During the decades when Black people were being suppressed and subjugated by racist laws, many fought to carve out their own place in a segregated society. The results were black-owned businesses, churches and clubs. Some led the way to establish their own neighborhoods, organizations and newspapers. They built their own banks, schools and parks. And these became legacies of their fight and their success. But many of these legacies have been neglected and forgotten. For Black History Month, TheVillageCelebration will look at some of these abandoned legacies.
At a time
when Black people were barred from white-owned restaurants and hotels, and when
they couldn’t buy decent burial insurance or purchase property, they came
together and built their own.
On
a stretch of street two-miles long and sixty-feet wide, they established an
empire that would become known as the wealthiest African American neighborhood in the world.
For
years Auburn Avenue was the epicenter of African American business acumen,
excellence and innovation, according to a 2017 article by The Atlanta
Journal-Constitution. The concentration of wealth and influence was
unparalleled, the AJC reported.
African
Americans had their own doctors, dentists and dry cleaners. They opened their own banks,
barbershops and beauty parlors. From drug stores, grocery and flower shops to
insurance companies, churches and photography studios, Black-owned businesses
flourished.
And in 1956, Fortune Magazine named Auburn Avenue, “The
richest Negro street in the World.” But with integration, many left and Auburn
Avenue became a shadow of itself – and what was once a magnet of black
enterprise became another symbol of what happens when people abandon their own.
“For black people,
the street was a symbol of pride,” said pastor and historian Dr. Herman “Skip”
Mason, Jr. “It was a street of pride and it serviced the community, and
everybody patronized Auburn Avenue.”
Back then, he said,
“We served our own, we took care of our own, we patronized our own people.”
Dan Moore,
founder and president of the APEX Museum on Auburn Avenue, said what Black
people accomplished on Auburn Avenue back then took courage.
“Black
people had a vision and wasn’t afraid to go against the grain,” Moore said. “You
had men and women, who had courage, step out and do their thing. They couldn’t
buy property on other streets, so they came together and started their own
businesses on Auburn Avenue.”
With its hotels, restaurants and nightclubs, Auburn Avenue was a commercial
center of Black Atlanta. It saw the first Black daily newspaper (Atlanta Daily World),
America’s first Black-owned radio station (WERD) and the first black-owned life
insurance company (Atlanta Life), which was started by the city’s first black
millionaire, Alonzo Herndon, a former slave.
The nightclub, the
Peacock Lounge, hosted famous acts from Gladys Knight, B.B. King and The Four
Tops to Little Richard, Cab Calloway, Aretha Franklin and Ray Charles,
according to online reports. The nightlife on Auburn Avenue sparkled as men and
women came out dressed in style to walk down the avenue.
Such was the
success of Auburn Avenue that it attracted Blacks from other cities and states,
Moore said. It also became a center for empowerment.
Home
to History
Coined “Sweet
Auburn” by businessman and Civil Rights activist John Wesley Dobbs, the maternal
grandfather of Atlanta’s first African American mayor, Maynard Jackson, Auburn
Avenue saw the birth of Martin Luther King, Jr.,
who preached on the avenue alongside his father.
In the 1950s and
the 1960s, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), led by King, and
Ebenezer Baptist, Wheat Street Baptist, Big Bethel AME and Butler CME churches
kept Auburn Avenue as a nexus of social activity and the Civil Rights Movement,
according to SoulofAmerica.com.
But by the
time Moore arrived in Atlanta in the 1980s, the success of Auburn Avenue was
already on the decline and he said integration was one of the main reasons for
the change.
“Integration
came in and Blacks were allowed to move into other parts of the city, and they
abandoned Auburn Avenue,” Moore said. As for the owners, he said, “Most of the
businesses, when they realized they were able to move to white neighborhoods,
they fled.”
By the 1960s
and 1970, many began moving to the suburbs. With the
construction of the I-85/75 Freeway, which bisected Sweet Auburn, and the
passing of the national Fair Housing Act, many of the black middle class
surrounding Sweet Auburn began moving to larger spaces, according to
soulofamerica.com.
“Those who helped end segregation, unintentionally
helped end Sweet Auburn prosperity,” the online site noted.
The Power of Unity
But something else was lost, Moore said. It was the
realization of what Black people can accomplish when they come together.
“We don’t
realize the power and the strength we have collectively,” he said.
Still, there were some
like Mtamanika Youngblood, who joined the board
of the Historic District Development Corp. and worked to help improve
Auburn Avenue, which in the 1990s was designated a National Historic District.
And there were
some improvements. Atlanta Life Insurance Company rebuilt its headquarters on
Auburn Avenue. The Martin Luther King, Jr. Visitor Center was built across from
the Center for Non-violent Social Change and the Tomb of Dr. Martin Luther
King. Even Ebenezer Baptist Church built a new edifice directly across the street
from its old church, named a National Historic Landmark.
And there is also Moore’s APEX Museum, which provides a peep into the
history of Auburn Avenue. And the Auburn
Avenue Research Library, one of a few nationwide, offers a wealth of
information on Black history in America. There is also the Martin Luther King,
Jr. birth home, freedom center, grave site and Old Ebenezer Baptist Church that
attract more than a million tourists each year.
But the epicenter of Black empowerment and success was gone.
“I’d like to think that we would want the generations of young African Americans
who come after us to know their history and the story of incredible
accomplishment Sweet Auburn represented at a very difficult time for
African-Americans,” Mtamanika Youngblood told
the AJC. “The lesson they need to take away is — if we could do that then, what
can’t we do now?”
During the Paris Olympics Opening Ceremony, the female American flag bearer will be Coco Gauff, the 20-year-old tennis star. She will be the youngest flag bearer in American Olympic history. Basketball legend LeBron James has been selected as the male flag bearer.
Gauff said, “I was not expecting that.”
Delighted to be selected, Gauff admitted she has “no idea” what her assignment includes, adding, “I don’t know if there’s flag bearer-training I have to go to.”
James has been to the Olympics four times. He was part of U.S. teams that won bronze in 2004, gold at Beijing in 2008 and gold again in London in 2012.
But this will be his first time as the flag bearer.
He said, “It’s an absolute honor. I hope I continue to make my community proud and continue to make my family proud.”
It’s been 21 years since Cleashandria Hall disappeared from Pine Bluff, Arkansas. Her mother Laurell Hall says she dropped her 18-year-old daughter off at her after-school job and never saw her again. For years, Hall and her family have kept their loved ones name in the media by hosting vigils and events that remind the public of their steadfast hope for answers.
But the attention is unusual. More often than not, experts say Black people who go missing do not receive the coverage as whites.
In October 2023, the state of California passed legislation that alerts the public to the disappearance of young people. It’s called the Ebony Alert, and it hopes to change the narrative about Black youth who are missing but don’t receive the same media coverage as white youth.
“We feel it’s well beyond time that we dedicate something specifically to help bring these young women and girls back home because they’re missed and loved just as much as their counterparts are,” State Senator Steven Bradford said in an interview with NBC News.
The recent docuseries about a California woman who faked her disappearance garnered 3.6 million viewers on Hulu, making it the most popular docuseries ever on the streaming service– a distinction that adds more credibility to the ongoing conversation about the disparities in media coverage and public attention when Black Americans are missing.
Sherri Papini grabbed the spotlight in 2016 as authorities searched for her before she reappeared and years later admitted the hoax. The popularity of the docuseries has reignited the dismay Black families experience when their loved ones are missing.
According to the Black and Missing Foundation, Black Americans make up 40% of missing Americans but only 13% of the population.
Foundation Founder Natalie Wilson said, “There’s a need for an Ebony Alert because people of color are disappearing at an alarming rate, and typically their cases are under the radar when it comes to media coverage and getting law enforcement resources.”
The Ebony Alert is activated when local authorities request it because a Black youth is missing, and there is concern the youth has been targeted for trafficking, or foul play is suspected. The Ebony Alert uses electronic highway signs and encouraged radio, TV, and social media and other systems to spread information about the missing persons’ alert.
In 2022, California began the Feather Alert which publicizes the disappearance of Indigenous people.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg led the investigation that resulted in the first felony conviction of a former United States President, Donald Trump. Bragg’s case centered on the hush money paid to Stormy Daniels, a porn actor who said she and Trump had sex in 2006. The trial involved charges that Trump falsified business records to cover up the payment to Daniels.
“While this defendant may be unlike any other in American history, we arrived at this trial and ultimately today at this verdict in the same manner as every other case that comes to the courtroom doors,” Bragg said during a press conference after the jury’s verdict was announced. “By following the facts and the law and doing so without fear or favor.”
Trump and his Republican supporters have accused Bragg of “weaponizing” the judicial system.
“This was a disgrace,” Trump said. “This was a rigged trial by a conflicted judge who was corrupt as a rigged trial, a disgrace. The real verdict is going to be November 5th by the people. And they know what happened here and everybody knows what happened here.”
Who is Alvin Bragg
In 2021, Bragg became the first African American elected as the District Attorney for New York County covering Manhattan. He graduated from Harvard Law School and has served as an Assistant Attorney General at the New York State Attorney General’s Office and as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. Bragg is a former member of the Board of Directors of the New York Urban League and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and a Sunday School teacher at his church.
Political Science professor, Sekou Franklin, said, “Bragg took a big risk bringing the case against former President Donald Trump. Undoubtedly, this risk is both personal and political. Despite this challenge, his willingness to prosecute Trump took great courage.”
Trump’s litany of indictments started when he left office in 2020 after losing the White House to President Joe Biden. Charges of Trump’s attempts to overthrow the 2020 election continue to generate investigations and outrage. African American prosecutors have led three of the most significant cases.
In Georgia, Trump was indicted, along with 18 of his allies, for attempting to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis brought the charges; however, the case became overshadowed by controversy when Willis was accused of hiring Nathan Wade as the special prosecutor because she was in a romantic relationship with him. Judge Scott McAfee declined to disqualify Willis, a decision Trump and his team are challenging.
Earlier this year New York State Attorney General Letitia James handed Trump a defeat after a New York judge ordered him and his business trust to pay $453.5 million in penalties and interest as part of his civil fraud case. The judge ruled that Trump fraudulently inflated the value of his real estate holdings when applying for loans.
But the latest convictions on 34 felony counts against the former President known for his boundary-breaking is historic.
“Alvin Bragg represents the new wave of prosecutors who have strong ties to public impact and community lawyering,” said Franklin, a professor at Middle Tennessee State. “Many of these prosecutors were elected as a result of protests that targeted racialized violence by law enforcement.”
Trump has described James, Willis and Bragg as “racists” – a thinly veiled attempt to tap into a vein of ingrained racism in the nation. The Republican Party lamented the convictions, decrying the trial as a political attack and a “shameful” day in American history.
Democrats view the convictions as an opportunity to sharpen their arguments that Trump is unfit to lead the nation domestically or represent America globally.
Trump faces up to four years in prison. His sentencing is set for July 11 – days before the start of the Republican National Convention.