The Atlanta chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America opened its first independent office this past weekend at the Little Five Points Community Center, giving the fast-growing political organization a permanent home for the first time since it formed two decades ago. The group announced the opening in a social media post dated Saturday, and named the new space the Milt Tambor Organizing Center after the chapter's founder.
According to CBS Atlanta, the chapter plans to use the office for labor organizing, political education, grassroots campaigns and membership development. The organization said the opening marks a major milestone after years of growth, and it is currently accepting donations of furniture, appliances and other supplies to help furnish the space, per the same report.
Milt Tambor, who died in 2022, was a union member, organizer and educator who served as Atlanta DSA's chapter chair in 2006 and again in 2017, the outlet notes. Tambor was a lifelong Michigan trade union leader who led AFSCME Local 1640 in Detroit before retiring to Atlanta in 2001, according to Atlanta DSA. He established the Metro Atlanta chapter in 2006 after organizing a local fundraiser for Bernie Sanders's U.S. Senate campaign.
From a Handful of Members to a Political Force
Atlanta DSA's membership has grown from about 30 founding members in 2006 to roughly 800 by 2024, before surpassing 2,000 members this month, according to state Rep. Gabriel Sanchez as cited by Capital B Atlanta. That surge tracks a broader national uptick in DSA membership following a string of high-profile local wins.
Sanchez himself is part of that story. In November 2024, the Atlanta DSA leader won election to Georgia House District 42 in suburban Smyrna, becoming the first Democratic Socialist elected to the Georgia General Assembly after defeating a seven-year Democratic incumbent in the primary, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. A year later, labor organizer and Atlanta DSA candidate Kelsea Bond won the Atlanta City Council District 2 seat, covering Midtown and Old Fourth Ward, with 64% of the vote, making them the first Democratic Socialist elected to the city's municipal government, per 11Alive.
The chapter's political expansion has continued into this year. In June, Atlanta DSA member Mathewos Samson won the Democratic primary for Georgia House District 58, positioning him to potentially become the state's first Black Democratic Socialist lawmaker if he wins the heavily Democratic seat in November, Capital B Atlanta reports.
A Century-Old Schoolhouse With a Radical History
The building housing the new office has its own layered past. Located at 1083 Austin Avenue, the Little Five Points Community Center was originally built in 1919 as Moreland Elementary School, educating local students in the expanding Inman Park area for 63 years before closing in 1982, according to the Atlanta History Center.
Community activists and non-profit leaders, led in part by community radio station WRFG 89.3 FM, purchased the shuttered school from the city that same year to prevent redevelopment and turn it into a neighborhood arts and advocacy center, according to the Pacifica Network. WRFG has kept its studios in the building ever since, making it a natural fit for a group with deep roots in Atlanta's activist scene.
Roots in Foreclosure Fights and the Stop Cop City Movement
Atlanta DSA's history of direct-action organizing predates its recent electoral wins by more than a decade. During the Great Recession in 2009, the chapter under Tambor partnered with Black community leaders to focus its organizing on fighting home foreclosures across the city's working-class neighborhoods, according to Current Affairs.
More recently, the chapter served as a prominent coalition partner in the multi-year Stop Cop City movement opposing construction of the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, a campaign that mobilized young activists across metro Atlanta, according to a list of DSA public officeholders on Wikipedia.
From its new headquarters, the chapter plans to keep pushing its Georgia policy platform, which includes a $20 minimum wage, a ban on corporate landlords purchasing single-family homes, and state-level Medicare for All legislation, Capital B Atlanta notes. The housing proposal specifically targets private equity firms operating in metro Atlanta's residential market.
