Everything you wanted to know about Andre Dickens

Atlanta’s 61st Mayor may be unfamiliar to some. Here’s what you need to know about Andre Dickens, according to colleagues, friends and former classmates.

• City Council member: defeated a three-term incumbent to win his at-large seat in 2013 and ran unopposed in 2017
• Advocate: While on Council, Dickens championed affordable housing policies like requiring affordable units along the Beltline
• Engineer: studied chemical engineering at Georgia Tech and worked as an engineer for more than a decade
• Deacon at New Horizon Baptist Church, where he teaches Sunday school each week
• Business owner: founded an Atlanta home furnishing company that closed during the housing crisis.
• Atlanta native: raised in Adamsville Dickens graduated from Mays High School. He currently lives in Collier Heights, making him the first mayor who’s lived inside I-285 since Shirley Franklin.
• Father of one 16-year-old daughter, whom he shares custody of with his ex-wife, and enjoys a weekly Taco Tuesday.
• Friend: Buds and classmates as far back as middle school describe the mayor-elect as funny, loyal, intellectually curious, and genuine.
• Goal setter: When Dickens was 12, he met then Mayor Andrew Young, and told his family he too wanted to become mayor one day, according to his mother Sylvia Dickens.
• Podcaster (before it was cool): Roughly a decade ago, Dickens co-founded an internet radio talk show called 3 Degrees of Separation about the connections people share and hosted a segment about faith.

• Dancer: In high school, Dickens was the homecoming king and part of an all-male dance group called NXS that performed at pep rallies. You can watch the reunion performance at his 20th reunion.

Facts:

• Per Maya Prabhu at the AJC, Dickens will be the third Atlanta mayor in a row with a mother named Sylvia.
• He’s visited six continents.
• Listened to Outkast before and after forums and debates during the campaign.

Editor's note: This story has been updated to correct the last name of Sylvia Dickens.