In the Arena: The High-Flying Life of Air Atlanta Founder Michael Hollis
In the Arena: The High-Flying Life of Air Atlanta Founder Michael Hollis
Michael Robinson Hollis was born in a fiercely segregated southern city that, by custom and even by law, relegated African Americans to the lower rungs of society. Whether through inadequacies in housing, education, health care, jobs, recreation or civil liberties, Black Atlantans in 1953 were deprived of the kinds of opportunities promised by the American creed. At one point during Michael’s childhood, the white political establishment erected a blockade – the infamous “Peyton Road Wall” – for the express purpose of separating Black and white Atlantans. So determined were the powers-that-be to keep it that way that they did not even bother to conceal their dread and fear of a Black majority population and even openly recruited Black elders’ assistance in fending off Black empowerment.
With so many roadblocks, people like Michael Hollis were not supposed to go far. But, even with the odds arrayed against him, he was preparing for a different destiny. In his modest but happy home on Atlanta’s west side, where most Black citizens were effectively warehoused by dint of draconian city ordinances and housing covenants, Michael thrived. Gifted with a bright mind, a curious nature and a mother who imbued him with self-confidence and faith, Michael excelled in school, began building strong relationships with influential and accomplished men, and demonstrated a precocious bent for pushing the envelope.
Even before the term was a staple of motivational speeches, “networking” was one of the success tools that Michael understood and mastered from his youth. Everyone expected Michael to go to Morehouse College, the historic and prestigious institution that has produced so many of the country’s prominent Black male leaders, including Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., activist and statesman Julian Bond and one of Michael’s mentors and friends, Maynard Jackson, Atlanta’s first black mayor. The Hollis home was just down the street from the Morehouse campus and Michael’s older brother, Julius, was a student there.
But, in a fateful break from tradition and expectation, Michael went to Dartmouth College, where he quickly distinguished himself as an assertive, confident, audacious man-on-the-move. He so impressed Dartmouth President John Kemeny, that Kemeny made him his personal intern – an unprecedented appointment for an underclassman – and then extended the term from the customary one year to two. In a 1979 memoir, Dr. Kemeny’s wife predicted that Michael would one day run for president of the United States. “When Mike reaches that pinnacle―and he will,” she wrote, “I’ll vote for him.” His next stop was the University of Virginia School of Law, the alma mater of countless federal judges, members of Congress, and captains of American industry. As at Dartmouth, Michael was that rare sight on campus―a black student. And, as at Dartmouth, he proved to be exceptional. With a Jewish classmate from Miami as his sidekick and collaborator, Michael dared to seek the presidency of the 30,000-member Law Student Division (LSD) of the American Bar Association, one of the largest student professional organizations in the world. Over fierce and contentious opposition, Michael and his friend outwitted, out-worked and outmaneuvered their foes and Michael won the post. His pursuit of the LSD campaign and the Dartmouth appointment honed the boldness, determination and shrewdness that would make Michael renowned as a deal-making maestro. There were signs of Michael’s exceptionalism along the way―a friendship with President Jimmy Carter, an appointment to the elite legal staff of the Three Mile Island Commission, an executive position with Oppenheimer among them―but it was Michael’s creation of Air Atlanta, a regional jet service aimed at business travelers, that set him apart from the pack of dynamic black entrepreneurs who emerged in the mid 1970s and early 1980s as the result of new thinking and new policies on equal opportunity and diversity.
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Mission & History
“Even when I was young, I always thought of bigger things. I will forever seek with a passion, excellence. If I had to give you one word to describe what motivates me, it’s Life. I’ve always felt that I might as well do something in life that would make a difference. I am a product of my environment. I’ve made great plans for myself. I have had some great opportunities. And I can’t pass through this life and pass up on great opportunities.”
-Michael R. Hollis
Michael R. Hollis was born in Atlanta, Georgia and his ascendency and development as one this nation’s most innovative business entrepreneurs started with the launching of Air Atlanta, Inc., a $100 million luxury commercial airline ventured owned by an African American. Air Atlanta will forever define his courage and tenacity in the annuals of American business history.
Michael R. Hollis’ ascendency and development as an innovative business entrepreneur can be directly linked to the societal changes that happened as a result of the passage of The Civil Rights Act of 1964. The City of Atlanta was the bedrock of the Civil and Human Rights Movement led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and countless other civil rights pioneers. With the historical passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the City of Atlanta was immediately transformed globally into “The Economic Promise Land” for communities of color. During this period, America for the first time publicly recognized that it had caused irrevocable economic and educational harm to the aspirations of millions of its citizenry, simply based on the color of their skin. The passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 created cornerstones for the desegregation of public schools and colleges, as well as for the recalibration of this nation’s economic infrastructure, which had historically discriminated and denied communities of color accessibility to its supply chains.
As eloquently stated in the 2024 State of Black of America Report published by The National Urban League, the economic gains made by communities of color as a result of passage of The Civil Rights Act of 1964, are even today being challenged and under vicious attacks by forces that would prefer to continue the false of narrative of “discounting” the economic contributions made by people of color, over the course, of 200 years in fostering America’s global economic ingenuity.
As a high school student and leader at B.T. Washington High School in the Atlanta Public School District, Michael R. Hollis was mentored by the esteemed educator, Dr. Benjamin E. Mays, the then President of Morehouse College and the first African American elected President of the Atlanta Board of Education.
Before Michael R. Hollis left Atlanta in 1971 to attend Dartmouth College, as a freshman student, he was an advisor to John G. Kemeny, the then President of Dartmouth College, which he maintained during his entire educational tenure at Dartmouth. While at Dartmouth College Michael R. Hollis was appointed in 1974 by then Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter to Governor Carter’s New Hampshire Exploratory Committee and co-chaired the Jimmy Carter Presidential Campaign’s outreach effort with universities throughout the State of New Hampshire.
Prior to his departure to Dartmouth College, Michael R. Hollis was appointed by the first elected Jewish Mayor of Atlanta, Atlanta Mayor Sam Massell at the age of 16 years old. He was Atlanta’s first African-American youth to serve in the coveted position as Atlanta Night Mayor. Michael R. Hollis attended the University of Virginia School of Law, where he was elected as the first African- American national president of the 30,000-member student division of the American Bar Association. Michael R. Hollis returned to Atlanta Georgia after graduating from the University of Virginia School of Law, where he served as a lawyer at Jones Day Law Firm. After a two-year tenure at Jones Day, Michael R. Hollis served as Associate Chief Counsel on The President’s Commission on The Three Mile Island Islands Accident known as “The Kemeny Commission” reuniting with his mentor John G. Kemeny, the then President of Dartmouth College.
As a student of the civil rights era, Michael R. Hollis was an avid believer in the cognitive strategy that leverages resources and opportunities from one generation to another generation, especially for communities of color and women. It was a part of his unique DNA.
The audacity and boldness by Michael R. Hollis to successful launch and operate Air Atlanta, carrying more than 1 million passengers to 15 cities is a tribute to his unique business skills, tenacity, but equally as important to aspirations of the least of these.
It is our hope and prayer that the Michael R. Hollis story will serve as a vivid inter-generational platform for future generations to chant the famous words of the late Rev. Jesse Jackson, Jr., “THAT I MAY BE POOR, BUT I AM SOMEBODY KEEP THE FAITH.”
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8mosphere Technologies By The Numbers
30
A proven track record of success in aerospace and defense R&D.
Years of Experience
80
Actively engaged in driving innovation across diverse areas.
Ongoing Projects
15
Recognition for groundbreaking technological advancements.
Patents Awarded
2.5K
A team of passionate and skilled engineers, scientists, and researchers.
Talented Employees
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