Simone Bell is a
community organizer and former politician from
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,71 ...
. A
Democrat, she was elected to the
Georgia House of Representatives in December 2009 from the state's 58th district in
DeKalb and
Fulton counties, and served until November 2015.
The district lies in eastern Atlanta and includes the following neighborhoods:
East Atlanta,
Cabbagetown,
Reynoldstown,
Edgewood,
Gresham Park
Gresham Park is a census-designated place (CDP) in DeKalb County, Georgia, United States. The population was 7,700 at the 2020 census.
Geography
Gresham Park is located at (33.703357, -84.314366). It is bordered by, on the:
* North: I-20, acro ...
,
Grant Park,
Kirkwood,
Ormewood Park and
Boulevard Heights
Boulevard Heights is an urban neighborhood of Atlanta, Georgia located south of United Ave, east of Boulevard, north of Entrenchment Creek
Entrenchment, Entrenched or Entrench may refer to:
* A trench
* Entrenchment (fortification), a type o ...
.
The seat had been held by Rep. Robbin Shipp (D–Atlanta) from 2007 to 2009 but Shipp resigned in 2009 due to conflicts with her job as a Fulton County prosecutor, triggering a special election. In the election held on November 3, 2009, Bell won 24% of the vote in a five-candidate field, placing second behind attorney and fellow Democrat Asha Jackson. In the runoff, Bell defeated Jackson by 56% to 44%. She was sworn into office by Chief Justice
Carol Hunstein
Carol Wyckoff Hunstein (born August 16, 1944) is an American lawyer and judge from Georgia. She is a former Justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia. She served on the Court as an associate justice from 1992 to 2009 and 2013 to 2018 and as Chief ...
of the
Georgia Supreme Court on December 22, 2009. She ran unopposed for re-election in 2010; defeated primary opponent Ralph Long in 2012 and 2014. On October 29, 2015, Bell announced her resignation from office to join
Lambda Legal as Southern Regional Director; her resignation took effect November 13, 2015. She was succeeded by
Park Cannon
Park Elizabeth Cannon (born June 6, 1991) is an American politician from the state of Georgia. She is a member of the Georgia House of Representatives, representing the 58th district, and a member of the Democratic Party.
Early life and educatio ...
.
Born and raised in
Detroit
Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at ...
,
Michigan
Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...
, Bell came to Georgia to attend
Agnes Scott College in
Decatur. She works in the Southern regional office of
Lambda Legal, a national non-profit legal group that focuses on
LGBT
' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity.
The LGBT term i ...
and
HIV
The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of '' Lentivirus'' (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time, they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the immu ...
issues.
Openly gay, Bell is the first African-American lesbian to serve in a U.S. state legislature.
Her partner is Valerie Acree.
See also
References
External links
Legislative homepageCampaign and constituency website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bell, Simone
African-American state legislators in Georgia (U.S. state)
African-American women in politics
Agnes Scott College people
American community activists
African-American LGBT people
American lesbian politicians
LGBT state legislators in Georgia (U.S. state)
Living people
Politicians from Detroit
Democratic Party members of the Georgia House of Representatives
Women state legislators in Georgia (U.S. state)
LGBT people from Michigan
21st-century American LGBT people
21st-century American women politicians
Year of birth missing (living people)
21st-century African-American women
21st-century African-American politicians
21st-century American legislators