As the new mayor of America’s fastest growing city, Atlanta, Ga., Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms never ceases to amaze and inspire us. The 48 year old power attorney-turned-mayor is a woman who wears many hats and juggles them well. She holds the honor of being the second African American female mayor of ATL and get this- she’s also the daughter of a Billboard chart topping soul singer! In fact, her famous pops’ success and struggles actually inspires her to be innovative in her new mayor position…

Who’s Her Famous Daddy?

Keshia Lance Bottoms is the daughter of the soul singer, Major Lance, who was a 1960’s/70’s soul legend. He’s had many chart topping hits; was close friends with Curtis Mayfield (who also wrote some of Lance’s songs); once was signed to Motown Records subsidiary label; opened up for the Beatles on tour; and was an all around cool cat. Some of his hits include “The Monkey Time” and “Um, Um, Um, Um, Um,” Um” and “I Lost My Baby’s Love.” Check out some of his songs below…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0KlRpQeyvo

Major Lance passed away in his sleep in 1994 from heart disease at his Decatur, Ga. home. He had 12 children and his life was filled with success, but also with many struggles, which has guided much of Keisha Lance Bottoms’ political steps.

Her Father’s Past Struggles & Prison Time

Mayor Lance-Bottoms makes it no secret that after her dad’s music career began to fade, he had several probles with the law. When Major Lance and Keshia’s mother, Sylvia Robinson (NOT to be confused with the Sugar Hill Records founder), started having financial problems, Keisha said they ended up having to move out of their upscale Ga. home. Her father became a cocaine dealer, who was busted in 1978 and served for 4 years in prison. In a Youtube biopic, Mayor Lance-Bottoms recalled the day she watched law enforcement take her Pops out of their home in handcuffs:

“I learned very early on that good people sometimes make bad decisions,” said Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms. … “When I was eight, I came home from school to find dozens of officers in our home, leading my father — a well-known entertainer — away in handcuffs. He went away to prison, and for many years, I watched my mother struggle to make ends meet. … “That life-changing experience propelled me to go to law school and to offer myself for public service. It’s that dichotomy that makes me just as comfortable in a kitchen with a grandmother in Vine City as I am when I am in a board room next to you, working through your issues.”

Bottoms’ New Groundbreaking Prison Program

Now she’s put her father’s inspirational teachings into action to help prison inmates reform their lives through a re-entry program called, PAT3 (preparing adult offenders through treatment therapy and training). The program will give non-violent offenders vocational training behind bars, allowing many of them to work and earn real city job wages while they’re still imprisoned. Those jobs will then carry over as official state jobs once the prisoners are released, automatically allowing them a productive re-entry back into society and lessening their chances of re-imprisonment.

During a recent press conference, Bottoms discussed her dad’s influence for this program:

“I can tell you that I stand here as the mayor of this city because of second chances. … And the struggles that my dad had and his imprisonment and the impact it had on my and my brothers and sisters, and also on our family as a whole for our family as I shared throughout the course of the campaign, it really was the death of our family.”

On her new programs effect:

“These are city employees who will have benefits and more importantly they’ll have a paycheck so what does that mean? That means while they’re incarcerated they can start paying child support while they’re incarcerated they can start paying rent but most importantly when they’re released they’ll still be city employees. …These men have an opportunity not just for a job but this is a career pathway.”

Her mother is very proud of her and if her father were still alive, pretty sure he’d be proud of his baby girl too.