Tiger Flowers

Theodore “Tiger” Flowers was the first African-American boxer to win the world middleweight championship in 1926. Born in Camilla, Georgia in 1895. Flowers moved to Atlanta in 1920 when he began training seriously to be a professional boxer. Flowers lived at 1048 Simpson Rd. (now Joseph E. Boone Blvd.) in a 20 room Italian stucco mansion considered one of the most beautiful homes in the city. He died in 1927 at the age of thirty-two and was inducted into the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame in 1976 and elected to the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1993. The home was demolished in 1962 for the construction of Fire Station No. 16, which housed the city's first African-American Firefighters in 1963.

Presented by Councilmember Michael Julian Bond, post 1 At-Large
MMXIII
Dedicated by Councilmember Michael Julian Bond, post 1 At-Large
and Atlanta Fire Rescue Department chief Kelvin Cochran
April 1, 2013

Plaque courtesy Lat34North.com.

Original page, with additional info, here.

Photo credit: David Seibert.