Equal Income Begins With Equal Opportunity

In honor of Black History Month and Women's History Month, we wanted to recognize one of the early pillars of our community, Ms. Ethel Mae Mathews. 

Born in Alabama and married by the age of twelve, Ms. Mathews moved to Peoplestown in 1950 with her four children. She met Emmaus House Founder Father Austin Ford in the street one day in 1967. Father Ford convinced her to attend a welfare rights meeting. She would spend the rest of her life advocating for and championing her community.
 

A Lifetime of Activism

Ms. Mathews headed Emmaus House’s first Welfare Rights Committee and went on to serve as Chairwoman of the Peoplestown Advisory Council, President of the Welfare Rights Organization, and a board member for both the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the Georgia Citizens Coalition on Hunger.

Known for her courage and character, Ms. Mathews could often be found at pickets and protests advocating for her Peoplestown neighbors. She helped secure better leasing agreements and improved property conditions from the Atlanta Housing Authority, and she took a stand against the Olympic Stadium, ultimately developing ways that its presence could benefit surrounding neighborhoods. In the 1980s, she physically blocked a set of bulldozers from razing the Peoplestown Community Center.

These are just a few standout moments pulled from a lifetime of activism.

Committed to Love

Ms. Mathews was a fierce idealist. The Atlanta History Center’s profile on her is titled, “Unwavering, Unyielding, Uncompromising.” However, at the center of all that Ms. Mathews did was a love for her community and a commitment to faith and justice. 

“I’m rich with many things,” she once said. “Not with money, but with courage, with strength, with faith, with independence, with my belief in God, and that makes me very rich.”

At Emmaus House, we strive every day to live up to Ms. Mathews’s ideals and legacy.