100 Black Men of Atlanta turned 40 this month, and the city showed up to mark it. The organization’s 40th Anniversary 100 Honors Gala filled the Atlanta Marriott Marquis on Saturday, October 3, a black-tie evening of dinner, awards, silent auction, and after-party that doubled as a fundraiser for the next generation of the scholars the group has been sending to college since 1986.
The Numbers Behind the Night
The gala’s real story is the scoreboard. Students in the organization’s Project Success program graduate high school at a 100 percent rate, and 95 percent of its graduates go on to college. Across four decades, the chapter has awarded $8.5 million in cumulative scholarships. Those results trace back to 1986, when Atlanta entrepreneur Nathaniel R. Goldston III gathered 18 friends and associates to build a mentorship organization modeled on One Hundred Black Men of New York, determined that a young person’s ZIP code would not decide the limits of their future.
A Honoree Class With Range
The 2026 honorees bridged sports, business, and civic life. Olympic legend Edwin Moses, Bentina Terry, Diriki T. Geuka, Sidney Barron, and Brandon Fleming received individual honors, while Coca-Cola, UPS, and Gas South were recognized as corporate honorees. The Coca-Cola Company received the Andrew Young Lifetime Achievement Award, and the evening’s award slate also included the Maynard H. Jackson Community Impact Award, the John Lewis Emerging Leader Award, the Thomas W. Dortch, Jr. Civic Leadership Award, and the Nathaniel R. Goldston III Trailblazer Award, a fitting tribute to the founding chairman.
Every table and sponsorship carried the mission forward: mentoring, SAT prep, financial literacy, and leadership development for Atlanta youth, delivered by Black men who show up in person, week after week. Forty years in, the 100’s model remains disarmingly simple, and the gala made clear that Atlanta’s corporate and civic establishment intends to keep funding it.
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