("City Too Busy To Hate") ("City Too Busy To Hate" continues) ♪ Hey ♪ ♪ Hey ♪ (upbeat piano music) (upbeat piano music continues) - For 17 days in the summer of 1996, this was the center of the universe.

More than 3.5 billion people, nearly half the world's population, watched what was happening right here.

They saw 100 candles burning bright on the birthday cake of the world's greatest celebration of humanity.

They were awed to see a fading hero welcomed home.

They witnessed incredible athletic feats.

They saw women rise higher than ever before, on the field of play and off.

And they also saw tragedy, when a bomb exploded right here in Centennial Olympic Park on the ninth day of the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games.

But what they didn't see, the story they didn't hear, is the one I wanna tell you.

It's the story of two men, one Black, one white, who shared a dream and a love of their city so strong, it united them in a quest to bring the world together, right here, in friendship and peace through sport.

Together, Andy Young and Billy Payne formed the most successful Black and white partnership in the American South in the civil rights era, and yet their story has never been fully told, and the message Atlanta intended to send the world was never heard.

(upbeat music) To understand that story, you have to understand the modern history of the city that brought 'em together.

And that saga begins on the front lines of the Civil Rights Movement back in the 1960s.

As President Lyndon Baines Johnson prepared to sign the Civil Rights Act, hopes were high that the United States was finally ready to close its racial divide.

- My fellow citizens, we have come now to a time of testing.

- [Greg] Pushing through an initiative started by President Kennedy, LBJ had fought long and hard to bend America toward the arc of justice and equality.

- Let us close the springs of racial poison.

- [Greg] He was responding to the demands of a movement that would no longer be denied.

- Let us lay aside irrelevant differences and make our nation whole.

- [Greg] He embraced the dream of Martin Luther King Jr. and gave force to laws that prohibited segregation and discrimination in all of its vile forms.

- We must not fail.

- But fail we did, as freedom fighters and American reactionaries clashed in the streets.

For the rest of the 1960s, the nation was rocked by racial strife, bombings, urban riots, police brutality, murders, cities on fire.

Felled by assassins, the heroes of the Civil Rights Movement and those who carried their dreams tragically died at home.

While protests rose against a war that undermined public faith in government, it seemed African Americans had nowhere to turn.

(upbeat music) Until one city emerged as a Black mecca, the City Too Busy to Hate, Atlanta, the cradle of the Civil Rights Movement, home to America's historic Black universities, sent Andrew Young to Congress in 1972 and elected Maynard Jackson mayor in 1973, signaling a new era of political power and a new capital of culture, commerce, and education, shared by Blacks and whites.

Of course, Atlanta had its flaws.

Its racial divides persisted.

The inequalities between rich and poor grew like everywhere else.

But it also had a booming Black middle class, and the entrepreneurial spirit took hold here like nowhere else.

When Ted Turner launched CNN in 1980, Atlanta's influence began to grow farther and farther.

The population exploded, vaulting the city into the top 10.

By the end of the decade, the possibilities began to influence other dreamers and set the stage for a partnership that would soon capture the world's imagination.

(uplifting music) (uplifting music continues) (uplifting music continues) (uplifting music continues) Born in Athens, Georgia, in 1947 to Porter Payne, a University of Georgia football star who would be drafted by the New York Giants and Mary Linda Lowe, Billy Payne would become a three sports star at Dykes High School in Atlanta, where he was raised.

- Dad was recruited by all the big schools in the South, and outside of the South, Texas, Notre Dame.

- [Greg] Billy felt compelled to go where his father had gone and become a bulldog under Coach Vince Dooley, as he helped lead Georgia to two SEC championships.

- So his final three seasons, sophomore, junior, and senior, they won two SEC championships.

Cotton Bowl, I believe, in which Dad caught the winning touchdown.

- [Greg] Like all schools in the South at the time, Georgia was segregated, but Billy had a keen interest in civil rights.

- My maturation into an adult came exactly at the same time that the Civil Rights Movement was progressing, gaining momentum, throughout the United States, and particularly in the South.

In the mid, late '60s, I was beginning as an undergraduate at Georgia, very much paying attention to what was going on around me nationally and statewide, but mostly, you know, I'd read about Dr. King and Andrew Young and John Lewis, and man, I was proud, 'cause they were from my city, Atlanta.

And I was proud of the fact that my hometown, my community, was a centerpiece in the Civil Rights Movement.

- [Greg] Before he left Athens, Billy earned a law degree and fell in love.

- Martha Lamar Beard was the love and is the love of dad's life.

They were immediately and forever in love.

- [Greg] When his father died of a heart attack at 56, Billy was devastated.

- The first time seeing your dad cry is something that is powerful, and that's the memory I have.

- [Greg] When Billy had a heart attack himself at 35, discovering he had already had one in his 20s, he began looking for more meaning in life.

He volunteered to lead the effort to build a new sanctuary for Saint Luke's Dunwoody Presbyterian Church, galvanizing the congregation into action, exceeding all fundraising goals and drawing deep satisfaction from the dedication ceremony.

- And he said, when they raised the money for that sanctuary, he said it was the first thing he'd ever done where there was nothing in it for him.

He says to Martha, "You know, I wish I could do one more thing in life that made me feel as good about myself as helping to build this congregation, this sanctuary."

And he said, "I wonder if we could bring the Olympics to Atlanta."

- [Greg] And then Billy found out 14 American cities had responded to the United States Olympic Committee's invitation to a symposium on bidding for the 1996 Olympic Games.

But Atlanta was not among them.

- Dad's an aspirational person, again, setting big dreams for himself and his community and the people around him, and the one thing that tied all of these dreams and aspirations together was the Olympic Games.

- [Greg] Networking through friends, Billy assembled the core bidding team, known as the Atlanta Nine in Olympic circles, a group of men and women who would put their lives on hold and volunteer to chase an improbable dream for the city they loved.

Once he had his team in place, Billy knew it was time to talk to Atlanta's mayor, Andrew Jackson Young.

(gentle music) Born in New Orleans in 1932 to a dentist and a school teacher, Young revealed his intellectual gifts early.

By the age of nine, he was spending afternoons on his grandmother's porch, reading the cadences of the King James Bible to her like a tiny preacher.

- His grandmother didn't have good eyesight.

My father had to step in and learn how to read, and he would read the newspaper and the Bible to her almost daily.

And so he became really knowledgeable about the world around him and developed an understanding in the Christian religion at a very early age.

- [Greg] By 15, he had finished high school and entered Howard University in Washington, D.C., becoming more aware of the political struggles of his people.

He was an indifferent student, but excelled at sports.

He swam and ran for Howard, and had ambitions of sprinting in the 1952 Helsinki Olympic Games.

But then he felt the call of the Lord and knew that his future was in the ministry.

- My father was recruited to go to Marion, Alabama, as the minister of a small church there.

They have no one else, it's only you.

And so he tells a story that he gets to the church, and this woman, who is my grandmother, invites him over to her house to have dinner and welcome the new minister, and he sees the room of this girl.

And he's being nosy, and he looks and sees she has a Bible, and the Bible's underlined with some of his favorite passages.

And he looks on the wall and he sees, you know, a lifesaving certificate.

And you know, this is, you know, early 1950s, late 1940s, you know, Black women didn't really swim.

He says he knew he was gonna marry her before he even met her.

He saw her mother, so he knew she was gonna be pretty.

- [Greg] His gifts as a congregationalist minister lifted him to the top of the National Council of Churches in New York City, where he appeared on a television special with Dick Van Dyke.

- [Dick] Our host is the Reverend Andrew J.

Young, Associate Director of the Department of Youth Work, National Council of Churches.

(upbeat music) - That, of course, was Dick Van Dyke.

- And so it was a really unique experience for this young Black country preacher to be here with this movie star, doing a Christian show in New York City with three beautiful daughters, beautiful wife, and a brand new home that they had just purchased together.

And they're watching TV, and they see the violence and, you know, the abuse that's happening to peaceful civil rights workers in the South, and my mother says, "We have to go back home."

And he says, "You're crazy, woman.

We never imagined this beautiful life.

Why in the world would we go back into?"

And she said, "Those are our people.

This is our responsibility."

And so my mother called Coretta Scott King and arranged for my dad to meet Martin Luther King, and he went to work for SCLC.

- [Greg] And so Andy moved his young family to Georgia, joining the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to become Martin Luther King's right hand man and chief negotiator, demonstrating again and again an ability to sit with hostile racists and find common ground.

After King's tragic assassination, Young decided to reach for political power, and in 1972, became the first Black man sent to the US House of Representatives by Georgia since reconstruction.

- My father didn't decide to run for Congress, Harry Belafonte told him he had to.

They wanted the group of civil rights leaders after the death of Dr. King felt that the next best opportunity for the movement was to migrate into politics and try to continue to create social justice as a lawmaker.

- [Greg] During his second term, Jimmy Carter won the presidency and appointed Young as the US Ambassador to the United Nations.

At Carter's direction, Young developed relationships with 50 nations of Africa and became immensely influential on the continent and across the Middle East.

But a controversy over a secret meeting with the Palestinian Liberation Organization forced his resignation.

Back in Atlanta, Young ran for mayor and was elected in 1982, beginning an eight year effort to build bridges to the city's corporate power structure and developing international relationships.

As Young sought to turn Atlanta into the next great international city, a young sports-minded attorney approached him with an Olympic dream.

- I don't know whether you realized it or not, but nobody wanted me to talk to you.

All people knew about the Olympics was that Montreal was still $700 million in debt.

And so Shirley Franklin and all the people that ended up working with us, everybody but Doug Gatlin, said, "Leave the Olympics alone."

- So along comes an opportunity for Andy to meet with Billy Payne and Ginger Watkins and Horace Sibley and others.

I was the Chief Administrative Officer of the city, which is the top administrator of city government, the day-to-day operations.

It came across my desk as this group, whom I knew none of them, wanted to come in and to see Andy Young, and Andy was interested.

I thought it was folly.

My other colleague, he thought it was folly.

- The first 20 minutes of the meeting, you're looking at me like, "Where's this guy?

Where's this guy come from?

This idiot.

Who let him in my office?"

And then all of a sudden, you started talking about how the kids of our community would view the Olympic opportunity and what it may do for them.

And so I was smart enough to let you set the hook on yourself.

- Well, I was convinced.

I tell you, I've been an Olympic junkie since I was four years old, because I grew up in New Orleans, and the Nazi Party was on the corner.

And the way my daddy explained Nazism and white supremacy to me was to take me to the segregated movie, the Orpheum Theater on Canal Street, to see Jesse Owens in the 1936 Olympics.

And the thing he wanted me to see, he said, "See, when Jesse won the 100 meters, they didn't think a Black man was supposed to win."

He said, "But now Jesse Owens ignored that altogether.

He paid no attention to Hitler, he just went on and won three more gold medals."

(both laughing) - Andy Young and Billy Payne formed a partnership in their first meeting.

They hit it off.

I wasn't there, but there was no doubt that when Andy left that meeting, he was all in.

He walked down the the hall to my office, which wasn't too far away, and he said, "I'm gonna work on getting the Olympics for Atlanta."

(gentle music) I was like, "You gotta be kidding me."

There's no way we'll win over Athens.

I mean, the cards have gotta be stacked for Athens.

And he was resolute and determined and convinced, but he said, "Even if we don't win, Shirley, it will be good for the city for us to work on this together.

It'll bring people together from all walks of life.

It will be good for the city.

There is far more good out of this than bad.

But I think we can win, and that's what I'm gonna do."

- With Andy Young on board, Billy had the team he needed to kick off the campaign.

But he also had a city behind him with a storied civil rights history, whose values aligned almost perfectly with the values of the Olympic movement.

When Pierre de Coubertin founded the Olympic Games in 1894 in the Sorbonne in Paris, he created a global movement designed to foster friendship and create peace between nations.

The man was a visionary, and the movement he birthed offered an open door to everyone, and held a special place in the hearts and minds of Black people everywhere, particularly African Americans.

- I don't think I can express how important the Olympic games have been to African Americans.

But it wasn't until the Olympic Games that African Americans were really able to stand up in front and get recognized for the great athletes that they certainly were.

Jesse Owens represents everything that is great about the sport of track and field.

And because of what he was able to do in the 1936 Olympics, it empowered so many young African Americans to follow in his footsteps.

- [Greg] After World War II, African Americans continued their ascension on the Olympic podium, with dominant performances that set the stage for a powerful global protest that would resonate around the world and motivate more young Black men and women to rise to the Olympic challenge, as they have to this day.

The universal values shared by the Olympic and Civil Rights Movements gave Payne and Young and edge in their quest.

But first, they had to win the bid, and not everybody believed they could.

- 'Cause a lot of people didn't think we would win the Olympics, because they didn't think Billy Payne and Andy were going to get along.

You know, those are the rumors, how they might have bickered and everything.

- Here you had these two guys from the South, two Southerners, that, on paper, they're diametrically different.

Here's this white football-playing attorney, and here is this Black civil rights guy.

Here's this Republican, here's this Democrat.

So just to look at the two separately, they'll never work together.

(graphics whooshing) - [Greg] By the end of 1987, Payne had represented Atlanta at the USOC bidding seminar in Colorado Springs, where he met Bid Chief Jimmy Carnes and the leaders of the other 13 cities in the US race.

In February, 1988, Carnes led the USOC's site selection committee on a tour of Atlanta and was favorably impressed by Payne's organizational skills and the plan for the Games.

Dinners were hosted in private homes, creating a brand of Southern hospitality that became a hallmark of the campaign.

By April, the USOC had pared the field of bidding cities from 14 down to two, Atlanta and Minneapolis, whose bid was actually favored heading into the final presentation in Washington, D.C. - The city that will be advanced by the USOC will be Atlanta, Georgia.

(group cheering) (upbeat music) - When Billy went to meet with Andy, and Andy bought into this man's dream, there was really no stopping us at that point.

- To have these two people who represented such different and complex things about the South out there selling it, I thought it was an amazing one, two punch.

- The two of them came together to do something significant.

They brought diversity, they brought leadership, they brought courage.

- Billy was a whirlwind of ideas, and Andy was a calming diplomat.

Nobody would leave the room if Andy or Billy were speaking.

- [Greg] Now it was time to turn the symbolic power of Young and Payne toward the international competition.

Athens, Greece, which had hosted the inaugural modern Olympics in 1896, was the prohibitive favorite for the centennial celebration.

Toronto had a brilliant technical bid on the Lake Ontario waterfront.

Melbourne had set its plan in its legendary cricket grounds.

Manchester, England, and Belgrade, Yugoslavia, rounded out the field.

The odds were long.

Atlanta was basically unknown outside the US, but the team saw that as an advantage.

- We can compete with the sentimental favorite because they're essentially celebrating the past, and we're basically looking to the future.

And the things that Athens stood for 100 years ago are being realized in Atlanta.

- [Greg] Now that Atlanta was America's Olympic candidate city, corporate partners like Georgia Power, BellSouth, and Delta Airlines, helped the bid reach its goal of 7 million.

The Seoul Olympic Games that September would be Atlanta's first chance to present its credentials to the powerful executive board of the International Olympic Committee, and to test how well its Southern hospitality would travel overseas.

Starting out like true amateurs, Atlanta somehow missed its appointment with the executive board.

Frantically gathering the team, Billy, Andy, and Charlie Battle raced to the conference room at the hotel and took their seats before an obviously impatient group of IOC members, whose lunch was being delayed.

- They'd been in a meeting all morning, and they were sitting there with a sort of a disinterested look on their face, when Andy, I remember saying, "Atlanta, Georgia, is the only American city ever to be destroyed by war."

And all of a sudden, these Europeans and some of these other people began looking, and I thought that is an amazing statement to come up with.

That was so uniquely Andy and so indicative of how he could unrehearsed and unscripted come up with something that really had an impact.

- [Greg] The power and reach of Young's reputation began to draw IOC members to Atlanta's delegation.

At first, Atlanta's dinner invitations to a beautiful Seoul home the team had rented drew little interest.

- It was a little bit of a disaster.

We began to rethink.

The next invitations that were solicited said, "Come meet Ambassador Young at the Atlanta House."

And guess what?

We were sold out every night.

We prepared for between 20 and 22 people.

Andy won everyone over.

- [Greg] Billy kept an eye on Team USA and became fascinated with the seemingly unstoppable Janet Evans, and recruited the 17-year-old triple gold medalist to the bid.

- Billy was very open to women in the organizing committee.

He never hesitated involving me.

He never hesitated in my ability to speak with these members and sell the idea of the Olympics coming to Atlanta.

And so I think for me, as a, you know, 50-year-old businesswoman now, that gave me a lot of confidence.

I never had barriers for myself in this sports world because of my gender, because of my age.

- [Greg] Back in Atlanta, the campaign heated up.

Billy, Andy, and the Atlanta Nine divided the world into strategic regions, where everyone would travel to meet IOC members, with the key objective of making friends.

As IOC members began to visit Atlanta, many were struck by a profound experience of the city's civil rights legacy.

- So, every head of state who comes and visits Atlanta generally comes to pay their respects by visiting the crypt, the grave of Dad.

Certainly every member of the International Olympic Committee visited to see, "Okay, what kinda city is this?"

I think that that had a phenomenal impact on many of those members ultimately voting for the Olympics movement to come to Atlanta.

- We would have most members visit the Martin Luther King Center, and Coretta Scott King would host.

It spoke to the heart, I think, of what Atlanta meant to the world at the time.

It gave people a sense of, "I was in this man's presence," and was able to experience firsthand what he did for our world.

(graphics whooshing) - [Greg] As if the gods of Olympia favored Atlanta, the IOC had scheduled its 95th session in San Juan, Puerto Rico, which was only a few hours away by air.

Atlanta seized the golden opportunity and hosted 27 members in two phases on their way to and from the session.

The visits showcased a dramatic demonstration of public support for the bid, as 5,000 lined up to run for the bid.

- We had a luncheon in the atrium of City Hall.

And then the crowning event, in my opinion, were the 21 private homes that we were able to secure, and the dinner parties that we held for each of these IOC members and their wives or their husbands, and it really turned out to be a great weekend.

- [Greg] That November, Maynard Jackson was elected as Atlanta's mayor, and immediately joined the campaign.

- We know that we're gonna have, we do have the busiest airport in the world.

(crowd cheers) We know we're gonna have the best telecommunications in the world.

(crowd cheers) We know that CNN is based here.

It goes to 73 countries around the world.

(crowd cheers) We know that when it's noon here, it's only six o'clock in Europe and eight o'clock in Moscow.

We're in the right time zone.

(crowd cheers) We know that we have all the needs, but I'll tell you the most important thing is we have the right attitude.

- Yes, he jumped into that campaign for the Olympics and didn't look back.

He was the only mayor of all of the six bidding cities who went to every IOC meeting that was held for the Olympic cities.

- [Greg] In May, the IOC Study and Evaluation Commission visited Atlanta, toured all the venues, examined the accommodations, and wrote a fact-based report.

And suddenly, IOC members were saying good things about Atlanta.

- I have never seen anything like this.

- We a winner!

- Atlanta is a very, very strong candidate.

- It's a very solid one.

- I think that has good chance to win, but it's difficult to know.

- [Greg] A month later, at an IOC meeting in Barcelona, that report leaked, and news spread quickly through the worldwide Olympic press that Atlanta had received the highest technical marks and ranked first among all bid cities.

- It's the first ever confirmation that in three and a half years, we've gone from an idea to an objective evaluation as being the best.

And we're proud of that.

I mean, I don't...

It may not get us one vote, but I know I'm very proud of it.

- Now, some of the more important people in the Olympic movement know us, recognize us, come over to us, and greet us like, you know, we were part of the family.

- We never know till they vote in September, but we really do feel like there's a good chance.

It's not a pipe dream, it can be very easily a reality.

(upbeat music) - [Greg] Billy's strategy of making friends of IOC members was embodied in the friendship he developed with Vitali Smirnov, the powerful leader of the Soviet Olympic bloc.

- I can remember Billy and Smirnov, the Russian.

He didn't wanna stay in a hotel.

He stayed with Billy.

And he and Billy were friends.

They, like, became brothers.

Smirnov represented 16 votes in the Soviet bloc.

- [Greg] The team spread out and traveled the world yet again to draw in last minute votes.

Young returned to Africa and Asia.

Payne visited IOC members in South America.

- We figured if we could get them here and show them how much we wanted the games, to show them Atlanta, to show them our airport, to show them our convention hotels, to show them our transportation system, and also show them our enthusiasm and hospitality, that we would have a leg up.

So, we did an excellent job in being able to bring that many, 68, I think, out of 88 IOC members, to Atlanta.

It made a huge difference.

- [Greg] The excitement and the pressure were building, as Delta carried 350 Atlantans to Tokyo for the 97th IOC session.

Among Atlanta's delegation were 60 members of the Dream Team, young people from across the city who symbolized the depth of the city's desire, as they serenaded IOC members outside the Grand Prince Takanawa Hotel.

- I was a nine-year-old, maybe fifth grader, when I first heard about the Dream Team.

Well, when we were in Tokyo, I just remember having so much fun.

Now, of course, we were there to do a job, to bring home the Olympic Games to our city, but at the same time, I think we were there to show off our city to the world, to show the world that Atlanta is a place where young people from all different backgrounds came together to accomplish this awesome goal and opportunity for our city.

- [Greg] In contrast, Toronto's bid was undermined by the protest group, Bread, Not Circuses, who set up a tent in the hotel lobby and loudly proclaimed their opposition.

Rumors were swirling that Athens was a lock, but Billy, Andy, and the team went about their work tirelessly, speaking to every member, many of whom were now counted as genuine friends.

On the day before the final presentation, the emotional grind of the campaign extracted a toll on both men.

After appearing on "The Today Show", Andy headed back to the hotel.

- And on the way back, I kind of had a breakdown.

I was in the backseat of the limousine that picked me up, alone, and I started thinking of, "What do we do if we lose," you know?

I started crying by myself.

- 24 hours before our final presentation, after which they would immediately vote, I was talking to Martha, and all of a sudden, I just started crying, just sobbing.

And you know, she, as a great wife, said, "What's wrong?"

And I said, "All these people had followed me for all these years in pursuit of this crazy, some said idiotic dream, and here we are at the end, and they're either gonna be very happy or I'm gonna disappoint them."

And it was a burden that I couldn't handle.

So, they had to get me outta sight.

(chuckles) And so they put me in an unoccupied room at the hotel just to get over it.

- So when I got there, I knew what Billy was thinking (chuckles), and it was just... Like.

the same thing was happening to me.

- And Andy comes in the room with me and starts telling me how I shouldn't feel guilty that I couldn't take this incredible burden.

And I'm lying in the bed now, and he's sitting in a chair at the edge of the bed, and he's reached out and got his hand on me, just kind of patting me slowly, "Just calm down, Billy, just calm down."

And so, literally, Andy walked me off the cliff, and we showed up the next morning and I think I did all right.

I mean, we won.

(laughs) - In the final presentation in Tokyo, it was quite amazing.

We had Billy and Andy and Maynard.

We had the athlete, you know, the pastor, and the, you know, statesman.

But when it came to Maynard's turn to speak, he ended his presentation, if you will, in fluent French, Maynard said, "Peace, justice, tolerance, human rights, new moral values, understanding between people of different races and cultures.

Atlanta is the embodiment of the Olympic ideal."

Here is a Black man, the great grandson of slaves, standing before the world, speaking fluent French, with passion and understanding.

What a better ideal to represent a city.

He, Andy and Billy was a surefire trio.

They hit it on every level.

(gentle music) - [Greg] Having absorbed the promises and the vision of six cities, 86 members of the IOC retired to vote.

(gentle music) - The International Olympic Committee has awarded the 1996 Olympic Games to the city of Atlanta.

(crowd cheering) - The people involved with the Atlanta bid, indeed, all of the citizens of Atlanta, voiced their support in tremendous ways, thunderous ways, and that spirit was felt by the members of the International Olympic Committee.

- [Interviewer] Andy, is this one of your greatest victories?

- It's not my victory, this is a victory for Atlanta.

Well, you know, I've always been a part of being on good teams, and this was a great team.

- It's no question, Atlanta now goes into another orbit.

That orbit is global, it's international, it's irreversible.

We're on a different map now.

- [Greg] After almost four years of campaigning together, Payne and Young brought the greatest civic prize in sport home to the city they loved.

They were greeted with an Arc de Triomphe of water at the airport, and feted in a ticker tape parade downtown.

But then the work of preparing for the game six years later got started in earnest, and this is where another part of the story you never heard emerges.

(upbeat music) (crowd cheering) 18.

- One of the commitments that they had made to each other, Andy, Maynard, and Billy, was that there would be an aggressive program for minority and female business and affirmative action.

And that this would be an inclusive staff, and that the business of the Olympics would be inclusive.

- And while, as I've heard Andy Young say so many times, while Atlanta is not perfect, we're better than everybody else.

And I felt that all the way back to the time that I was a young adult.

And that's the attitude I brought to the Olympics.

I mean, never, ever did I even entertain the thought that we would look as an Olympic organization any different than we looked as a community.

I mean, that was outta the question.

This is Atlanta, you know?

We're the world's best demonstration of different races working together, not perfectly, as Andy would say, but in harmony, and I wanted the world to see that.

- [Greg] To showcase their commitment to diversity, Billy and Andy built a board of directors that reflected the character of the city, and held its first meeting on July 23rd, 1991.

- It was one of the first acts of the board, to adopt the plan, to ensure that minorities and female small businesses would have a chance to do business as part of the Olympics.

And also, that there would be aggressive affirmative action goals for ACOG staff.

- Before Maynard Jackson became mayor, 1% of all of the contracts in the city of Atlanta went to minority or female businesses, or minority businesses.

And when he got in, he increased that percentage to 25%, and then that was increased to 35% under Mayor Andrew Young.

- When it was announced, I knew I wanted to be a part of the Games.

I knew that if something that extraordinary was coming to Atlanta, why not us?

Why not me?

- We made sure that minority and female owned companies participated in each and every contract, so that it was the beginning of an economic unity to go along with a social and political unity.

And by the time we got to the Olympics, I think 40% of every contract was done by a minority or female owned company.

- Well, when the Olympics first was announced, I had no idea what role I would play, but I just knew I was gonna get in there somehow and do something.

- Billy Payne and Andy Young had a clear understanding that their values, that their spirit, that they were determined to have an inclusive program.

You know why?

I know this for a fact because all the work that we did, I felt like they came looking for me.

- Atlanta was forging a new course and moving forward, and it was exactly what we wanted, that Atlanta was the home of Dr. Martin Luther King.

It'd been the center of civil rights.

That part of civil rights was the economic opportunity and business opportunity, and we wanted to stamp the Olympic Games with that.

- [Greg] While it would make few headlines, the EEOP essentially transformed the Olympic Games into an engine of social justice that would deliver transformative business opportunities to almost 4,000 entrepreneurs across the city.

With six years to go, Andy and Billy set out to build 10 new venues and renovate 16 more at a cost of 520 million, all out of Olympic marketing revenues, without costing the taxpayers a dime.

Plus, an Olympic village to be built by the university system of Georgia on the campus of Georgia Tech.

The jewel in the crown would be Centennial Olympic Stadium, which was designed to become the home of Major League baseball's Atlanta Braves after the games.

But all these dreams depended on the marketing and fundraising skills of an untested team.

The Games' budget came in at 1.7 billion.

- And we did all the arithmetic and figured how many companies could play at any high level, and it was only 10 or so, so we divided that into the amount of money we needed, and it came out with $40 million, for each.

- And you said, "Well, that'll cost you $40 million."

I said, "Damn, Billy, lighten up.

How you gonna ask somebody for $40 million?"

- I think the USOC's biggest transaction that they had ever done was $2 million, and here we are asking $40 million for marketing rights.

Billy went alone to Charlotte to meet with Hugh McColl.

They laid out the vision and asked for $40 million.

- [Greg] NationsBank said yes.

Hugh McColl made the decision that put Billy on the track to the 10 deals he needed.

- Today our company becomes a corporate partner of the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games.

- [Greg] And by the time the final deal was closed, he had 400 million for the celebration of the century.

- Obviously they were incredibly successful commercially, and that commercial team led by Billy obviously was aggressive and groundbreaking, because they had to be to pay for it.

- [Greg] But even with the success of the sponsorship sales, cashflow was always a problem for the organizers.

- I mean, the number one challenge was money, and because of the money, there were a lot of things that inevitably suffered.

(graphics whooshing) (upbeat music) - [Greg] Despite the struggles, the Games were destined to have a major impact on Atlanta's creative community, inspiring rising stars and boosting the emerging sound of Atlanta's music scene.

- LaFace Records was here, and we had did TLC and we did Criss Cross, Another Bad Creation and Arrested Development.

So we had already started to have a name for the music in Atlanta.

At the same time, having the Olympics come at that same time was, like, almost double whammy, too, because you did have these successful artists that started to live and record out of Atlanta and still live in Atlanta.

(upbeat music) It went through the city, in every crack and crevice kinda you could get it into, like, 'cause everybody was so excited about it, and it was such a, you know, phenomenal event.

- [Greg] In April of 1992, Billy announced the formation of the Olympic Force, a volunteer program that would give 50,000 people a chance to play a role in staging the Olympic Games.

More than 200,000 applications poured in.

Before the Games began, the Olympic Force would deliver millions of hours of volunteer service at the local level.

At the opening ceremonies of the 1992 Barcelona Games, Atlanta's team got another jolt of Olympic inspiration.

With the Dream Team thundering toward its goal and serving as a booster rocket for basketball's international ambitions, the athletic highlights from Spain gave Atlanta a blockbuster to follow.

The city of Barcelona had spent 8 billion redeveloping its urban landscape, and the beauty of the way the Games fit into the city would ignite Billy Payne's next Olympic dream.

At the closing ceremony, Atlanta's mascot, What Is It, was introduced to a disappointing reaction.

But when Mayor Maynard Jackson took the Olympic flag and swung it with conviction, there was no doubt Atlanta was ready to welcome the work.

The Olympic flag arrived in Savannah to kick off an 11 city tour of Georgia.

As 1993 arrived, plans were unveiled for the final design of the Olympic Stadium, and in a bow to neighborhood demands, a commitment to demolish Atlanta-Fulton County after the Games.

Under Shirley Franklin's leadership, ACOG had developed 28 neighborhood advisory groups to make sure community concerns were heard.

But not everybody was happy.

- I'd been hearing rumblings in the community, and the community itself was displeased, particularly those who lived in the community of Summerhill, Peoplestown, and Mechanicsville, three different communities that surrounded the stadium.

As an elected official, I had to make a decision, and I was the swing vote to decide whether we move forward at that time or whether we decided that we needed to do a little bit more work.

(upbeat music) - [Greg] A week before construction was scheduled to begin on Olympic Stadium, Martin Luther King III, who was a member of the Fulton County Board of Commissioners, refused to sign off on the plans, and led a protest for more benefits to the neighborhood, more executive positions at ACOG, and more Olympic job training for locals.

A settlement was reached in one week, and minority contractors benefited immensely from ACOG's Equal Economic Opportunity program.

- I often tell people the Olympic Stadium changed my life.

One, it gave me more confidence.

The money I made from that project spearheaded me to go to a whole nother level.

That the Olympic Stadium and the minority program that the city had that gave me the opportunity to even be on the Olympic Stadium, it changed my life.

If the Olympics had not come here and we had not built that Olympic Stadium and done it well and been profitable, I don't know if I'd still be in business today, or I definitely wouldn't be the size I am today.

It gave me confidence and it gave me experience, it gave my people experience.

- And because during the Games we worked with Marta, we looked at transportation.

Today, my firm has an enormous portfolio.

We've worked at 29 transit authorities around the country and 25 airports.

- Back on track, Atlanta closed its broadcast deal with NBC in the midst of a recession, drawing 456 million for US rights, which was 100 million less than the projections and created a financial strain.

A deal for 250 million with the European Broadcasting Union more than tripled the last rights deal and helped offset the downside.

That September, the four year cultural Olympiad officially kicked off with "Mexico: A Cultural Tapestry", and the IOC approved the addition of beach volleyball, mountain biking, and women's football, which, in combination with softball and basketball, pushed women's participation in the Olympics over the 33% mark for the first time.

Memories of Barcelona inspired Billy with dreams of creating a new public celebration site in Atlanta that would serve as the center of the Games.

Beneath the balcony of his office, there was a rundown stretch of old industrial buildings that became the focus of his imagination.

- One of the things that was totally revolutionary about Atlanta was Centennial Olympic Park.

And that was Billy's idea.

If you remember, that was an old warehouse district.

It looked bad.

- And it was a very rough neighborhood.

There were many vacant buildings, there were a lot of surface parking lots, there were a lot of streetlights that didn't work.

- [Greg] Billy's bold, soaring vision for Centennial Olympic Park could not be built with taxpayer dollars, and the budget for the Games was already stretched too thin.

But Atlanta's foundations stepped forward, and Governor Zell Miller threw his weight behind the project.

- What Centennial Olympic Park did was to transform 21 acres of that blight into one of the largest urban green space projects that the country had seen in the last 50 years.

- I guess everybody's impression of Billy really was revolutionized when he thought up the idea of the park.

That was such a masterstroke.

And it's hard to imagine the 1996 Olympics without Centennial Olympic Park.

That really deepened my regard for him a great deal.

- [Greg] At the Olympic Winter Games in Lillehammer, Norway, in February, 1994, the Atlanta team experienced another dimension of the magic of the Games in a crystalline winter wonderland and the unpredictability of events, as the Tonya Harding, Nancy Kerrigan skating controversy dominated the news.

But it was a humble Norwegian speed skater, Johann Olav Koss, who would capture the imagination of the world.

Koss won the triple crown, the 1,500, 5,000, and 10,000 meter races, each in world record time, and then donated his 30,000 in gold medal bonuses to the cause of war-torn Sarajevo, which had hosted the games 10 years before.

As the media proclaimed Koss as boss, the fledgling humanitarian organization of Olympic Aid took root and planted seeds that would spring up in new ways in Atlanta the following year.

With Celebrate Africa, the second year of the cultural Olympiad underway, public support for the Games reached new heights as the community rallied in support of Centennial Olympic Park through the purchase of commemorative bricks.

With Home Depot driving the program, brick sales contributed an astonishing 45 million to the construction of the park.

While the Games were delivering benefits to the whole community, Andy Young was thinking about children in conflict zones around the world.

(upbeat music) - I think the original reason for the Olympics was to stop wars and transfer the competition to the athletic field from the battlefield.

Sport is powerful, and it is one of the many pathways to peace, and it's one that almost everybody in the world rallies around.

- [Greg] Andy teamed up with UNICEF and Johann Olav Koss, the Lillehammer speed skating champion, to launch Atlanta Olympic Aid 1996, an effort designed to produce peace treaties in conflict zones and immunize children around the world in the run up to the 1996 Olympic Games.

On his first visit to Atlanta in 1995, Koss recalls Ambassador Young's commitment to their vision.

- And I was so starstruck.

I was unbelievable impressed.

And I remember walking into his great office, and the desk, everything was clean, but just looking at all the pictures he had on the wall, telling his entire life story.

I remember one sentence he said to me.

"Well, this is what the Olympics should all be about."

And then he said, "Johann, we're gonna make this happen.

Never doubt that.

We are gonna make this happen.

There is a lot of people who don't want it to happen.

We'll make it happen."

- [Greg] They did make it happen, with the support of some of the world's greatest athletes, who helped raise funds through T-shirt sales.

But it was a million dollar gift from the country music star Garth Brooks and a $5 million contribution from the European Council for Humanitarian Outreach that turned Olympic Aid Atlanta into the greatest single humanitarian outreach in the history of the Olympic movement, but made few headlines.

- We actually shut down wars around the world.

UNICEF went in on both sides of these conflicts and immunized children.

We had 30 days of near peace.

That wasn't publicized, but that was one of the things, that was one of the proudest parts of our legacy.

- I think the combination of the efforts from the Atlanta Olympic Organizing Committee and UNICEF created this incredible impact for vaccination of children at the time of need, where I think we managed to stop about 15 wars through the Truth and Tranquility programs, where I think more than 15 million children got vaccinated.

- We have to recognize that there have been individuals and organizations behind the Olympic movement for a long time that are driven by making the world a better place, and I think there's no better example of that than the Olympic Aid program, where you think about, how do you create peaceful scenarios, how do you bring people together who otherwise might have conflict in their countries, in their day-to-day lives, and bring them together through sport as a symbol of peace, and then use that energy and that momentum to do good?

And the Olympic Aid program did exactly that.

- In the meantime, back in Atlanta, an unprecedented gathering of 13 Nobel laureates of literature gave the cultural Olympiad a measure of intellectual esteem.

with a year to go, two dozen test events with 4,000 athletes proved Atlanta was ready.

The Quilt of Leaves, Atlanta's Olympic signature design, began appearing on everything, and ticket sales began to soar.

On March 30th, 1996, the Olympic flame was kindled by the rays of the sun in ancient Olympia, and began its journey to Athens, Greece.

A month later, the Centennial Spirit, a chartered Delta Airlines flight, carried a delegation of Atlantans out to Los Angeles, where Rafer Johnson, who had famously lit the cauldron in LA in 1984, became the first torch bearer en route to Atlanta.

Over the next 84 days, the flame would weave its way across the United States, inspiring millions with the symbolism of community inherent in fire, the stories of the heroic people who earned the right to bear the flame, and the inclusive unity at the heart of the Games.

On July 19th, a glorious southern twilight settled over Atlanta as the countdown to the Centennial Olympic Games began.

For the first time in modern Olympic history, every National Olympic Committee invited sent a team, 197 nations in all.

Memories of the devastating boycotts of 1976 through 1984 were still in the air, but everybody turned out for the celebration of the century.

♪ Glory, glory, hallelujah ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ Glory, glory ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ Glory, glory ♪ ♪ Glory, hallelujah ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ Glory, glory, hallelujah ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ Glory, hallelujah ♪ ♪ Oh, hallelujah ♪ ♪ Glory, glory ♪ - [Greg] Then came one of the most iconic moments in the history of modern sports.

(crowd cheering) (uplifting music) (uplifting music continues) (uplifting music) (uplifting music continues) (uplifting music) - I start running.

I remember seeing the basketball players with the gymnasts on their shoulders, and I kind of looked past all those Americans, and I saw these athletes from all over the world, and I get up those steps, and I turn around, and there's Ali.

He said to the world, "I'm here, I'm present, I'm a part of something," and kind of the way he held that torch to, like, give to the world, it was beautiful.

- [Greg] And then, as if Athena had taken the torch from Zeus, the Atlanta Games became an unprecedented showcase for women.

As champions emerged from the natatorium in the first week, American women began to put an unmistakable stamp on the Games.

Amy Van Dyken, Amanda Beard, and Angel Martino won multiple medals, and Ireland was honored when Michelle Smith captured the island nation's first swimming gold medals, seemingly emerging out of nowhere to win three golds against her disbelieving, but defeated opposition.

The American Gary Hall Jr., who had predicted double gold in the men's marquee 50 and 100 meter races, was beaten in both by the length of a finger by the unstoppable Russian, Sergei Popov.

On the weightlifting stage, Naim Suleymanoglu, the famous Pocket Hercules of Turkey, the first man to lift three times his body weight in competition, had to reach for the greatest performance to end his Olympic career with his third consecutive Olympic gold medal.

And the legendary Greco-Roman wrestling giant, Aleksandr Karelin, undefeated in 13 years, climbed to the top of the podium for his third consecutive Olympic gold.

Illustrious Olympic careers wound down in Atlanta as Carl Lewis, perhaps the greatest track and field athlete of all time, jumped to his ninth Olympic gold medal, while Jackie Joyner-Kersee, injured and unable to defend her world heptathlon championship, nevertheless leaped to redemption and captured bronze in the final Olympic event of her career.

At the start of the Games, the media transport systems suffered delays, which produced negative headlines, and accusations of overcommercialization followed the city's ill-fated sidewalk marketing program.

But for the athletes and fans, the Games produced thrilling feats of excellence.

Peace reigned as the glories of sport rolled into the night.

But at 1:20 AM, on the ninth day of the Games, tragedy struck.

- I put my head on the pillow and heard this (imitates explosion booming).

- [Reporter] The Centennial Olympic Park.

- [Newsreader] It's just horrific to think what happened.

- That was obviously not good.

So I jumped up and ran out on the balcony, and I could hear the sirens and hear the people yelling and screaming, raising cane, and see the lights and the red lights and the blue lights, and the ambulances coming up, and I knew we were in trouble.

And I went back inside, I called Billy.

- His exact words were, "Billy, there's been a bombing.

Get over here."

- And I say, "Six years of brutal, relentless effort up in 10 seconds, and forevermore, the Atlanta games will be remembered as the one with the bomb."

- I was horrified at first, 'cause I'd just gotten home.

So I rushed out and went to the hospitals.

I was worried about what would be the public reaction the next morning.

- And it was a surreal experience.

Everyone was whispering.

It was almost a hollow feeling, because there were no answers, there was no one to blame.

It was a very hollow, quiet feeling.

And the other thing is you didn't know what was gonna happen the next day.

- We got there, and went out on the porch and could look down at the park, and the feeling that the joy and the wonders of the Olympic Games had been shattered.

It was a feeling of helplessness.

I mean, what can you do?

- It was pretty devastating.

And, you know, you're heartsick, you're worried about safety and injuries and all of that at the same time, and it's a difficult...

Difficult to deal with.

- [Interviewer] And nobody's bothering you, right?

- I thought it was an earthquake.

It was pretty scary.

And it was one of those things as an athlete that you hear about, you know, you're prepped on, here's what you do if there's an emergency.

- And we were on the phone that night with the governor's office, and then with the White House, and tried to assess the situation.

And we had started to contact all of the venue managers, whether or not their particular venue had been breached in any way, whether the security envelope had been broken.

Started to try and put the pieces together to answer the question, could we open in the morning?

- We didn't know what to expect the next morning.

And I don't think I got much sleep, because I was out looking around about five o'clock in the morning.

And damn if people weren't showing up to work.

- You know, even after the bomb in the park, we rose from the ashes just like we do as a city, the phoenix, and people, they showed up, they didn't stay away.

- I started to assess with each one of the venues, what's the situation in your particular venue?

Is your staff there?

Can we open the gates?

Do we know whether or not we can operate?

And one after another, they said, "Yes, we've got the basic staff here."

Then I started to hear, "Well, we've got more than the basic staff here."

I said, "What do you mean?"

They said, "Well, volunteers who weren't signed up for today didn't know if other volunteers would come, so they've come."

We got a show rate of about 140% of the volunteers.

The venues were ready, the staff was ready, the volunteers were ready, but the city was ready, because those volunteers were people from Atlanta and the community around Atlanta, and they wanted to show that they supported their Games and that nobody was going to shut down their Games, nobody was going to threaten them, and I think it was a very proud moment for Atlanta.

(gentle music) - [Greg] The memories of that tragedy are still evident in Centennial Olympic Park today.

A piece of shrapnel is still embedded in this Greek sculpture, 50 yards from the explosion.

The competition schedule continued unbroken, and Andy, Billy and ACOG's management decided to reopen the park two days later.

- I said, "We're gonna have one speaker, and that's gonna be Andy Young, and he's gonna preach to us."

And he did, and he did so beautifully.

- We're here to proclaim a victory.

We're here not to wallow in tragedy, but to celebrate a triumph.

A triumph of the human spirit.

And so we say to those who suffered here, that we assure you that your suffering is not in vain.

And we're sure that the 21st century will remember the joy, the wonderful, the celebration, the vitality of the people of the earth gathered in this park.

And that we will define the future.

Not hatred, not bitterness, not alienation, but joy, happiness.

The celebration that we see here this morning.

- Andrew Young is, at heart, a minister.

Of all the other hats he wears, the thing he never forgets about is that he's a minister, and that he tries to minister to people one-on-one.

And if any occasion ever called for a good man to get up and pronounce a benediction, this did, and he did.

- I mean, you cannot describe the sense of renewal that you have.

That, yes, these Games do mean something, they are important, and the tragedy will never be forgotten.

But with the reopening of the park, there was a renewal of the spirit.

- [Greg] One of the most anticipated performances of the Games began on the night of July 29th, when Michael Johnson stepped onto the track in an attempt to become the first man in Olympic history to win the 400 and 200 meter races in the same Games.

His convincing victory in the 400, in 43:49, set the stage for greatness.

On that same night, France's brilliant runner, Marie-Jose Perec, who had won gold in the 400 meters in Barcelona, set out to match Johnson's 200-400 double, and won her 400 meter gold medal that night too.

In the Georgia Dome, as Dream Team 2 continued its pursuit of gold, the magic returned at halftime, as Muhammad Ali walked onto the court to receive a copy of the 1960 boxing gold medal he had lost.

With the start of the decathlon, 10 grueling events over two days, the title of the world's greatest athlete was on the line.

With three events left on the second day, American Dan O'Brien began to worry.

- You know, one of the disappointments I had was the pole vault.

I only vaulted five meters, which is 16 four and a half, and just, I think I lost my concentration just a little bit.

And then Frank Busemann, the German kid, comes back and throws like a 10 foot personal best in the javelin, so he wasn't gonna make it easy on me, and so I had to throw a personal best in the javelin just to stay well enough ahead of him so it didn't give him a chance in the 1,500 meter.

- [Greg] O'Brien put the decathlon out of reach with a spectacular javelin throw, and then won gold when he finished the 1,500 meters.

On that same night, Michael Johnson completed his incomparable feat in blistering speed in a world record 19:32 that stunned the world.

And Marie-Jose Perec repeated the 400-200 double, signaling an incredible triumph of feminine excellence.

- We had the most female athletes of any games, and each one of the events where females competed were televised, were recognized.

- [Greg] The softball team captured gold, the basketball team captured gold, and then the US women's soccer team defeated China and enshrined their supremacy in a rung that would include two World Cup titles, another Olympic gold, and inspire millions of young girls all over the world.

- It was the women's games.

I think that was the games for women and young girls, especially young American girls watching on television, thought, "I can do this too," right?

"I can do this.

This is incredible."

- [Greg] And then the women's gymnastics team, which would be known forever as the Magnificent Seven, locked into a battle with Russia that came down to the final vault of Kerri Strug, who had to leap and land on a painful ankle injury.

- I think the Atlanta Games happened at a moment in time when this country was just about ready to explode in women in both sport, on the field of play, but also women behind the scenes in sport.

And those first few roles, or the first few bricks in the pathway, tend to be the hardest to get going, but they're the most important, because momentum does take hold.

And as the momentum takes hold, it starts to flow.

- [Greg] While the Games rolled on, the 1996 Olympic Arts Festival unfolded in theaters, performance spaces, galleries, and museums across Atlanta in dozens of commissioned plays, dances, curated exhibits, and concerts that expressed the unique Olympic connection between sport and culture.

For a young dance entrepreneur, being part of the Games was the experience of a lifetime.

- The Olympic spirit is about people coming together and serving something greater than themselves.

I just knew we had to be ready for that moment.

And when that moment came, we had to rise.

We had to cross that finish line.

You've worked your entire life for this, and now you have an opportunity to just enjoy it, bask in that moment, and show the world what you're about.

- [Greg] Dallas Austin helped run the House of Blues during the Games.

- During the Olympics, the House of Blues was where most of the concerts or things like that took place.

Entertainment coming here, trying to bring events here, trying to show people, hey, this is a major city and a major cultural connection.

But it's always been that way, you know, it's always been that whatever we get, we appreciate the accolade and, you know, it makes us even better and even more closer to being that kind of city that we want to be.

- It seems appropriate that the last event of the Games, the men's marathon, would offer a final symbolic note.

Six years after Nelson Mandela made a pilgrimage to Atlanta to pay tribute to its civil rights heritage, one of his free countrymen captured Atlanta's last gold medal.

Josiah Thugwane of South Africa beat South Korea's Lee Bong-Ju in the closest finish in Olympic history.

The Centennial Olympic Games wrapped up that night in the closing ceremony.

The power of Atlanta's Olympic dream reached fruition.

Once the flame went out, there were no shortage of critics on the deficits of the Atlanta Olympic Games.

A few fools went so far as to say the Games left no real legacy for Atlanta.

Well, I'll set the record straight on that in just a few minutes, but first, let me highlight a few of the things the Atlanta Games achieved.

Atlanta was the first modern games where every National Olympic Committee invited sent a team.

More countries won medals than at any previous Olympic games.

Atlanta left a sensational imprint on the record books.

Atlanta was the first Olympic Games where more than a third of the athletes were women.

Atlanta distributed and sold more tickets than any previous Games by far.

Atlanta sold more tickets to women's events than Barcelona sold to all of its events.

The women's soccer final at the University of Georgia drew the largest crowd to ever witness a women's sporting event to that point.

Atlanta 1996 broke all global television viewing records at the time.

Atlanta was the last Summer Olympics that paid for the construction of its venues out of marketing funds, not taxpayer money.

For the local economy, the Olympics delivered extraordinary results to the city and region, and Atlanta delivered in unique ways for minority and female owned businesses through its Equal Economic Opportunity Program.

Centennial Olympic Park played a brilliant role during the Games, but its destiny was just beginning to unfold.

Across the course of the next 25 years, it would become an economic catalyst for the transformation of Downtown Atlanta, igniting a $3 billion investment boom as one major development after another knitted together a critical mass of magnetic public attractions that gave the city a vibrant new beating heart.

- The first project was our Embassy Suites hotel.

This was the first new build hotel to be developed downtown Atlanta in 15 years.

Opened our hotel in 1999, and our second phase, a condominium project with ground floor commercial spaces, in 2002.

- [Greg] The Georgia Aquarium, the world's largest, opened on the northern perimeter in 2005, and now attracts more than 2.5 million people a year.

In 2007, the World of Coke opened right next door.

In 2013, Skyview Atlanta, a 20 story Ferris wheel, opened on the south side of the park.

In 2014, the US College Football Hall of Fame opened on the west perimeter.

And that year, the link between the Olympic Games and the Civil Rights Movement reached a crowning moment, as the National Center for Civil and Human Rights opened its doors.

In 2017, another jewel in the crown opened with the 1.2 billion Mercedes-Benz Stadium, home to the Atlanta Falcons and Atlanta United.

The second big piece of the legacy is a remarkable story of sustainability and reuse.

After the Games, the Braves spent 45 million retrofitting it and cut the seeding down to 45,000.

They renamed it Turner Field.

And from 1997 till 2016, they played 80 games a year at home, before moving to Cobb County, a northern suburb.

After the Braves moved, Georgia State University acquired the stadium for football, reduced the seating to 25,000, and made it the centerpiece of a massive neighborhood development of student housing.

But the greatest legacy of the Games went unseen for the most part.

- So I think the Olympic movement certainly has helped propel the goals of the Civil Rights Movement, creating equality and justice, and peace as well, because the Olympic movement itself, that was always what its objective was.

- I immediately began to see synergy with that movement and the movement for civil rights.

The Olympics affirms the dignity and the commonality of every human being.

And if you really look at what the Civil Rights Movement was all about, it was about affirming the dignity of every human being.

- The Olympic movement is truly representative of this country.

It knows no colors and race and ethnic backgrounds and socioeconomic backgrounds.

It is truly an equal opportunity environment.

And so civil rights and human rights really are at its soul.

You know, you see America when you see Team USA walk into the stadium.

It's truly representative.

(crowd cheering) (upbeat music) - The Centennial Olympic Games built on the traditions of the Civil Rights Movement, bringing people together, celebrating together, celebrating humanity together, forging friendships and relationships, overcoming obstacles, facing challenges.

- I definitely think that the 1996 Olympics for the city of Atlanta was part of the fulfillment of the hopes and dreams and efforts of the Civil Rights Movement.

And I think those feelings and that unity is still lasting today.

And we're not where we need to be, but we've made so much progress, and the 1996 Olympics and the Dream Team was a huge part of that.

- As the world looks toward America's next Olympic games, which will be celebrated in Los Angeles in 2028, 30 years after Atlanta, it is clear that in our times, the Olympic Games have their critics and their advocates.

The continuum of opinions frame the Olympic Games on the one hand as a capitalist tool of displacement and gentrification, and on the other hand, as a global platform for friendship and peace through sport.

(upbeat music) Andy Young and Billy Payne were inspired by the latter ideals, of course, seeking to draw the world into the kind of racial harmony they believed Atlanta represented.

But in their quest, they saw the possibilities of something even greater.

No Games before or since have mounted the economic or humanitarian programs at the local and global level that achieved anything like what Atlanta delivered.

And yet those stories, like so many in 1996, never reached the public domain, or even the world of sport.

Whatever the reason, there's no doubt that in the 1990s, two men set out on a quest to show the world the possibilities of Blacks and whites teaming up to do great things together, and delivered in unimaginable ways.

That's the true story of Atlanta 1996, a story of the visionary side of race relations the world never should have missed, and certainly should never forget.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) ("City Too Busy To Hate") ♪ The real stay here in the A ♪ ♪ No stopping money that we make ♪ ♪ Hustling, no catching breaks ♪ ♪ I'm in the city too busy to hate ♪ ♪ Hey ♪ ♪ The real stay here in the A ♪ ♪ No stopping money that we make ♪ ♪ Hey ♪ ♪ Hustling, no catching breaks ♪ ♪ Yeah, I'm in the city too busy to hate ♪ ♪ Hey ♪ ♪ History built to the sky ♪ ♪ Don't mind me, I'm down in the south ♪ ♪ Where quality been on the rise ♪ ♪ The words came straight from Warren's mouth ♪ ♪ We in a fight, feeling like Ali ♪ ♪ City's alive, you know where to find me ♪ ♪ Stake in my heart related to concrete ♪ ♪ I gotta win, no matter, they lost me ♪ ♪ Hey ♪ ♪ The real stay here in the A ♪ ♪ No stopping money that we make ♪ ♪ Hey ♪ ♪ Hustling, no catching breaks ♪ ♪ I'm in the city too busy to hate ♪ ♪ Hey ♪ ♪ The real stay here in the A ♪ ♪ No stopping money that we make ♪ ♪ Hey ♪ ♪ Hustling, no catching breaks ♪ ♪ I'm in the city too busy to hate ♪ ♪ Home of the black mecca ♪ ♪ That's what they said, right ♪ ♪ No, you were not better ♪ ♪ Boy, that's a civil right ♪ ♪ Giving my man some power, watching how the water can grow ♪ ♪ Stand against the violence, love is taking the toll ♪ ♪ Hey ♪ ♪ The real stay here in the A ♪ ♪ No stopping money that we make ♪ ♪ Hey ♪ ♪ Hustling, no catching breaks ♪ ♪ I'm in the city too busy to hate ♪ ♪ Hey ♪ ♪ The real stay here in the A ♪ ♪ No stopping money that we make ♪ ♪ Hey ♪ ♪ Hustling, no catching breaks ♪ ♪ I'm in the city too busy to hate ♪ ♪ Hey ♪ ♪ East side, west side, straight up in the A ♪ ♪ Hey ♪ ♪ Avenue on 24 ♪ ♪ In in the payment, hey ♪ ♪ Hey ♪ ♪ South side ♪ ♪ To the site where the Braves play ♪ ♪ Hey ♪ ♪ I'm in the city ♪ ♪ Too busy to hate ♪ ♪ We in the fight, feeling like Ali ♪ ♪ City's alive, you know where to find me ♪ ♪ Stake on my heart related to concrete ♪ ♪ I gotta win, no matter, they lost me ♪ ♪ Hey ♪ ♪ The real stay here in the A ♪ ♪ No stopping money that we make ♪ ♪ Hey ♪ ♪ Hustling, no catching breaks ♪ ♪ I'm in the city too busy to hate ♪ ♪ Hey ♪ ♪ The real stay here in the A ♪ ♪ No stopping money that we make ♪