Rebecca Burns is a journalist, professor, author, and speaker in Athens in the U.S. State of Georgia. Burns has taught journalism at Emory University and the University of Georgia. She is publisher of The Red & Black has written three books on Atlanta history: Burial for a King; Martin Luther King Jr.'s funeral and the week that transformed Atlanta and rocked the nation (Scribner, 2011), Atlanta: Yesterday and Today (West Side Publishing, 2010), and Rage in the Gate City; The story of the 1906 Atlanta Race Riot (University of Georgia Press, 2009 and Emmis Books, 2006).^[1] Her articles have covered subjects related to social justice, economic justice, civil rights, and urban development in media including Atlantic Cities and Politico.^[2] As of 2014 she was writing The Second Burning of Atlanta about the Great Atlanta fire of 1917.^[2]

Burns was editor-in-chief of Atlanta magazine from 2002 to 2009.^[2] She has an M.A. in Communication from Georgia State University. Burns lives in Athens, Georgia with her husband James Burns, a designer and illustrator.^[3]