General Larry Platt made quite an impression during last night’s America Idol Atlanta auditions. The 63 year old stand out star performed an original song called “Pants on the Ground” and all I can say is… Atlanta’s got talent!

General Platt became an overnight Internet sensation with his “American Idol” song about pulling up your pants but he’s been well known around the Atlanta area for years.Platt, who turned 63 a couple of months after the audtion,  calls himself a “four-star general in the civil rights movement” and he’s actually held his feet “on the ground” in the ’60s, when he took part in the Selma-to-Montgomery civil rights march.

Platt marched with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and has even spoke about his memories during a panel discussion at the Roswell Public Library.

Platt worked with the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Georgia, organizing sit-ins in the South. He got his nickname, “General,” from the Rev. Hosea Williams because of his heroic efforts during the civil-rights movement, where Platt says he’d been attacked by police dogs and suffered beatings in past civil rights efforts.

The Georgia General Assembly even proclaimed Sept. 4, 2001, “Larry Platt Day” in Atlanta, because of “his great energy and commitment to equality and the protection of the innocent and for his outstanding service to the Atlanta community and the citizens of Georgia.”

His other claim to fame came four years ago during former Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell’s federal corruption trial. Platt made news when U.S. marshals at the Russell Federal Courthouse in downtown Atlanta confiscated drawings that he’d done in the courtroom, citing issues of “inappropriateness.”

In the drawings, Platt depicted Campbell, his defense team, the judge and jurors as winged angels while the prosecution witnesses were shown with horns. “God lets me see people as they are,” Platt explained to media at the time.

According to the AJC, “after his drawings were taken, an agitated Platt stood in the hallway, shaking and near tears. Witnessing the scene, Campbell placed his hand on Platt’s shoulder and told the marshal, ‘This man marched across the Edmund Pettus Bridge.’ U.S. District Judge Richard Story told the marshals to return Platt’s drawings.”

Platt remains a community activist in the Atlanta area today and has recently become known for publicly protesting foreclosures.

So, while you laugh at the man for getting his “5 minutes of fame” know that he’s already had way more than that in his 63 years on this earth.

We salute you General Platt!!

Video ~ Pants on the Ground w/Lyrics ~ Gen. Larry Platt

LYRICS:
Pants on the ground
Pants on the ground
Lookin like a fool with you pants on the ground
Gold in your mouth
Hat turned sideways, pants hit the ground
Call yourself a cool cat looking like a fool
Walking down town
With your pants on the ground!

(Source 1 and 2)