White Flight in the Kirkwood Neighborhood of Atlanta, GA
By Chad Hoge
On June 16,
1960, two black women,
Mrs. Ann Roberts and her daughter, moved into the house they had rented at 1500 Woodbine Ave.[1] They were
greeted by the angry shouts of white neighbors, who were determined to
"Keep Kirkwood White."[2] These shouts did not drive the new residents
away however; Mrs. Roberts and her daughter stayed, they were among the first
of "a vast flood of Negros...coming East ward" who eventually
replaced virtually all of their white forerunners.[3] The
neighborhood of Kirkwood on Atlanta's east-side is an excellent case study in
black residential expansion and the resulting white flight. In 1950, African Americans made up about .3%
of the population in Kirkwood, by 1960 there were virtually none, in 1970; blacks were over 95% of
the total population.[4] The years of 1954 through 1966, in the Kirkwood area, clearly demonstrate the extreme fear
that the mid-twentieth century white community had of African Americans. This fear had the power to turn long standing
neighbors against each other, provoke residents to abandon homes, schools and
churches, inspire violence, and ultimately dissolved a community of almost
7,000 people. In this process an
entirely new community was founded. These new residents of Kirkwood lived in
the same house, mowed the same lawns, attended the same schools, worshipped in
the same churches, shopped in the same stores, and traveled the same streets;
however they were very different in one principal regard, race.
The Kirkwood neighborhood is located about five miles due
east of the central business district in Atlanta. It is
bordered by the neighborhoods of Edgewood to
the west, Lake Claire to the north, East Lake and Oakhurst to the west, and East Atlanta and the city limits to the south. The boundaries of the neighborhood have been
quite fluid throughout much of its history.
Today they are generally considered to be made up of the following: the
railroad track (also MARTA) to the north, Memorial Drive to the south, Montgomery Street, Woodbine Avenue, and Rogers Street to the west, and Winter, Mellrich, and Second Avenue to the east.[5] The
area first developed around 1870 as a streetcar suburb of Atlanta. During
this early period many large Queen Anne and a few Greek revival style homes
were built, most along Howard Street and Kirkwood Road. The
area was incorporated as an independent municipality in 1899 and in 1910 the
streetcar provided service to and from Atlanta three times a day. With regular access to the city, Kirkwood's residential development exploded. The 1920's and 30's brought street after
street lined with Craftsman style bungalow homes. In 1922, this now established white working
class neighborhood voted for annexation into the city of Atlanta. With
this annexation, Kirkwood became part of the city's second ward.[6]
The Kirkwood of 1922 looked a great deal like the Kirkwood of 1950.
The majority of the residents were working class: craftsmen, foremen, or
clerks, with a few white collar managers and salesmen mixed in. They were just slightly better educated and
better paid then the average Atlantan and most owned their own homes.[7] The
suburban bliss of white Kirkwood stood in stark contrast to Atlanta's struggling black community. Urban renewal projects and expressway
construction had destroyed much of this population's already sparse housing
stock.[8] According to a report by the Municipal
Planning Commission penned in 1950, "the provision of Negro housing in
adequate supply and adequate quality loom[ed]...as one of the area's most
pressing problems"[9] Even
with this demand and a pocket of some two thousand blacks residing just to the
west of Kirkwood's industrial area, the residents of 1950 felt secure. This security was shaken in 1954 however,
when homes on formally all white streets, just to the northwest of Kirkwood proper, began to house black Atlantans.
"An attempt is
being made to sell white property to Negroes in the Whitefoord Avenue area" warned a petition by the Moreland
Heights Civic Club to acting Mayor Lee Evans in December of 1954.[10] Around the same time Mayor Hartsfield and
Alderman Robert E. Lee Field meet with a group of local residents at Whitefoord School to discuss growing anxieties about black encroachment.[11] Less
than two miles to the east at the Kirkwood School, unsuspecting students
entertained parents and faculty with a "Negro Skit," performed in the
school auditorium, and sponsored by the Kirkwood P.T.A. It included eighteen children in black face,
reveling in ante-bellum glory.[12] Though this was less than two miles away, Kirkwood residents still felt relatively secure in
their all white enclave.
This security was
enhanced in early 1955 with a racial divide established at LaFrance Street and Whitefoord Avenue. Local
residents proclaimed that the areas south and east of this intersection would
remain white, while the streets north and west would be surrendered to new
black residents. By February, this line
was already being threatened.[13] It did
however, remain relatively secure until March of 1956. On March 9th, a house on the 200 block of
Flora Avenue, just to the south of the LaFrance Street divide, was bombed
because it had been rented to a black man.
Ernest Simmons and his family were sleeping when several sticks of
dynamite exploded in their yard early that morning; considerable damage was
done to the front porch, door, windows, and foundation.[14] Later that year, a bi-racial committee was
formed to address the controversy. It
had some success in stalling the encroachment until 1959.[15]
By the fall of 1959, Edgewood residents faced encroachment from both the
north and west, as all of the houses on Boulevard, west of Moreland Avenue, were placed on the market at once. A 240 unit apartment complex, in the area
shifted from completely white to completely black.[16] Reynoldstown, and west Edgewood residents offered little resistance. However, with blacks less than a mile from Whitefoord School and the Kirkwood community, south Kirkwood and east Edgewood residents began to react. "Are the niggers moving in?"
quipped one area resident in a concerned phone call to Thomas Parham, the
city's Housing Coordinator, in February of 1960.[17]
Thomas Parham, a
trained social worker, filled the vexing position of the Municipal Planning
Commission Housing Coordinator. In this
post he had the unfortunate responsibility of hearing citywide complaints of
"Negro invaders." He filled
this position from its creation, until the summer of 1960, when he was replaced
by Sid Avery. Avery was a veteran of the
c.1950's racial housing disputes on the west side; during which he served as
vice president of the Southwest Citizens Association. In this post he was considered rather radical
and uncooperative by the biracial West Side Mutual Development Committee. Many of his contemporaries argued that he was
a decidedly poor choice to assume this post; lacking experience and social
grace, he tended to offend more than he appeased. He did however, take an aggressive stance in
supporting white Kirkwood residents.[18]
This support did not
come soon enough, however; by the early months of 1960, blacks out numbered
white residents in the Moreland area three to one.[19] With the
Whitefoord School and area churches seriously threatened, Kirkwood and Edgewood
residents formed a corporation to buy disputed houses. The Eastern Atlanta Corporation planned to
use the "proceeds from the sale of shares...for the purchase of
residential real estate in areas where the character and property value are
threatened by distress sales of property in the area."[20] These "distress sales" were only
partly due to the actual encroachment of black residents. Both black and white real estate companies
were following a "bonanza of profit" as they pushed eastward.[21] These
real estate agents capitalized on white fear by using deceptive marketing
practices to convince long-term residence that area property values were
threatened, a practice known as blockbusting.
Much of the Kirkwood and east Edgewood community was made up of long term
residents. About half had lived there
for ten years or more and several claimed tenures between fourteen to
forty-eight years.[22]
Blockbusting real
estate agents "flooded" the neighborhood with fliers encouraging
residents to sell. One asked "Do
You Want To Sell?" it offered "Cash Money" for homes and told
residents they could "MOVE TOMORROW."[23] One of
the owners of the company that distributed this flier, Harry Maico, allegedly
told both black and white residents that the area had been "zoned for
colored." Residential zoning by
race was illegal at the time; however few residents, both black and white were
aware of this. When cornered by a judge,
Maico, the owner of six houses in the area, told the court he was unaware of
the dispute over the racial make-up of the neighborhood, and said he was
"caught in the middle."[24] Maico's ignorance could not have lasted much
longer, for area residents began to display signs reading "White
Neighborhood" and "Disputed Area" in their front yards.[25]
The blockbusting
dispute only escalated, a day after Maico sold one of his six area houses in
"ignorance," two housewives on Montgomery leveled charges against W.T. Cooley of Atlanta
Realty Company. In a widely publicized
and often outlandish trial, Mrs. J.T. Whatley of 55 Montgomery claimed that
Cooley tersely told her he was "was going to put Negroes' on the street
and that 'if [she] didn't shut [her] damn mouth about it he was going to have
the police shut it for [her]."[26] Two other housewives followed, filing suit a
couple weeks later in an effort to stop the racial transition. Mrs. Mary Lee Taylor of 1263 Arkwright Place and Mrs. O.J. Samples of 78 Anniston each filed charges against different local
realtors. Ironically Mrs. Samples and
her husband, who also owned 82 Anniston, signed a petition later the same month
stating that they intended to give up the fight to keep the neighborhood white
and planned to sell both of their area houses.
Mr. and Mrs. Samples did just that, they sold their home to a Mr. Rogers
Jordan within a year.[27]
As the Cooley case
made headlines, Mayor Hartsfield entered the fray. He called area real estate agents
"unscrupulous" and stated that "agents have marketed this
community with...letters very shrewdly written so as to scare white homeowners
with predictions of future Negro occupancy and thus [getting] them to list
their homes for sale at low prices."
He called this "a despicable and shameful practice" and
suggested that it should be against the law.
Further, Hartsfield emphasized that it was against the law to zone
"property for Negro use," despite what several agents had claimed.[28] Two days after the Mayor made these
statements, he sent a letter to the Georgia Association of Real Estate Boards
expressing this frustration.[29] The
Board understood his concern and launched an investigation in which they hoped
"the practice could be nipped in the bud."[30] Perhaps a card mailed to the Mayor shortly before,
inspired this concern. An anonymous
resident of Arkwright
Place
thanked the Mayor for efforts to thwart the blockbusters but admitted "it
is not helping much." He suggested
that the blockbusters "be handled" or "thrown out" and
ended with, "I am not signing by name as I ; don't care to get killed or
mobbed by the...[block busting] rats."[31]
The city's aldermen
also became involved. On May 25th the
council re-instated an ordinance banning moving at night and on Sundays. This
was in response to the "fracas" on Montgomery Street, in which Harry Maico was involved. He sold 31 Montgomery to a black man, F.C. Freeman. This created such a disturbance that both
Freeman and his moving truck driver were arrested for "disorderly conduct,
moving at night." It was
acknowledged later, after Freeman agreed to sell back the house, that the
ordinance had been repealed years earlier.
The bill's sponsor, second ward Alderman R.E.L. Field hoped that
reinstating it would "keep down trouble" and by its "mere
existence" prevent blockbusting.[32]
Even the DeKalb County
Grand Jury got involved. The Atlanta
Constitution reported in July that the Grand Jury was seeking complaints of
blockbusting. They accused real estate agents
of selling to "Negros" to get others to sell "cheap"
and of causing poor relationships between the races.[33]
Ultimately all of the
anti-blockbusting effort was to no avail.
Real estate agents continued to push and neighborhood residents began to
divide. Community members who wished to
stay, and take a stand against black encroachment, became increasingly
aggressive. In February of 1960, eighty
people from fourteen local churches met at Murphy High School. The president of Eastern
Atlanta Inc., C.D. Hendersen, encouraged residents to buy stock in the company,
so that houses already sold to blacks could be bought back. Meeting attendees repeatedly expressed
concern for neighborhood churches, arguing that they represented a significant
investment that could not easily be abandoned.[34]
In June, neighborhood
residents declared Whitefoord Ave. the new racial divide. The Housing Coordinator's office aptly told
them this was "futile," pointing out that there were already
twenty-five "for sale" signs east of this point.[35] Surely
at least some of the five houses Harry Maico owned beyond this point were for
sale. Though he was unsuccessful in his
sale to L.C. Freeman in May, he had already proved quite willing to sell to
whom ever he pleased; in fact, in June, Don C. Gains, president of Pair &
Maico Co. signed a petition stating that he intended to sell all five house to
colored.
These types of
disputes led the Housing Coordinator's office to conduct a survey in mid June
to determine if this new line was at all realistic. In an effort to appease angry residents,
Empire Real Estate Board, an organization of local realtors, agreed to respect
the Whitefoord line until the survey was complete.[36] The results of the survey showed only that
residents were in fact divided, and that both those planning to stay and those
planning to sell were charged with emotion.
The responses were almost evenly split between those intending to sell
and those intending to stay and all of the results came from residents east of
the Whitefoord divide. Residents of Woodbine Circle almost unanimously agreed to sell. Of the eleven responses, only one wished to
stay. Anniston, only a stone’s throw away, was quite the
opposite, of the nine responses only one planned to sell.[37]
Emotionally charged words
were ubiquitous throughout the survey responses. Neighbors complained about each other, real
estate agents, blacks, the city, and just about anything that could be blamed
for the unrest. They expressed anger,
hate, frustration, disappointment, and fear.
Robert B. Clifford of 124 Woodbine Circle wrote:
Woodbine Circle home owners are in complete
agreement to sell to colored. This
is NOT a disputed area. A few
die-hards are attempting to interfere with legitimate transactions...Many home
owners have suffered lost sales because of rabble rousers.[38]
Mrs. T.M. Snipes Jr. of 150 Woodbine Circle disagreed.
She wrote "I will do whatever possible to keep from being forced to
sell." Apparently she was not able
to do enough; the house was sold to Jenkins Turner by 1962. Mr. Turner, an African-American, continues to
live there today.[39] Dr.
C.D. Vinson of 72 Anniston Ave warned that residents were "near Riot
Stage" and stated that he, seventy-six, and his wife, seventy, were "too
old to move." Despite this
conviction and their advanced age, the Vinsons sold their home by 1962.[40]
Residents of other
streets were equally emotional. Terressa
Moore, a widow, at 34 Montgomery commented that she intended to stay "until I am quite ready to leave." She went on to say that she "haven't the
slightest intentions of selling or renting to Negroes." Apparently Mrs. Moore was "quite
ready" by 1962, as the house was vacant in both '62 and '63. It then sold to a "Negro," Buster
Williams who remained in the house until about 1992.[41] Perhaps
her willingness to leave was facilitated by her right side neighbor, W.J.
Cooley, or the lesser across the street, Harry Maico.[42] An anonymous Montgomery resident agreed with Moore, they wrote: "I will sell to white, but
will not be low enough to be the first to sell to [a] niger."
Another anonymous respondent, who disagreed, expressed fear
WE HAVE BEEN TRYING TO SELL FOR 6 MONTHS OR
MORE, WE HAVE ALREADY BOUGHT A NEW HOUSE BUT ARE AFRAID TO MOVE OFF AND LEAVE
THIS ONE FOR FEAR SOMETHING MIGHT HAPPEN TO IT. PLEASE HELP US.[43]
Mrs. Daisy Johnson of 1415 Woodbine Avenue expressed the deep frustration of many of the
older residents who responded to the survey:
How unfair can things get, when you put all you
can rake and scrap to try and have a home.
Then some few who have money and can do better sell you out for a
few dollars. Have Widows and children no
rights at all? My dear husband and mother worked hard to try an[d] help
have a place to call HOME. But
now they are in a better home than any of us here on this earth. I'm glad they don't know this --- HEARTACHE. IF Someone will donate the money I'll
be glad to do BETTER.
Mrs. Johnson was true to her word, she stayed longer then most.[44] A Vinson Drive resident offered a more rational and realistic
response, "time has changed and I feel that it is impossible for us to try
to keep this section white any longer."[45]
The Vinson Drive resident was right, and apparently even those
who voted to stay, agreed with a renter on Anniston, "as long as this is ALL white I would
like to stay."[46] The area assuredly did not stay "ALL
white." During the same month,
another group of residents circulated a petition stating that "the
undersigned property owners have met and agreed to sell or rent our property to
colored. As far as we are concerned we
are not in any dispute what so ever."
The petition contained ninety-seven signatures, the preponderance of which
were east of the Whitefoord divide; forty-one were from Kirkwood proper, including
ten from Paxon Street and Adler Circle, a half mile east of the divide and well
into Kirkwood.[47] Later
that month, the six signers from Paxon Street ran a joint ad advertising their properties in
the Atlanta Daily World, a newspaper operated by and targeted at African
Americas.[48] Other notable signatures included the
Trustees of both the Whitefoord
Avenue Baptist Church and the Southeast Christian Church, as well as
W.T. Cooley and an employee of Harry Maico.[49]
The unrest and descent
in the area only escalated as black pioneers began to move past the
divide. On June 9th, 1408 Woodbine Avenue was set on fire after it had
been sold to Mrs. Charlie Mae Kelly, a black woman. The Housing Coordinator's office was aware of
the sale, and had warned the police about possible violence. Patrolmen monitored the area until 1 am; at 5 am an unknown arsonist hid behind some bushes and poured a flammable
liquid under the house. The rear portion
of the house was severely damaged; no one was hurt however, as Kelly had not
fully moved in.[50] "White Area" and "For
Sale" signs offered visual evidence of the ongoing dispute in the
area. Clearly, the warnings area
residents had received of houses "either be[ing] burned or blown" if
"they [were sold] to Colored" were very real, and fear expressed in
many of the surveys was quite warranted.[51]
Seven days later, and
less then fourteen houses to the east, 1500 Woodbine Ave. became home to a black family. Ann Roberts and her daughter moved into their
new home amid seven hours of angry protest. This protest included several
hundred people and a rock was thrown through her kitchen window. Roberts, unlike many of her predecessors,
overlooked the protest and a neighbor’s sign reading "This is a white
area." She and her daughter stayed,
and ultimately destroyed any possibility of a Whitefoord divide.[52]
In August, area
residents reinvigorated their efforts to create a buffer. With Edgewood all but gone, Kirkwood residents turned to East Atlanta and East Lake for help. They solicited
investment in Eastern Atlanta Inc. in the hopes of buying back homes already
sold to blacks and preventing any further sales. A meeting was held on August 11th at John B. Gordon School in East
Atlanta. It promoted these plans to
"threatened" communities to the east and south of the "hotly
disputed area."[53]
By 1961 Whitefoord School was "surrounded," Edgewood
residents were ready to let Kirkwood fend for itself, Woodbine Circle was black, and realtors were openly running
ads in the Atlanta Daily World for houses throughout southwest Kirkwood.[54] The failure of past stopgap efforts to stem
black expansion and the appointment of Sid Avery as the new Housing Coordinator
led to the creation of a new and better organized Kirkwood area neighbors
association. On February 7th the first
of a series of preliminary meetings was held at Kirkwood Methodist
Church.
Organizers, among them Sid Avery, planned to form an organization of
area churches to spearhead efforts to stop the encroachment, and create a racial
buffer zone.[55]
Originally know as the
Kirkwood Churches Committee, the group was inaugurated on February 21st. It included Kirkwood Baptist, Kirkwood
Presbyterian, Kirkwood Methodist, St. Timothy's Episcopal, Kirkwood
Seventh-Day-Adventist, and Trinity Baptist.
The February 21st meeting set the new organizations agenda. It included the establishment of a new racial
divide and buffer zone. Black expansion
was to be held to the west and north of Woodbine Avenue - Arkwright Place. A
green belt would be established between Anniston and Woodbine; organizers planned to lobby
Urban Renewal to have all of the houses and apartments in the
Boulevard-Anniston-Woodbine block demolished.
They planned, and successfully accomplished, to have Anniston dead-ended at Woodbine Ave. This
limited black access to disputed Paxon Street and Adler Circle.
Organizers planned to present their proposal to second ward Aldermen
R.E.L. Field and Ed Gilliam as well as Empire Real Estate in the hopes of
eliciting their support.[56]
The February 21st
meeting also brought a new name, the Kirkwood Community Committee, with that
came a few declarations. The Committee
sought "CHRISTIAN COOPERATION between the races" and did "not
tolerate nor condone extreme expressions, based on hatred, prejudices and
emotionalism" nor did it tolerate "the threat of violence." Through these declarations, members hoped to
"gain and keep public support."
This was critical, as the new organization hoped to coordinate its
efforts with other community groups and Eastern Atlanta Inc.[57]
Just a few days later,
another community organization met to promote a similar agenda. Eastern Atlanta
Civic Association urged residents of Kirkwood, East Atlanta,
and East Lake to buy stock in Eastern Atlanta Inc.
They told attendees that by doing so they could remove "undesirable
neighbors" from the area. Speakers
touted the $142,000 in property already purchased, and the $14,800 in stock
already sold. They pointed out that more
was needed however, as the rental income was not sufficient to cover monthly
mortgage payments. Alderman Field, now a
director of Eastern Atlanta Inc., spoke in support of the organization. "We don't have any wild-eyed people in
this group. We all live here we own
homes, we're church people. We're just trying to preserve all that." Eastern Atlanta Civic Association, like the
Kirkwood Community Committee desperately tried to present a mainstream
image. Clearly the violence and
extremism of years past had proven unsuccessful, now the only hope to
"save" the neighborhood was through community-wide support.[58]
In March, these
organizations, joined by several smaller civic clubs, held a meeting with the
Empire Real Estate Board. They
acknowledged the incredible demand for black housing created by Urban Renewal
and expressway construction. However,
they asked Empire to set an example for other realtors and respect the new
racial divide at Woodbine Avenue and Ackwright Place.[59] One of
the attendees expressed the mood of the day; in a note jotted down before the
meeting, he suggested: "Do Not Panic."[60] A flier distributed in the area about the
same time expressed it even more clearly.
It read "Help we have lost our pants. Please Help us save our
homes...Preserve [our]...Schools, Churches, and Community." Kirkwood residents were starting to realize the
hopelessness of their situation, and were on the verge of succumbing to their
fears.[61]
Despite growing
anxiety, the Kirkwood Community Committee continued to push its agenda. In April, it responded to aggressive real
estate agents in the Paxon-Adler area by doing some canvassing of its own. The Committee sent a letter to residents
telling them their intentions. "We
seek to unite our community to preserve its present white residential status
and to prevent it from becoming one of mixed or colored." It then told of the purposed buffer just to
their west, and explained that there was no need to "panic" because
the area can easily be kept white by "simply refusing to sell to
colored." Further, it explained
that "even if a few do sell...these can be repurchased for white
occupancy." It explained "A
'house buying corporation' for this purpose is available." The Committee insisted that residents return
any real estate solicitation marked "NOT INTERESTED" and
closed by asking to "Please help us 'Keep Kirkwood White' and preserve our
Churches and homes."[62]
In the fall of 1961, Kirkwood's anti-integration advocates faced a new
challenge, the federal government. Brown
v. Board of Education and growing national and local pressure finally forced
the Atlanta School Board to start the integration process in the 1961-'62
school year. The Board opted for a
token, grade by grade program, which was tightly controlled by school
officials. Murphy High School, on Clifton Street, was just south of Kirkwood proper and served as the community's high
school. When the 1961 school year began,
Kirkwood's white teenagers were joined at Murphy, by
two young black women, a junior and senior.
The senior, Martha Ann Holmes, was an exceptional student, much better
then her younger counterpart; after graduation she attended and graduated from Spellman College. The white students tolerated
their new colleagues with formality and distance. However, the growing weakness of the
anti-integration faction was evident in Miss Holmes’ year book. Several white students left notes commending
Holmes and apologizing for their distance.[63]
By the new year, the
Woodbine-Ackwright buffer was hopeless, Sid Avery "had no 'good news,"
and Anniston and Montgomery were mostly black.[64] The community proposed one last desperate
attempt to stop the encroachment and establish a racial buffer. They suggested that the land from the
railroad track to Memorial Drive, between Wyman and Rogers, Clifton, and Clay be zoned C-1 commercial.[65] This
would have involved some one hundred houses on six blocks.[66] In their desperation, die-hards neglected to
consider that converting the land from R5 single family to C1 commercial, would
not have required the displacement of existing house. Further c.1962 C1 zoning allowed the
construction of A1 type apartments. Not
only was this type buffer unrealistic it would not have been effective. Avery told the community that the buffer was
not "practical or economical."[67] He went
on to explain:
The 'cure' for the racial change situation is
admittedly easy to say and difficult to perform. It is: DO NOT SELL YOUR HOME; DO NOT LIST IT
FOR SALE; DO NOT ASK A REAL ESTATE FIRM TO HANDLE IT; DO NOT RESPOND TO ANY
OFFERS TO LIST OR SELL TO ANOTHER RACE.
Avery was quite correct when he said it was "difficult;" Kirkwood was still divided. Jim Bailey, of Bailey Hardware, lived in the Kirkwood community from early childhood until his
family moved to Stone Mountain in 1963.
He compared this time to a "snowball effect." Bailey said that people worried about
property values, and the schools; he remembers a great deal of resentment
between neighbors throughout the community.
As the white community
continued to divide, the new black community began to coalesce. In September of 1962, the Southeast Civic
Club, a group of new black residents in the Kirkwood area, moved towards greater organization. Under the leadership of Reverend O.D. Myles,
the organization pushed for the adoption of a twelve point plan to deal with
the new community's challenges. The plan
was proposed by Morris Brown Professor Charles E. Price. It was "designed to cope with the
problems and organize the civic activities of Negro citizens in the Kirkwood area."[68]
With a large and
organized black community still desperate for housing, only blocks to the west,
the heart of Kirkwood held out little hope of keeping the area
exclusively white. 1963 brought black
friendly business to the area. The
Woodbine Service Station at 1610 Boulevard became the Free For All Sinclair
Service Station. Jeff's Self Serve,
across the street from the Sinclair, closed doors after more then twelve years
of business and was replaced by Boulevard Market. Next door, C & R Grocery Store, filled a
spot left vacant in 1962.[69] Near
by, the stretch of Woodbine Avenue, north of Boulevard experienced a virtually complete
change of residents between 1962 and '63.[70] In six blocks east of Woodbine, along
Boulevard, eighteen of the seventy-three addresses were vacant.[71]
To the south, at Murphy High School, things changed as well. The
token integration of the 1961/62 school year started to mushroom, though still
not to the extent of the surrounding residential demographics. Murphy's black population was about one
percent of the total student body, where as the surrounding community was fifty
percent black.[72] One percent was enough for Jim Bailey's
father: "My dad didn't want my sister to go to school with blacks, so we
moved out in '63, I drove in to finish out at Murphy."[73]
1964 brought major
change for both Murphy High and the Kirkwood Community. By September, Murphy had about 200 black
students, twenty-five percent of the student body. Bailey, who graduated in the spring of 1965,
remembers problems that year. He recalls
at least two racially motivated fights, one in the ROTC room, and one outside.[74] Likewise, Kirkwood Elementary School faced problems. The two area black elementary schools,
Whitefoord and Wesley, faced massive overcrowding. Whitefoord, the closest to Kirkwood, was 675 students over capacity and operating
on triple sessions. Black students sat
three per chair, while white Kirkwood School was 750 students under capacity and allegedly had three boarded up
classrooms. As
the school year began, black parents and students, joined by a representative
from the NAACP, picketed Kirkwood School. They demanded an immediate end
to segregation with the admission of their children to the under utilized
school. These protest, continued until
November, when the school board finally agreed to integrate at the start of the
next semester in January of 1965.[75]
1964 also brought
major change for Kirkwood's churches. Formally the
leaders in the anti-encroachment campaign, they now joined their former enemies
in white flight. Kirkwood's Seventh-Day-Adventist sold their sizable
facility at 112
Howard St. to Israel Baptist in October of 1964.
The now black congregation paid $136,000 for this prime location in the
heart of Kirkwood. The
white Seventh-Day-Adventists re-established their church a year later in Decatur, where it remains today.[76] Kirkwood Methodist moved to Stone Mountain around the same time, where it became St.
Timothy's. On June 5,
1966, it was replaced
by Turner Monumental African Methodist Episcopal, which had formally occupied a
location on Boulevard near Whitefoord.[77] St.
Timothy's Episcopal moved from 1953 Boulevard to 2833 Flat Shoals Road in
Decatur, were it also remains today. As
the congregation left, around 1964, St. Timothy’s co-founded the Kirkwood Christian
Center with the Presbyterian Church. The center continued to offer community
outreach until a few years ago. St.
Timothy's was replaced by Igram Temple of God a few years later.[78] Kirkwood Presbyterian likewise moved. It was replaced by the Kirkwood Christian
Center.[79]
It was 1964, that
civil rights leader Hosea Williams bought a home in the area. When he moved into his newly acquired house
on Boulevard, near the border of Kirkwood and East Lake he
was one of only a few blacks in the vicinity.
A neighbor greeted him with a racial slurs and the statement, "I've
been here a long time and I'll be here long after you leave." Apparently, the gentlemen thought that the
white flight and black residential expansion in the area was a passing
fancy. Williams retorted with
"Well, you better be one long-living cracker, because I'm going
nowhere." Williams was true to his
word, he raised six children in that house and eventually the street was named
after him.[80]
"It was like the
dike broke...It's like a tipping point, There's more of them than there are of
us and whoop!--it goes..." This is
how John Evans, the chairman of the DeKalb County chapter of the NAACP, described 1965, his first year in Kirkwood.[81]
White flight went into hyper-drive as virtually all elements of the
community were opened to African American's, even the elementary school. When the encroachment controversy began in
1954, the closest thing white students at Kirkwood had to a black classmate was a minstrel
show. This is a stark contrast to the
morning of January 25, 1965. On
Friday the twenty-second, Kirkwood had an exclusively white student body of about 376 students. By Monday the twenty-fifth, only seven white
students remained to greet the 470 new transfers, all of whom were black. Only four members of the white faculty
remained, the principle, Kate Heaton, a secretary and remedial math teacher,
Norma Owens, another secretary Mettie Lou Barnett, and the cafeteria
manager. Ironically, Heaton, Owens, and
Barnett were all faculty members when the Kirkwood PTA sponsored "Stunt
Night" in 1954 which featured the “Negro Skit.”[82]
The protests of 1964,
gross overcrowding at area black schools, and the neighborhood’s changing
demographics pushed Atlanta Public Schools Superintendent John Letson to
abandon any gradual efforts at integrating Kirkwood. He did
however; warn white students, parents, and faculty of his plan. Several days before the scheduled
integration, Letson sent a letter to the parents and faculty of Kirkwood. It
told them of the events planned for January 25th, and gave them a few
options. They could of coarse stay at
Kirkwood; however if they did not care to work at or attend an "integrated"
school, they could transfer to East Lake Elementary, Mary Lin Elementary in
Candler Park, or Burgess Elementary in East Atlanta. The entire seventh grade, including their
teacher, chose East
Lake, it was agreed
this was best for academic continuity.
Clearly, integrated schools were too much for the majority of Kirkwood’s remaining white population.[83]
Although a very small minority felt "quite at home with
Negroes," 1965 saw many of the final holdouts, pack-up and move east.[84]
By the 1965-'66 school
year, Kirkwood was overcrowded and one-hundred percent black; likewise Murphy
had only three whites, seniors, who upon graduation left the school as
segregated as it had been only five years before. Murphy's last white principal, a twenty-four
year veteran, George McCord, also left the school this year.[85] Houses
along Rockyford, Wisteria, Sisson, Howard, and Boulevard changed occupants in
unprecedented numbers. Many businesses
along Boulevard between Howard and Oakview changed names or closed, including
all three of the barber shops; two of them had been in business for over
fifteen years, and the third for more than eight.[86] Kirkwood was no long the working class white suburb it
had been in 1960. In only six years, its
houses, schools, churches, and businesses shifted from one-hundred percent
white to virtually one-hundred percent black.
This new community
struggled through its awkward youth in the late 1960's. Hosea Williams became an outspoken advocate
of the area. In 1967 he worried that the
neighborhood was turning "into a slum." Despite his frustrations over absentee
landlords, aggressive real estate agents, inadequate city services,
unproductive zoning, and high crime rates Williams hoped to make Kirkwood a "model to Negro communities
everywhere."[87]
Unfortunately, his "dream" never came to fruition, but neither
did his fear. Kirkwood did suffer decline after the late 1960's but
calling it a "slum" would be an exaggeration. The 1970 census reveals that incomes and
educational levels were below the city’s average. However the majority of the community, like
that of 1960, remained in the working class, now with more service and clerical
workers than craftsmen and foreman, and few white collar.[88]
The white community of
the 1950's and 60's grew up in an era of strict segregation. They were accustomed to separate bathrooms,
water fountains, waiting rooms, and perhaps most profound, neighborhoods. As black Atlantans lost their homes to Urban
Renewal and expressway construction, they were forced to find new
accommodations. The city's planners did
little to prepare for this. As a result,
middle class black pioneers followed profit hungry real estate agents into
seemingly impenetrable white enclaves. Kirkwood's white community worried little when
encroachment began just to their west. They
felt secure that their neighborhood was a "WHITE AREA." As the new decade dawned, this security
looked less certain. Neighborhood
residents, who had spent their lives being told not to "mix," were
now faced with an almost terrifying reality.
The people that society had taught them to fear were moving next
door. This fear turned people like Harry
Maico and W.T. Cooley into "rats" and housewives like Mrs. J.T.
Whatley and Mary Taylor into "rabble rousers." It inspired bombings and arson; it closed streets
and relocated entire Christian congregations.
Children changed schools mid year while others were forced to endure
gross overcrowding. This fear ultimately
had the power to dissolve an entire community and replace it with entirely new
one. Either community was terribly
different; both were working class and Christian. However their principal difference, race,
profoundly effected the history of Kirkwood.
Ironically, after all
that drama, the white folks are back.
Beginning in the early 1980's young white pioneers arrived to make Kirkwood "gorgeous." Instead of
dynamite, arson, and angry shouts, these new pioneers faced the
frustrations of urban blight. Sandra Oates
remembers four burglaries during her renovation of 140 Howard St. At one
point thieves actually stole her kitchen sink.
Paul Moskowitz, renovator of 24 Kirkwood, had one of his guard dogs stolen from behind
a six foot fence.[89]
In more recent years
the criminal element has dissipated. In
the late 1990's, gentrifers faced some of the frustrations of their 1960's
counter-parts. Some elements of the
established black community took exception to the large number of gays and
Lesbians that were moving into the neighborhood. They formed an organization, not unlike the
Community Committee, to try and head off gay and white encroachment. This organization was likewise
unsuccessful. An article in the January
28, 2002 Creative Loafing, called Kirkwood: "alternative accommodations for
alternative lifestyles."
GayGuides.Com Atlanta noted that: "west of Decatur is a small neighborhood called Kirkwood. Kirkwood is very up-and-coming, lots of old run-down
homes to buy cheap and fix up. Many gay
men and Lesbians are finding opportunities there." The premiere issue of Window Magazine,
a "guide to Atlanta's gay life," went as far as calling it Atlanta's "boy's town," a reference to Chicago's famed gay enclave.[90] Whether Kirkwood lives up to this reference remains to be
seen. The Neighborhood is still
predominately working and middle class black, though there are an ever
increasing number of upper middle class whites, both gay and straight. Residents today, wonder if the early 1960's
are repeating themselves in a "queer" reverse. Perhaps they are; however the fear of the
1950's and 60's has lost its punch, so it is unlikely that this process will
proceed with the urgency of years past.
[1] Atlanta
Journal, 17 June 1960; City
Directory, 1961.
[2] Letter to
residents, “Kirkwood Community Committee,” April 1962, Box
5, Atlanta Bureau of Planning
Papers, Atlanta History
Center.
[3] Dr. C. D.
Vinson, 72 Anniston, Kirkwood
Survey Response, 12 June 1960,
Box 5, ABP Papers, AHC.
[4] United States
Census Bureau, US Census of Population and Housing 1950, Standard
Metropolitan Statistical Area: Atlanta, GA, (Washington D.C.: U.S. Government
Printing Office, 1952) tracts D-5, D-6, D-7, D-8; United States Census Bureau, US
Census of Population and Housing 1960, Standard Metropolitan Statistical
Area: Atlanta, GA, (Washington D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1962)
tracts D-5, D-6, D-7, D-8; United States Census Bureau, US Census of
Population and Housing 1970, Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area:
Atlanta, GA, (Washington D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1972) tracts
205-208; United States Census Bureau, US Census of Population and Housing
1950 - Block Statistics, Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area: Atlanta,
GA, (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1952) tracts D-5, D-6,
D-7, D-8; United States Census Bureau, US Census of Population and Housing
1960 - Block Statistics, Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area: Atlanta,
GA, (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1962) tracts D-5, D-6,
D-7, D-8; United States Census Bureau, US Census of Population and Housing
1970 - Block Statistics, Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area: Atlanta,
GA, (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1972) tracts 205-208.
[5] These
streets are identified by the Kirkwood Neighbors Organization. Kirkwood
Neighbor's Organization Atlanta, Georgia, Location, Kirkwood Neighbor's
Organization, 10 April 2002
<http://www.historic-kirkwood.com/location.html>.
[6] History,
Kirkwood Neighborhood Organization, 15
April 2002 <http://www.historic-kirkwood.com/location.html>.
[7] US
Census, 1950, tracts D-5, D-6, D-7, D-8.
[8] “Notes for
the Meeting with Empire Real Estate Board Committee,” 10 March 1961, Box 6, ABP Papers, AHC.
[9] Kevin M.
Kruse, "White Flight: Resistance to Desegregation of Neighborhoods,
Schools and Business in Atlanta,
1946-1966," ms., Cornell, 1997, 131.
[10] Kruse,
“White Flight,” 163.
[12] Play
Bill, “Stunt Night,” Kirkwood School,
22 November [1954]. Kirkwood School
File, Atlanta Public
School Archive. Photos from the estate of Miss Eleizabeth Silvey, [1954],
Kirkwood File, APSA.
[13] Kruse,
"White Flight," 163.
[14] Atlanta
Journal, 10 March 1956;
Atlanta Daily World, 10 March 1956.
[15] Housing
Coordinator's Office, "Report on the Southeast Kirkwood Transition
Area," 26 August 1960,
Box 5, ABP papers, AHC.
[17] Telephone
Memo, 2 February 1960, Box
5, ABP Papers, AHC.
[18] Ronald H.
Bayor, Race and the Shaping of Twentieth-Century Atlanta,
(Chapel Hill: UNC, 1996) 73; Kruse, “White Flight,” 167.
[19] Kruse,
"White Flight," 167.
[20] Eastern
Atlanta Inc, “Prospectus,” “Use of Proceeds,” 1961, Box 6 ABP papers, AHC.
[21] Housing
Coordinator's Office, "Report on the Southeast Kirkwood Transition
Area," 26 August 1960,
Box 5, ABP papers, AHC.
[22] Atlanta
City Directory, 1950 and 1958-59; Kirkwood Survey Response, 12 June 1960, Box
5, ABP papers, AHC.
[23] Pair
& Maico, Flier, [1960], Box 5, ABP Papers, AHC; Woodbine Ave, Kirkwood
Survey Response, 12 June 1960, Box 5, ABP Papers, AHC.
[24] Kirkwood
Residence, Petition to sell, [June 1960] Box
5, ABP Papers, AHC; Atlanta Constitution, 21 May 1960; Atlanta Daily World,
22 May 1960.
[25] Atlanta
Daily World, 10 June 1960;
Atlanta Constitution,
10 June 1960.
[26] Though
Whatley was unsuccessful in pinning Cooley with any of her charges of unethical
business practices, which included verbal threats, lying, and bribery; she did
get a completely unrelated thirty dollars back that Cooley apparently owed her
from 1956.
[27] Atlanta
Journal, 3 May 1960;
Petition to sell, [June 1960], Box 5,
ABP Papers, AHC; City Directory 1960-1966.
[28] Atlanta
Journal Constitution, 22 May 1960; Atlanta
Daily World, 24 May 1960.
[29] William
Hartsfield, Letter from Hartsfield to Georgia
Association of Real Estate Boards, 24
May 1960, Box 5,
ABP Papers, AHC.
[30] Atlanta
Journal, 27 May 1960.
[31] Postcard, Addressed to Mayor Hartsfield, 19 May 1960, Box
5, ABP Papers, AHC.
[32] Atlanta
Journal, 20 May 1960; Atlanta
Daily World, 22 May 1960;
Atlanta Constitution,
21 May 1960; Atlanta
Constitution, 26 May 1960;
Atlanta Journal, 26 May 1960.
[33] Atlanta
Constitution, 13 July 1960.
[34] Atlanta
Constitution, 13 July 1960.
[35] Housing
Coordinator's Office, "Report on the Southeast Kirkwood Transition
Area," 26 August 1960,
Box 5, ABP papers, AHC
[37] Kirkwood
Survey Response, 12 June 1960,
Box 5, ABP Papers, AHC.
[38] All
emphases are expressed in the quotes as the appeared in the originals. Robert B. Clifford, Kirkwood
Survey Response, 12 June 1960,
Box 5, ABP Papers, AHC.
[39] T.M.
Snipes Jr, Kirkwood Survey Response, 12 June 1960,
Box 5, ABP Papers, AHC; Atlanta City Directory, 1961-1962; Yahoo People
Search, 25 June 2002 <www.yahoo.com>.
[40] C.D.
Vinson, Kirkwood Survey Response, 12 June 1960, Box
5, ABP Papers, AHC; Atlanta
City Directory, 1962.
[41] Terressa Moore, Kirkwood
Survey Response, 12 June 1960,
Box 5, ABP Papers, AHC; City Directory, 1960-1963. Ema
Williams, personal interview, 19 April
2002.
[42] Kirkwood
Residence, Petition to sell, [June 1960], Box
5, ABP Papers, AHC; Atlanta Georgia, map, (New York: Sanborn
1978).
[43] Kirkwood
Survey Response, 12 June 1960,
Box 5, ABP Papers, AHC.
[44] Daisy
Johnson, Kirkwood Survey Response, 12 June 1960, Box
5, ABP Papers, AHC; Atlanta
City Directory, 1960.
[45] Kirkwood
Survey Response, 12 June 1960,
Box 5, ABP Papers, AHC.
[47] Kirkwood
Residence, Petition to sell, [June 1960], Box
5, ABP Papers, AHC.
[48] Housing
Coordinator’s Office, “Report on the Southeast Kirkwood Transition Area,” 26 August 1960, box
5, ABP papers, AHC.
[49]
Whitefoord Ave. Baptist became Turner Monumental African Methodist Episcopal in
1962, Turner then moved again in 1966 to Howard St. Kirkwood Residence,
Petition to sell, [June 1960], Box 5, ABP Papers, AHC; City Directory 1962;
Corner Stone, Turner Monumental AME, 60 Howard St, 10 April 2002.
[50] Housing
Coordinator’s Office, “Report on the Southeast Kirkwood Transition Area,” 26 August 1960, Box
5, ABP papers AHC; Atlanta Journal, 9
June 1960; Atlanta Daily World, 10, 11 June 1960; Atlanta Constitution, 10 June 1960
[51] Henry
Avery, Kirkwood Survey Response, 12 June 1960, Box
5, ABP Papers, AHC.
[52] Mrs.
Robert’s move added suspense to the already outlandish Cooley trial. Many area residents learned of her action as
they sat in the courtroom. The hearing
was interrupted by the president of the South Kirkwood Neighbors Association,
W.R. Porter, who announced the move and the on going protests to the
gallery. Housing Coordinator’s Office,
“Report on the Southeast Kirkwood Transition Area,” 26 August 1960, Box 5 ABP papers, AHC; Atlanta
Constitution, 17 June 1960;
Atlanta Journal, 17 June 1960;
Atlanta City
Directory, 1960-1961.
[53] Atlanta
Constitution, 10 June 1960;
Atlanta Journal, 12 August 1960; Atlanta
Daily World, 14 August 1960.
[54] Kirkwood
Survey Response, 12 June 1960, Box 5, ABP papers, AHC; Atlanta Daily World,
29 January 1961; One hundred percent of the addresses on Woodbine Cir changed
occupants from ‘60 to ‘61. Atlanta
City Directory,
1960-1961.
[55] Minutes
of the Kirkwood Churches Committee, 7
February 1961, Box 5, ABP Papers, AHC.
[56] Minutes
of the Kirkwood Churches Committee, 7, 9, 14, 21 February 1961, Box
5, ABP Papers, AHC.
[57] Minutes
of the Kirkwood Churches Committee, 21 February 1960, Box 5, ABP papers,
AHC; Minutes of Kirkwood Community
Committee, 21 February 1960, Box 5, ABP papers, AHC.
[58] Atlanta
Constitution, 24 February 1961.
[59]
"Notes for the Meeting with Empire Real Estate Board Committee," 10 March 1961, Box 6, ABP Papers,
AHC.
[60] Notes on
Empire Meeting, “Suggestions for March
10, 1961 meeting,” Box 6,
ABP papers, AHC.
[61] Flier, "Distress
Call," [March 1961], Box 6,
ABP Papers, AHC.
[62] Letter to
residents, “The Kirkwood Community Committee,” April 1962, box
5, ABP papers, AHC.
[63] Bayor, Race, 226; Nellie Jane Gaertner,
"A History of Murphy High School," student report, 1972, Murphy High
School File, Atlanta Public School Archives;
Mark Huie, "Factors influencing the
Desegregation Process in Atlanta School System," diss.,
University of Georgia, 1967, Murphy High School File, APSA.
[64] Atlanta
Daily World, Sunday Classifieds, July - December 1961: homes are listed on Rogers
and Clifton, by mid 1962 listings
include Clay and Wyman. Harry L. Mitcham, “Summary of remarks made by Housing Coordinator,” 11 February 1962, box 5, ARB papers,
AHC. Sixty-three percent and ninety-one
percent of the houses on Anniston
and Montgomery respectively,
changed occupancy, many long term, from 1961 to 1962, these figures are
significantly higher then preceding and subsequent years. Atlanta
City Directory
1960-1963.
[65] Harry L. Mitcham, "Summary of remarks made by Housing
Coordinator", 11 February 1962,
Box 5, ABP paper, AHC.
[66] Atlanta
Georgia, map,
(New York: Sanborn, 1978).
[67] Zoning
Ordinance of the City of Atlanta, Georgia District Map, map, (Atlanta:
Department of Planning, 19 May 1964) 123, 124; Harry L. Mitcham,
"Summary of remarks made by Housing Coordinator", 11 February 1962,
Box 5, ABP paper, AHC; Minutes of the Kirkwood Churches Committee, 21 February
1961, Box 5, ABP Papers, AHC..
[68] Atlanta
Daily World, 12 September 1962.
[69] Atlanta
City Directory,
1950-1966.
[70] Eleven of
the thirteen occupied houses changed listings from 1962 to 1963. Atlanta
City Directory, 1962,
1963.
[71] Compared
to past years that had only one or two. Atlanta
City Directory, 1950,
1958/59-63.
[73] Jim
Bailey, personal interview, 5 March
2002.
[74] Jim
Bailey, personal interview, 5 March
2002; Atlanta Journal, 1 September 1964.
[75] Atlanta
Journal, 1 September 1964.
Atlanta Inquirer, 5
September, 17 October 1964.
[76] Corner
Stone of Israel Baptist Church, 112 Howard St., 10 April 2002; Decatur
Seventh-Day-Adventist, “Our History,” 15 April 2002
<http://www.tagnet.org/atlbelv/history.htm>.
[77] Carlile and Carlisle Family History, 25 April 2002,
<http://franklin-sarrett.com/carlislehistory6.html>. Corner Stone of
Turner Monumental A.M.E. Church,
66 Howard, 15 April 2002; Atlanta
City Directory 1965.
[78] Atlanta
Area Parishes, 25 April 2002,
<http://www.episcopal-atl.org/PARISHES/sttimdec.htm>
The church confirmed that it is the same St. Timothy’s. Atlanta
Georgia, map,
(New York: Sanborn 1978); Atlanta
City Directory
1963-1965; Harold Martin, Atlanta
and Environs A Chronicle of Its People and Events Years of Change and
Challenge, 1940-1976 (Athens: University of Georgia, 1987) 425.
[79] Atlanta
City Directory,
1963-1965; Martin, Environs, 425.
[80] Atlanta
Journal Constitution, 21 March
1999.
[82] Atlanta
Constitution, 26 January 1965, 16 February 1965; Atlanta Journal, 26
January 1965; Atlanta Daily World, 26 January 1965; Atlanta Inquirer,
30 January 1965; Rose Thompson, “The History of Kirkwood School,” student
research paper, 1972, Kirkwood File, APSA; Atlanta Public Schools Personnel
Directory, 1950 - 1971.
[83] Bayor, Race, 232-235; Atlanta Constitution,
26 January 1965; Atlanta Journal, 26 January 1965; Atlanta Daily
World, 26 January 1965; Atlanta Inquirer, 30 January 1965.
[84] A quote
from the mother of one of the seven white students that remained after January
25th. Atlanta
Daily World, 26 January 1965.
[85] Bayor, Race, 235; Thompson, "History of
Kirkwood School," student research paper, Kirkwood File, APSA; Nellie Jane
Gaertner, "A History of Murphy High
School," student report, 1972, Murphy File, APSA.
[86] Atlanta
City Directory, 1950,
1958/59-1966.
[87] DeKalb
New Era, 27 July, 3 10 August 1967.
[88] US
Census, 1970, Tracts 205-208, Tables p1 - p4.
[89] Atlanta
Constitution, 11 June 1980.
[90] Creative
Loafing, 28 January 2002;
GayGuide.Com, 30 April 2002
http://www.gayguides.com/atlanta/general.html>;
Window Magazine, Your Guide to Atlanta’s
Gay Life, Spring 2002, 10.
This was a paper I wrote while in
graduate school at Georgia State University in 2002. I submitted it for publication but
unfortunately I got to busy to complete the revisions, so it has just sat on my
computer. Rather than leave it lost
forever, I figured I’d put it out on the web for whoever was interested. I can be contacted at hogechad@gmail.com.