Atlanta graft ring

The Atlanta graft ring was a corruption scandal that erupted in 1930 which generated 26 indictments and earned a Pulitzer Prize for the Atlanta Constitution newspaper.

Atlanta had prided itself for a relatively corruption-free government throughout its history, but this changed in the 1920s.[1] On November 18, 1929, Fourth Ward Alderman Ben T. Huiet told the city council he had heard that payment of $3,500 was asked for in order to approve electrical wiring that had been installed in the new Atlanta City Hall, then under construction.[2]

Soon after, Atlanta Constitution president Clark Howell, wrote a ringing editorial demanding the Fulton County grand jury to investigate. Foreman Thomas Lyon and Solicitor General John A. Boykin began the lengthy investigation during which, more than a thousand witnesses were called to look into the Mayor I.N. Ragsdale's administration and city council. Twenty-six indictments were made, of which fifteen were guilty and seven of those received prison sentences, including councilman Harry York.[3]

The press coverage earned Howell and the Atlanta Constitution the 1931 Pulitzer Prize for Journalism in the Public Service category for "a successful municipal graft exposure and subsequent convictions."[4]

Solicitor General Boykin went on to break up Atlanta's numbers game operation in 1936.