. San Francisco of the 60s. Atlanta of the 1970s had something in common with and had something unique compared to these epochs. We had the legacy of hometown hero Martin King. The city, like Atlantis, sank long ago. Those were the rare old times. I took the pictures. Hope you enjoy old times not forgotten. [gallery columns="1" size="large"] This free webzine is meant for your entertainment and information only. All photographs copyright ...
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    People & Places, Talk

    Hippies in Atlanta! However did they get in?

    by Boyd Lewis | 16, Add your Comment | Nov 30 09
    Taken in 1969, this is the me that arrived in Atlanta that summer just after the Great Atlanta Pop Festival. I missed that one but was at Second Pop in 1970. Kathleen and I had been living and working in Meridian, Miss and the shock of arriving in the Regional Capital was like a couple of bumpkin agricolae stumbling into Imperial Rome at its height.What a wonderful city. Cheap rent, hole in the wall barbecue joints, jobs growing like the city’s building boom itself and a perky overall smugness of a city too busy to hate.
    Tales of Old Atlanta - The photo journalism of Boyd Lewis 1969-79. These are the photographs of a bygone time and place. Paris had the 1890s. New York City the 1940s and 50s. San Francisco of the 60s. Atlanta of the 1970s had something in common with and had something unique compared to these epochs. We had the legacy of hometown hero Martin King. The city, like Atlantis, sank long ago. Those were the rare old times. I took the pictures. Hope you enjoy old times not forgotten. [gallery columns="1" size="large"]   This free webzine is meant for your entertainment and information only. All photographs copyright ...
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    Sights & Sounds

    The Beloved Community: Race

    by Boyd Lewis | 0, Add your Comment | Oct 30 09
    My mom with portable radio, Biloxi, Miss. 1923
    Tales of Old Atlanta - The photo journalism of Boyd Lewis 1969-79. Featured: Zell Milller. Tom Offenburger, Dr. Ralph David Abernathy. Andy Young. Rev. Joseph Lowery. Joe Rauh. George McGovern. Sam Massell. E.J. Shepherd. Jimmy Carter. John Lewis. Archie Allen. Julian Bond. Charles Weltner. June Cofer. Bill Alexander. [gallery columns="1" size="large"]   This free webzine is meant for your entertainment and information only. All photographs copyright Boyd Lewis/Atlanta History Center. Except as permitted under the Copyright Act of 1976, these images may not be reproduced in whole or in part with permission in writing from copyright owner. For information, contact Boyd Lewis. Or snail ...
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    Sights & Sounds

    Chapter Five – The City

    by Boyd Lewis | 3, Add your Comment | Oct 23 09
    This chapter may disappoint some gung-ho Atlanta boosters who may ask: Where are the pretty pictures of the skyline at sunset and lovely, leafy neighborhoods? To them, I say get one of those pricey enameled coffee table books assembled by Norman Shavin and revel to your heart’s content in splendid civic mythology. It’s just my particular and somewhat skewed vision that’s on display here. I was the “white boy with the black press” and saw the different visions in my viewfinder as I wandered through the wonderment that was Atlanta on the make in the post-King decade.
    Tales of Old Atlanta - The photojournalism of Boyd Lewis 1969-79. [gallery columns="1" size="large"]   This free webzine is meant for your entertainment and information only. All photographs copyright Boyd Lewis/Atlanta History Center. Except as permitted under the Copyright Act of 1976, these images may not be reproduced in whole or in part with permission in writing from copyright owner. For information, contact Boyd Lewis.
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    Politics

    The Conservative Dead Parrot Sketch

    by Boyd Lewis | 27, Add your Comment | Oct 16 09
    The Conservative Dead Parrot Sketch
    To mark the 40th anniversary of the formation of Monty Python’s Flying Circus and 20th anniversary of Ronald Reagan’s (physical) exit from the White House, our poor players strut and fret and proudly present this topical sketch. Scene: A conservative pet shop. Present day. A customer enters the shop with a motionless bird in a cage. Customer: Hello, I want to register a complaint. Shop-owner: We’re closing for teatime. Like a tea bag? Customer: Never mind that. I would like to complain about this bird You sold it to me saying it would parrot a bold fresh slice of the new ideas of ...
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    Politics, Talk

    The N Word

    by Boyd Lewis | 15, Add your Comment | Oct 11 09
    The N Word
    Atlanta 1984. The over-produced and artistically underwhelming Alliance Theater was being challenged by pocket playhouses springing up in store fronts and warehouses throughout the city. To review all the new plays, there were enough theater critics (and publications willing to print their opinions) to form ACDC, The Atlanta Circle of Drama Critics. Stuart Culpepper (of “dia-munds” commercial voice-over fame) founded the deliberately double entendre’d ACDC to encourage professional critical commentary about Atlanta’s growing theater community. You know, like they did in Noo Yawk. As producer of WABE’s “Friday and the Performing Arts” theater show, I got an invitation to the 1984 ACDC ...
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    People & Places, Talk

    A Séance for Scarlett’s Mom

    by Boyd Lewis | 0, Add your Comment | Oct 2 09
    A Séance for Scarlett’s Mom
    Atlanta’s Peachtree at 10th Street had become the porno palace and whorehouse of the Southeast by 1977. Ten of the city’s 17 sex bathhouses and yellow-front massage parlors were found within two blocks of the intersection. The Male Castle featured “love wrestling.” And Lord knows what went on in the sticky, overheated confines of Wild Mary’s, The Love Machine, Madame’s Love Parlour and the Go Go Dinner Lounge. Above the intersection’s shrieks and giggles, haggling and roaring pickup trucks full of bubbas on the make, we sat in darkness on the third floor of an abandoned Victorian mansion on Halloween night ...
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    Politics, Talk

    Southern to the bone, and scared witless

    by Boyd Lewis | 39, Add your Comment | Sep 15 09
    Southern to the bone, and scared witless
    Not to put too fine a point upon it, but I couldn’t be more deep-boned Southern if I had the Bonnie Blue Flag tattooed upon my yam sack. My brother and I have documented our family’s Rebel roots to three of our four matrilineal and patrilineal lines; direct ancestors having served with the Confederate Army in Louisiana and Arkansas (one lost his arm at the Battle of the Wilderness). Some of my direct ancestors dwelled on plantations and owned slaves. I am named for my father, who in turn was named for two uncles who were members of the Louisiana KKK. ...
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    Talk

    It all began with a tire probe

    by Boyd Lewis | 7, Add your Comment | Sep 6 09
    It all began with a tire probe
    For those who remember me as the wild child of Atlanta journalism (remember the costumed gorillas who tried to arrest Fulton Commission Chairman Shag Cates for monkey business in 1976 ?) it may come as a surprise to learn the my first job in the city was with The Atlanta Constitution. Tom McRae, the courtly managing editor of the morning newspaper hired me in the summer of 1969 after I was chased out of Meridian, Miss. by the KKK for reporting on the police killing of a 14-year-old black kid. Tom must have sensed something crusading in me, a potential throwback ...
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