A native woman of the Westside, Helen Smith Price has a unique passion for the community. Her grandparents, father and his 10 siblings were all born and raised on the Westside, and she recalls it as a place during her childhood where Black residents felt truly equal, safe and protected in  the days leading up to the Civil Rights Movement.

Price lived on the Westside until the age of eight and later returned in her early adulthood to attend Spelman College. She went on to have a prolific career in community leadership, retiring as President of the Coca-Cola Foundation and Vice President of Community Affairs for the Coca-Cola Company.

These days, she gives back to the community that shaped her by serving on the Westside Future Fund (WFF) Board of Directors as well as the boards of Spelman College and Coca-Cola United.

For Price, a deep passion for the Westside is rooted both in her personal history and its role  advancing Black excellence and culture.

“The history of the community as a whole is incredible. Booker T. Washington High School’s history has always stood out to me as the first high school for African Americans in Georgia. Families from across the entire state of Georgia would send their children to Atlanta to continue their education,” said Price. “I can’t imagine sending my 13-year-old child to another city for school, but it was the only way they could get an education. Then you have Washington Park, the only park where African Americans could swim, and the first Black YMCA, Phyllis Wheatley YMCA. There’s so much history here, I couldn’t possibly list it all.”

A Special Place

Price says the Westside was uniquely special during her childhood because of the sense of equality it provided Black residents – something they could seldom find elsewhere in the South at the time.

“The Westside, when I was a child, was a protected African American community. We had our own grocery stores, our own movie theater, we had everything we needed in our community and we were protected from segregation here, we had no reason to venture out. The Westside was a very special place,” she said.

During Price’s childhood on the Westside, the painful realities of segregation were seldom an issue in the community. The only instance she remembers was a show called “The Popeye Club,” a locally broadcasted television show for children.

“Children could go on the show in the audience, and the only thing I can remember in regards to segregation while living on the Westside was we couldn’t go on The Popeye Club. That’s it,” said Price. “It was a neighborhood that was fully engaged, separate and equal.”

But when Price and her family moved from the Westside to Grove Park around the age of eight, that all changed. Once a predominantly White neighborhood, the sudden influx of Black homebuyers agitated White residents, and in a short time, Price witnessed one of the most memorable moments of racism and bigotry she can recall.

“One night, a cross was burned in the yard across the street from us. My mother was nursing my baby sister when she noticed the flames, and immediately my parents called the police,” recalls Price. “As a small child, I didn’t quite understand everything going on at the time, but looking back, it was the first time in my life I’d witnessed something like that. I’d been so protected on the Westside that I’d never been truly affected to that point. The Westside was a community where we felt safe, we thrived and it served all of our needs.”

Protecting the Westside

Today, Price hopes to help preserve the community that protected her by transforming the neighborhoods in a way that will foster the same level she was afforded during her childhood.

She proclaims education is ‘one of her greatest passions,’ and she is proud to support cradle-to-career education initiatives led by WFF. However Price acknowledges that bolstering education resources in the community won’t help if legacy residents are priced out by housing development.

“I look at other revitalized communities that have promised to ensure existing residents would not be priced out, but in many cases, those promises were not kept. They are wonderful communities, but the people are gone,” said Price. “Westside Future Fund is working so hard to ensure that we revitalize the Westside community with resources and services, so that people who claim it as their home have the opportunity to stay here.”

Exemplary Leadership

Price is encouraged by the ongoing work of the organization and looks forward to being a valuable member of the Board. Leadership from experienced civic and business leaders is integral to the success of WFF’s mission to transform the Westside into a community Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. would be proud to call home.

“Westside Future Fund has built an incredible team, formed an incredible Board and is becoming an organization with a plan template to help guide similar community projects to success, both locally and nationally. I’m so proud to be a part of the impact we are making on this community,” said Price.

A big year is in the works for Westside Future Fund’s (WFF) Home on the Westside program as we plan to complete 45 affordable homes in the community by the end of 2023.

The plans include 33 rental units across five multi-family properties and 12 single family homes. All of the properties are located within the English Avenue and Vine City neighborhoods, including several single family homes on the blocks surrounding Kathryn Johnston Memorial Park.

In addition to the homes set to complete this year, WFF plans to break ground on three high-quality, affordable multi-family properties in English Avenue that will deliver 83 new rental units by the end of 2024.

These projects are only the beginning. Thanks to critical community support, WFF has acquired land holdings to support an additional 150 single-family homes and more than 150 units of multi-family housing. Many of these properties include blighted and vacant lots that WFF maintains with the intent to develop in the immediate future.

This spring, our Home on the Westside program will welcome new homeowners Shawn and Auna who are closing on their new two-story constructions at 852 and 854 Proctor Street respectively. They join fellow new homeowner Steven who closed and moved into 850 Proctor Street in December 2022.

The three new homes line the block of Proctor Street adjacent to Kathryn Johnston Memorial Park. All three new homeowners are legacy residents of the Westside with deep roots in the community, with some going back to their childhood.

The Home on the Westside program provides legacy residents with access to housing to keep them in the community they know and love. By retaining these legacy residents, the community retains not only its history and culture but also those passionate for its future.

After decades of neglect, many properties, including whole blocks in the English Avenue community, are suffering from abandonment and blight. In the past few years, two parks have been constructed in the neighborhood to honor Westside community matriarchs Mattie Freeland and Kathryn Johnston. We’re sharing their stories to honor Women’s History Month and to celebrate their impact on the Westside.

Mattie Freeland Park 

For more than 55 years, residents of English Avenue could see Mattie Freeland on the porch of her D’Alvigney Street home when they passed by. She came to the neighborhood in its prime  — a bustling Black middle-class community home to visionary civil and business leaders — and stayed through its fall from grace.

Over the years, English Avenue felt the crippling impacts of disinvestment in the community, leading to widespread poverty and community neglect. Mattie watched the landscape around her dwindle each year, with neighbors leaving, crime increasing and resources becoming scarce.

Across the street from her home, an empty lot quickly filled with abandoned cars, trash and unsightly waste that was not only an eyesore, but a danger to children and others in the community. What many saw as a blight, Mattie saw as an opportunity.

Known to many in the neighborhood as “Mother Mattie,” she was a regular attendee of the nearby Life Covenant Church and was renowned for being a source of life, love and care for her neighbors. When in need, one could count on her to offer a meal, a phone call or even a couch to sleep on.

One day in 2007, when speaking with neighbors and members of her church, Mattie expressed a vision to transform the blighted lot into a flower garden, envisioning the space as a place for the community to gather and grow together. She passed away before her vision could be realized, but it was not forgotten. In late 2008, neighbors gathered and formed what would become the Friends of Mattie Freeland Park, a group dedicated to the clean up of the blighted property.

Over the next several years, the space became a community gathering spot. It included space for children to play pick-up field sports, picnic tables and a grilling area. The atmosphere inspired murals to be painted on abandoned structures along the property and the creation of a homemade screen community members would use with a borrowed projector for gatherings.

In 2015, a conceptual park plan was created with the help of Park Pride and the available lots were purchased by The Conservation Fund on behalf of the City of Atlanta Parks Department. Together, the organizations planned to integrate the space into the Atlanta Park System and make it a permanently protected community green space.

After a few years of planning and community input, the project broke ground in 2020. Construction continued through late 2022 when Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, City Councilmember Byron Amos, the Atlanta Department of Parks and Recreation, Park Pride, The Conservation Fund, and the Friends of Mattie Freeland Park held a ribbon cutting to celebrate the long-anticipated grand opening of Mattie Freeland Park.

Now, “Mother Mattie” Freeland is cemented—and landscaped— into the neighborhood she knew and loved for years to come.

Kathryn Johnston Memorial Park

The fabric of the Westside community, City of Atlanta and our nation as a whole was deeply impacted onNovember 6, 2006, when three undercover Atlanta Police officers carried out a botched no-knock warrant raid on the home of 92-year-old Kathryn Johnston.

Just after sunset, Officers Gregg Junnier, Jason Smith and Arthur Tesler knocked down the door of Johnston’s Neal Street home on English Avenue, carrying out a warrant on the home of a suspected drug dealer. In a rapid series of events, officers fired 39 rounds into the home, striking Johnston multiple times. She died at the scene.

Johnston was known as a kind, caring woman and matriarch of the local community. The circumstances permitting the officers’ warrant immediately came under question as it was clear unforgivable mistakes had been made. The three officers involved were fired from the police force and the incident was immediately investigated. Over the next several months, the investigation revealed that much of the intelligence behind the warrant was partially or entirely falsified.

Local and national protests emerged as all eyes turned to the disaster on Neal Street, reigniting an ongoing national conversation around police brutality and a failed system of community policing. In 2009, after a lengthy investigation and trial, Chief U.S. District Judge Julie E. Carnes sentenced the three officers to prison on the charge of conspiracy to violate civil rights resulting in death.

While justice was served against her killers, community members and city leaders knew more had to be done to honor Johnston’s legacy and ensure the story of her grievous passing would not be forgotten.

In 2018, after months of community discussion, Park Pride, The Conservation Fund and the City of Atlanta broke ground on Kathryn Johnston Memorial Park on English Avenue with the intention of it serving as a constant reminder of the ongoing efforts to ensure that Atlantans not only remember her contributions to her community, but also continue to work toward the prevention of future tragedies.

Located a block from the site of the incident at her home, the park transformed vacant and blighted lots into a community greenspace where children and families in the Westside community can gather and play.

In addition to being a beautiful outdoor attraction, the park is built specifically to help mitigate stormwater, which had long flooded and plagued the neighborhood. According to Park Pride, it’s capable of managing more than 3.5 million gallons of water annually.

The ribbon cutting ceremony for the park took place on November 6, 2019—exactly 13 years after her murder. Today, the park is full of life.

Westside Future Fund has prioritized property development on the blocks surrounding the park. Several single family homes are being remodeled or built nearby, including four properties adjacent to the park on Proctor Street. New homeowners moved in this past December and January, and two more closings are scheduled for March 2023.

Last month, more than 50 volunteers from The Home Depot Foundation partnered with Westside Future Fund for the annual MLK Day of Service to create wellness and resource rooms at Booker T. Washington High School where Dr. King graduated in 1944.

Tolton Pace, manager of Programs and Partnerships for The Home Depot Foundation, believes these new spaces will help students gain confidence on their pathways to success.

“We hope the wellness room will help students feel empowered in a safe, comfortable place that also offers a sense of dignity,” said Pace. “In this intimate space, students can seek support from teachers and comfortably address any issues that come up on a day-to-day basis in school.”

According to Raquel Hudson, WFF director of Programs, many students at the school lack adequate resources to dress and groom appropriately for school and work. Previously, the school utilized a vacant storage room stocked with used clothing as a makeshift resource room, but found that many students were uncomfortable sifting through disorganized boxes and changing in the school restrooms. Hudson hopes the reinvented space will encourage students who need these resources to use them freely and comfortably.

“The resource room will feel like a boutique with vanity tables, clothing racks and a dressing room,” said Hudson, who led WFF’s MLK Day of Service planning effort. “These kids deserve to have their needs met with dignity, and we’re grateful for the opportunity to help make that possible.”

Located a few doors down from the resource room, the wellness room provides students with a place to decompress, destress and de-escalate. The room is equipped with couches, work tables, and whiteboards where students can work or leave kind messages for fellow students and school staff.

Students are encouraged to use the space at their leisure while under supervision of a school staff member. It is a safe space for students to clear their minds and escape the daily pressures of school, and it will be used for counseling sessions, school program meetings and mental health services. Dr. Erica Clark, student counselor at Booker T. Washington High School, says students immediately started taking advantage of their newest amenity.

“It’s going to be an important resource for us to address the mental health of our students and help them find refuge from the pressure of school and social life for a moment,” said Dr. Clark. “We’ve already started some group sessions, and we partner with Hazel Health to provide virtual mental health counseling. If there’s something we can’t provide them, they can go to this space and speak with a medical professional that can help address their mental health concerns.”

The new spaces are expected to have a lasting positive impact on students for years to come. Lee Hendrickson, Corporate Volunteerism Manager at The Home Depot Foundation, says they can already see the impact of their work coming to fruition.

“Soon after the rooms were complete, Dr. Clark shared a video of students who were excited to thank us for transforming the space,” said Hendrickson. “Their gratitude reminds us how valuable these spaces are to them, and we consider it a privilege to make a positive impact on their lives.”

During the first half of the 20th century, the historic Westside was a bustling middle-class Black community with manicured neighborhoods – but as socioeconomic inequities set in, so did neglect.

Over the years, many properties on the Westside became vacant, abandoned and blighted, leaving rotting shells of former homes engulfed in overgrown vegetation. The unsightly nature of the situation pushed out families, and drew in crime.

Lee Harrop, vice president of Real Estate Development at Westside Future Fund (WFF), says it’s a cycle that without intervention will only get worse, which is why the organization is working to purchase as much of the blighted property as possible to help beautify and sustain the community.

“One of the reasons we work so hard to purchase, secure and maintain these blighted properties is that blight leads to more blight. It’s the broken window theory—if you fix the broken window, people won’t feel as inclined to break the one next to it,” said Harrop.

To date, WFF has purchased 189 vacant or blighted properties on the Westside—120 vacant lots and 69 severely deteriorated single family homes. Of those single family homes, 25 have been or are slated for demolition due to safety concerns. An additional 18 have been renovated and sold or rented, and 29 more are either under construction or awaiting city permitting.

One area of focus in the clean-up effort has been the streets surrounding the newly-constructed Kathryn Johnston Memorial Park. While partner organization Park Pride was redeveloping the park, WFF set off to purchase and clean-up blighted properties on surrounding blocks. The side-by-side projects had a double-dipper effect, reducing blight and increasing quality of health and life for people living next to the park in the future and preserving that land for legacy residents.

“We try to take blight out of the equation anywhere that we can. We managed to get rid of all the blight in the Kathryn Johnston Memorial Park development area, so now we’re focusing on the next blocks beyond that. Removing the blight has also pushed out squatters, many of whom were engaging in illegal activity. By pushing them out, the park area has become much safer for families and children,” said Harrop.

On Proctor Street, one of the streets bordering the park, WFF has already constructed, sold and closed several homes through the Home on the Westside program. The program aims to provide legacy residents of the Westside with newly-renovated or constructed, affordable homes in the community.

While WFF works to redevelop and rejuvenate these properties, they have to be secured, consistently monitored and maintained.

Thanks to a partnership with Westside-local non-profit Integrity Home Solutions, that maintenance is made easier, says Raquel Hudson, director of Property Assets and Volunteer Programs.

“Integrity Home Solutions makes sure our properties are cut regularly, keeping the grass at a proper height, cutting back bushes and branches and keeping the properties beautified. They also check to make sure there’s no dumping or trash, which is a huge problem here on the Westside, particularly on vacant properties. If there is, Integrity Home Solutions cleans it up for us,” said Hudson. “They’ve been a great partner in helping us in our mission.”

In cases where clean up efforts may need to be more extensive, Integrity Home Solutions helps identify key areas for WFF monthly Community Cleanup, volunteer events that aim to remove trash and overgrowth over larger areas.

The purchase, maintenance and renovation of these blighted and vacant properties is essential to the organizational mission of WFF to revitalize the Westside, and the organization has plans in store to continue this effort over the coming years.

Revitalizing our community is a team effort, one that relies heavily on the support of our many incredible volunteers. To thank them for their hard work and dedication, we shine a light on people who actively support our mission.

This month, we’re spotlighting Alesha Bell, a Westside local committed to helping transform our community for the better. See what inspires him to give her time as a volunteer for Westside Future Fund.

Q: How did you first hear about the Westside Future Fund?

A: Back in 2018, I was looking for organizations in my neighborhood I could volunteer with and when I searched on Google, I fell upon the Westside Future Fund website and was immediately interested. Their vision to transform the Westside resonated with me as a resident.

Q: What is your favorite part of serving with the WFF Volunteer Corp?

A: For me, it’s my love for making a difference in my community and actually touching the lives of my neighbors.

Q: What inspires you about this service opportunity?

A: As a mother of two small children, I want to set an example for them by serving our community in a way that shows integrity, a loving spirit and leadership. My children are my inspiration, encouraging me every single day to always do the right thing in my community.

Q: What do you want others to know about the Westside Future Fund and why it’s so important?

A: It is so important as residents of the Westside that we are strong together and that we care for one another. Our strength in numbers displays our passion and growth in our community. We can only go up from there!

A Worker from a Young Age

In 1933, Dorothy Bolden began working as a domestic worker for a white Atlanta family near her Vine City home in the Westside community. She was nine years old. Every day after school, she’d work at the family’s home, caring for their baby, washing diapers and cleaning the house.

In 11th grade, she dropped out of school and began working full-time as a domestic worker. She would begin at 8 a.m. and finish in the early evening, just after dinner. Despite working nearly 12 hours a day, she only earned $3 per week.

For Bolden, domestic work was the only lifestyle she knew. When she was born in 1924, her mother was a maid and washerwoman. Before she began working on her own, Bolden and her brother would deliver the laundry their mother washed for other families.

The work was grueling. From the beginning, Bolden longed to leave the domestic workforce, but was limited by an injury she suffered at age three, which left her eyesight severely damaged. She attempted to attend design school and work in a mailroom, but her poor vision made it near impossible. She ultimately landed back as a domestic worker.

Unfortunately for many Black women at the time, this was a vicious cycle. Domestic work was one of the few careers readily available to them due to a litany of restrictions caused by segregation. It was unrightfully viewed as an unskilled job, resulting in low wages, long hours and poor treatment.

At the age of 16, Bolden experienced poor treatment firsthand. Her employer demanded she stay late one evening to wash dishes and tidy up the house. With nightfall just around the corner, she refused and left. On her way home, she was confronted by two Atlanta police officers who promptly arrested her for talking back to a white woman. She was jailed and eventually bailed out by her family at great financial expense.

Family, Misfortune and Motivation

A few years later in 1944, Bolden met Abraham Thompson and the two were married. The couple had nine children together— three passed away at a young age and the other six lived on to adulthood.

Bolden took a few years off from work to care for her family, but economic conditions were unfavorable and forced her back into the domestic workforce. This time around, with years of experience under her belt, she was able to command a higher rate with some larger homes paying her as much as $90 per week.

Still, the pay did not satisfy the exhaustion. Each day, she would wake up at 4 a.m. to travel to the white neighborhoods she served, then return home in the evening to prepare meals and care for her children. While she claimed to like the work to some degree, the exhaustion it caused and the mistreatment she suffered at the hands of families she served were taking a toll.

One day in 1955, Bolden was watching TV when she saw the news of Rosa Parks in Alabama refusing to give up her seat. The exhaustion she saw in the fellow labor worker’s eyes inspired her to move for change, and that’s when her mission began.

A Quest for Change

Bolden quickly dove into the world of activism, volunteering with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and her impact was immediately noticeable. She played an integral role in school desegregation, voter registration and housing reform.

Bolden was still unsatisfied, arguing that desegregated schools and housing was pointless when Black women working as domestic workers couldn’t even afford clothes for their children to attend the schools. That’s when she turned her attention and activism toward the cause closest to her heart, supporting her fellow domestic workers.

Having grown up in Vine City and working tirelessly to build an activism network in the community, she turned to her new neighbor on Sunset Avenue and asked for some guidance on how to form a union for her fellow workers. That neighbor was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

King had heard of Bolden’s work with local organizations and encouraged her to move forward with the formation of a union, saying he knew she had the ability to do it herself. So she did.

Forming a union required her to meet with her constituents. With years of domestic work experience herself, she knew there was little to no time for them to meet outside of work hours, so she met them at the one place she knew they’d be every day— the bus.

For months, Bolden would ride buses at the same time domestic workers were traveling to and from their jobs. She championed her cause, urging domestic workers to join her in forming a union – and they agreed.

A Union is Born

In 1968, more than 70 domestic workers elected Bolden as president of the newly-formed National Domestic Workers of America, one of the first of its kind in the country. While the organization had national in its name, it primarily served women in the Atlanta area.

The union’s first goal was to train the domestic workers in skills, including cooking, shopping, child care and elder care. Though most workers already possessed the skills, Bolden and the union provided a formal training program, which helped them argue that the workers were now professionally trained and worthy of higher pay and better treatment.

The union’s impact was noticeable; domestic workers were now receiving reasonable pay and there was a clear shift in the overall environment of the career, with many workers feeling more confident and proud of their work. Soon, similar organizations began to sprout up around the country, and the government took notice.

In 1970, the union announced the first Maids’ Honor Day, during which employers nominated their employees to be recognized at a local gala to celebrate their hard work. Two years later, then-Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter announced the day would be recognized as a state holiday. Bolden stood next to him during the address.

Over the next three decades, the union would remain a prominent force for protecting the rights of domestic workers. Bolden’s success earned her national recognition, and over the years she acted as an advisor to Presidents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan. She remained a key leader of the union until her retirement in the mid-1990s. Bolden passed away in 2005.

While the traditional domestic worker role has changed significantly over the years, Bolden’s legacy was crucial to providing the safe and fair work environment that home caretakers experience today.

Born in 1908, Dr. Irene Dobbs Jackson was the first of six daughters born to Irene and John Wesley Dobbs. In her early years, Irene, known as “Renie,” and her family resided in Auburn Avenue, a thriving neighborhood in Atlanta known as an epicenter of Black culture and excellence in the South. She was a brilliant academic, graduating valedictorian of her high school and 1929 Spelman College classes, and a talented pianist, a skill that ultimately led her to her future husband.

In 1932, while playing piano at a party in her Auburn Avenue neighborhood, Renie met Maynard Jackson Sr., her husband-to-be. Before tying the knot, she moved to France to study for a Master’s degree in French at the University of Toulouse.

During this same time, her father John Wesley Dobbs embarked on a mission to secure voting rights for Black Americans. Believing that enfranchisement was the key to overcoming segregation, Dobbs started a voter registration drive in 1936 with a goal of registering 10,000 Black voters in Georgia. That year, Dobbs founded the Atlanta Civic and Political League, and over the next decade more than 20,000 Black citizens were registered to vote. In 1946, following this decade of success, Dobbs founded the Atlanta Negro Voters League and, using his found influence and leadership, convinced then-Mayor Hartsfield Jackson to integrate the Atlanta Police force.

By then, Renie had returned from France and married Jackson Sr., a preacher at Friendship Baptist Church. In 1949, the couple built and moved into their new home at 220 Sunset Avenue in the Vine City neighborhood on the Westside. They chose the location for their family’s home because of the neighborhood’s reputation as a nice, middle-class Black neighborhood. The couple and their six children lived in apartment three on the second floor. Maynard used the third floor apartment as his office and they rented out the two first-floor units to generate additional income.

During this time, Jackson Sr. became increasingly involved in the local push for civil rights for Black Atlantans, using his position as a leader in his prominent Black church to encourage increased political involvement in the Black community.

A few years later in 1953, Jackson Sr. passed away and Renie decided to further pursue her education, returning again to the University of Toulouse for a doctorate in French. In 1959, she returned home to both her Sunset Avenue home and alma mater Spelman College, where she assumed a post as a professor.

As a scholar in a constant pursuit of new knowledge, she headed to her local Atlanta Public Library. While in France, she had been free to join any library she chose and check out any books-–but that was not the case at home. Segregation restricted Black people from full participation in the library system. Black Atlantans were permitted to read books, but only in the basement of a segregated branch of the library system. Additionally, they couldn’t hold an official library card to the main branches of the Atlanta Public Library system.

Determined to be the difference, Dr. Jackson walked into the main branch of the Atlanta Public Library and demanded equal treatment, applying for a library card. Within a few days, her application was approved, and Dr. Irene Jackson was the first Black person in the city’s history to be issued a public library card. Today, she’s credited with integrating the Atlanta Public Library system.

Her leadership in the fight for equality went on to inspire her children, including her son Maynard Jackson Jr. From his earliest days on Sunset Avenue into his adulthood, Maynard Jr. was a champion for the Black community. After years of community leadership, he was elected as Atlanta’s first Black mayor in 1973.

The Jackson family sold their home in 1969, but its historical significance grew. In 1970, the home was purchased by Southern Rural Action Incorporated and was used to house visiting scholars who came to see The King Center for Nonviolent Social Change, an organization founded by Coretta Scott King, wife of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

In 2020, Westside Future Fund purchased the Sunset Avenue home to restore and apply for historic designation on the National Register of Historic Places. Renovations are currently underway. Once completed, the reimagined property will serve as affordable housing for researchers and graduate students affiliated with the Atlanta University Center, and it will stand as a landmark for years to come.

During #BlackHistoryMonth, Westside Future Fund is highlighting some of the places, people and events that form the rich history of our neighborhoods — English Avenue, Vine City, Ashview Heights and Atlanta University Center.

Vine City

1905: Alonzo Herndon founds the Atlanta Life Insurance Company

Formerly enslaved, Alonzo Herndon (1858-1927) is heralded as “Atlanta’s first Black millionaire.” He was a brilliant businessman who started as a barber, opening several shops across the city including one at 66 Peachtree Street that donned crystal chandeliers, gold fixtures and the reputation of being the largest and best barbershop in the region. He went on to start the Atlanta Life Insurance Company in 1905 with $5,000 in assets — and by 1922, the company’s value had grown to over $400,000.

Using the wealth from his barbershops and life insurance company, Herndon purchased more than 100 properties worth more than $325,000. By his death in 1927, it was estimated that he was worth roughly $1 million — roughly $17 million today — making him one of the wealthiest Black people in the nation at the time. Herndon and his wife, Adrienne, designed, purchased and moved into a Beaux Arts home for the family in the southern part of Vine City that was constructed by Black Atlanta craftsmen in 1910. The structure still stands today and sits in close proximity to the Vine City MARTA station.

1923: Dorothy Bolden is born in Vine City

At only nine years old, Dorothy Bolden was already working as a domestic worker in a nearby Atlanta home, and she would continue in that work for the next 49 years. Her experience was tumultuous, and she was once arrested after an incident with her boss for “talking back to a white woman,” and she was submitted to a psychiatric facility for evaluation. These experiences led her to her calling.

A neighbor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Vine City, Bolden utilized their combined network to connect with families all over Atlanta, particularly women working as domestic workers. During the 1960s, domestic workers endured 13-hour workdays and received minimal pay. In 1968, Bolden began the process for the organization of a national union for domestic workers to improve wages and working conditions. She gathered more than 13,000 women from 10 cities to form the National Domestic Workers Union, an organization responsible for tremendous progress for domestic workers. Her work ultimately earned national recognition and earned her advisorships to the administrations of Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter.

1966: Martin Luther King, Jr. moves to the Westside

Born in Atlanta in 1929, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. moved back in 1960 after years of studying theology in Boston and leading Civil Rights initiatives in Montgomery. His return came as he worked to expand the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and he preached alongside his father at Ebenezer Baptist Church.

In 1966, a year after winning the Nobel Peace Prize, Dr. King and his family purchased the four-bedroom home at 234 Sunset Avenue in Vine City. He would spend the next two years in his Atlanta home, working tirelessly in the fight for equality and justice before being assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1968. Following his death, his wife Coretta Scott King remained at the home and founded the King Center for Nonviolent Social Change, a non-governmental, not-for-profit organization she led from the basement of their Westside home for years to come.

1967: Helen Howard founds the Vine City Foundation, Inc.

A resident of Vine City, Helen Howard saw a grave need for action to save the community from continued decline. Alongside fellow community members, Howard organized the Vine City Foundation, Inc. to provide urgently needed resources to residents including a free medical clinic, nursery, legal advice and a food cooperative.

1973: Maynard Jackson Jr. forms 1973 mayoral campaign at Pascal’s Restaurant

Facing the challenge of potentially being both the youngest and first Black Mayor of Atlanta, Maynard Jackson, Jr., knew he had to put together a world-class campaign for office. Tucked away in Vine City, Pascal’s was known as the gathering spot for political, religious and activist leaders. In 1973, Jackson gathered a small team to create a strategy to win the race to be Atlanta’s next mayor — their plan worked. Jackson went on to serve three terms (1974-1978, 1978-1982, 1990-1994) as mayor, second to only six-term Mayor William B. Hartsfield. Today, both men are the combined namesake of Atlanta’s airport, the busiest in the world, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.

During #BlackHistoryMonth, we are highlighting some of the places, people and events that form the rich history of our neighborhoods — English Avenue, Vine City, Ashview Heights and Atlanta University Center.

English Avenue

1881: Captain James W. English elected Mayor of Atlanta

A revered Civil War Captain, James W. English is the namesake of the English Avenue neighborhood. After his election as mayor in 1881, his efforts as promoter-in-chief of Atlanta as an industrial hub included organizing the 1881 International Cotton Exposition directly adjacent to the railroad on the northeast edge of English Avenue. It aimed at “attracting Northern investment to Atlanta by demonstrating the virtually unlimited potential for economic development and capital growth in the New South.” In 1891 the ex-mayor’s eldest son, James W. English, Jr., purchased a large tract south of the exposition site and began the development of the contemporary area of English Avenue. It was designed for Atlanta’s White working class. Transportation was fundamental to the neighborhood’s early expansion. Many residents in the northern area of the neighborhood, near North Avenue, commuted to the nearby downtown business district along Peachtree Street via the several streetcars that connected the neighborhood to the downtown district until the 1960s. English Avenue School opened in 1910 to serve White, working-class students from the nearby community — but that would change several years later in 1950.

1950: City of Atlanta changes the racial designation of English Avenue School from White to Black

The population of English Avenue saw a significant change in demographics over the course of the first half of the 20th century. A once dominantly White, working class neighborhood, English Avenue had shifted toward a majority Black population by the middle of the century. Quickly, the white population began to migrate out of the community resulting in a gradual decline in the overall population and the disappearance of resources necessary for supporting residents.

1960: English Avenue School is bombed

In the wake of the mobilization of the Atlanta Student Movement, the English Avenue School was victim to a bombing in December of 1960. The act was interpreted as retaliation for the Atlanta University Center students’ desegregation campaign. A Chicago Tribune article reported that two “classrooms and an auditorium were smashed and windows were knocked out in nearby homes. The blast was heard 10 miles away.” Just the day prior, the auditorium had been used for a prayer session ahead of anti-segregation protests.

1995: English Avenue School permanently closes

With the community population having shrunk significantly since the school’s foundation, the City of Atlanta made the decision to close the English Avenue School in1995. Since the school’s closing, the building has remained unoccupied. In 2010, the building was bought by the Greater Vine City Opportunities Program, under the leadership of Mable Thomas, a graduate of the English Avenue School, with the intention of converting the building into a community center. On March 23, 2020, the building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. To date, Thomas’ ambitions of a community center have not been realized, but the building will remain protected for the foreseeable future.

1998 & 2011: Tom Wolfe publishes A Man in Full; Snow on tha Bluff airs in theaters

In the 1990s and early 2000s, the English Avenue community had fallen into decay. The outward migration from the community over the past 50 years had left vacant, blighted properties scattered throughout the neighborhoods and scarce community resources. As a result, some residents turned to crime and drugs to fund their needs — which in turn led to an outbreak of violence. With robberies, homicides and arrests quickly on the rise in the neighborhood, national media took notice. In 1998, Tom Wolfe would publish A Man in Full, a controversial, best-selling novel highlighting tensions between Atlanta’s wealthy White elites and a Black collegiate athlete and English Avenue resident accused of rape. Over a decade later, Snow on tha Bluff would air in theaters. The movie is a dramatization of the illegal drug trade in the English Avenue community, colloquially known as “Tha Bluff,” and the violence within the community.

2006: 92-year old Kathryn Johnson is murdered by three Atlanta Police officers

The brutal 2006 killing of 92-year-old Kathryn Johnston – resident of Neal Street – by three Atlanta Police officers brought the use of excessive force and police brutality against black Atlantans to greater public attention and prompted a reorganization of the City’s drug investigation unit. Further, the killing prompted a renewed push for community mobilization and improvement. The incident sparked the modern movement for a national conversation surrounding police brutality and reform in the law enforcement system that continues to today.