Charlie Mae Henderson Griffin (center) with daughters (l-r) Sheila Griffin Blalock and Marcia Griffin Beasley, School Street, Acworth, Georgia, July 2020.

Born to Joseph Henderson and Odessa Awtrey Henderson in 1924, Charlie Mae Henderson Griffin grew up on Taylor Street in Acworth and attended the segregated Rosenwald School and Marietta’s Lemon Street High School. She worked at Bay McClure’s beauty parlor on Main Street, completed day work for many white families, and later took a job as a cook at Coats and Clark thread mill. Married to William Alfonzo Griffin, she had four children, Farris, William, Jr., Sheila, and Marcia. Today, Griffin lives on School Street in Acworth.