Otis Redding one of the first honored by Black Music and Entertainment Walk of Fame

Macon music legend Otis Redding is among the inaugural group of inductees to the Black Music and Entertainment Walk of Fame in Atlanta.

The new initiative, a partnership between the Black Music Association and the Georgia Entertainment Caucus, will honor Black entertainers with a ceremony in downtown Atlanta Thursday. Twelve entertainers are being celebrated for their contributions to “Black culture and the community at large.”

Redding will be honored as a “foundational inductee” along with James Brown, Quincy Jones and Stevie Wonder. Other inductees are Georgia’s OutKast, Kirk Franklin, Beyoncé, Usher, Sean Love Combs and Missy Elliot.

Redding was born in Dawson and his family moved to Macon when he was 2 years old. After performing at the Douglass Theatre as a teenager and working with Little Richard’s backing band, Redding recorded his first songs in 1962. He quickly rose to prominence, toured the U.S. and Europe and had recently recorded perhaps his most famous song, “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay” when he died in a plane crash on Dec. 10, 1967.

Redding’s legacy is carried on in Macon by the Otis Redding Foundation downtown, where his grandson Justin Andrews serves as director.