[2] It was the site of a plantation strike among black laborers, leading to extensive civil rights activity in the mid-twentieth century.

[7] From 2012 until 2018 Blackmon was the host and executive producer of American Forum, a weekly public-affairs program that was broadcast on more than 250 PBS stations in the United States.

[8][9] Since 2018, Blackmon has taught at Georgia State University in Atlanta, and leads a major research project in conjunction with the National Center for Civil and Human Rights to identify thousands of forced laborers compelled into involuntary servitude by the criminal justice system under horrific conditions at early 20th Century work camps, such as the notorious Chattahoochee Brick Company in Atlanta.

[10] In 2023, Blackmon accepted an appointment to a mayoral task force examining issues surrounding a proposed police and emergency personnel training center, dubbed “Cop City” by critics.

[11] Blackmon served on a committee focused on memorialization of past victims of mass incarceration at the site, and recommended preservation of ruins of an earlier city jail as an educational installation portraying the history of racial abuse by Atlanta police, memorializing citizens who were unjustly victimized, and honoring the history of protest in Atlanta against police abuse—including demonstrations by Black Lives Matter and opponents of the “Cop City” training facility.