Nearly 13 years ago, Larry Platt, dubbed the “General,” shook up the TV world, becoming an “American Idol” sensation at 64 years old with his song “Pants on the Ground,” but many do not know there is more to his story.
Decades before his viral performance, Georgia’s most famous pants puller-upper championed a much different and decidedly more historic cause: He served as a foot soldier fighting for civil rights alongside luminaries like Martin Luther King Jr., John Lewis and Hosea Williams, who Platt said gave him his nickname.
Platt’s activism earned him an official commendation from Gov. Brian Kemp, who, in 2021, called Platt an “outstanding Georgian and American hero” because of his participation in civil rights protests across the South. The same year, Kemp signed a resolution naming several roads and bridges after notable Georgians, including the General Larry Platt bridge on state Route 166 in Fulton County.
Atlanta Democratic Rep. Park Cannon sponsored the resolution that led to the bridge’s naming. Like many others, she first heard about Platt through his performance on TV, but she said she later met him and was inspired by his story.