William Yates Atkinson (November 11, 1854 – August 8, 1899) was an American politician who served as the governor of the U.S. state of Georgia from 1894 to 1898.

Atkinson was born in the Oakland community in Meriwether County, Georgia, on November 11, 1854.

In 1897, he vetoed a law that would have prohibited football in the state, due in part to an impassioned letter from Rosalind Burns Gammon, whose son's death had initiated the anti-football legislation.

[4] Atkinson was mentioned by William Henry Holtzclaw, later founder of Utica Institute in Mississippi, as giving him the money he needed to go back to Tuskegee Institute for college - as well as a kindly lecture on the advisability of staying out of politics.

[5] After his two terms as governor, Atkinson bravely confronted the mob in the infamous Sam Hose lynching and tried to get them to allow the legal justice system to take its course.