Neighborhood History

Listen to an excerpt of Chase Evans’ essay for the Forsyth Descendants Scholarship.

Listen to Patrick Phillips, author of Blood at the Root: A Racial Cleansing in America, explain the events of 1912 .

Using the 1912 tax returns and Aero Atlas Map Books, the Digital Storytelling Team at Atlanta History Center mapped the approximate locations of former Black property owners in Forsyth County

Party with the Past is a program series that travels to historic sites around the city. On Wednesday, September 18^th, we head to Concordia Hall in Downtown Atlanta. This event features a temporary exhibit that dives into the history of the rest of the neighborhood, walking tours, and more.

Party with the Past is a program series that travels to historic sites around the city. On Wednesday, May 15th, we head to Pullman Yards in Kirkwood. Learn about the history of the site and the role it has played in Atlanta for the past century. 

Street names offer insights into a city’s history and its evolving perceptions of past figures. In Atlanta, Lindbergh Drive is named after Charles Lindbergh, an American aviation pioneer who was the first to fly solo across the Atlantic. Lindbergh’s achievements made him an international hero, but his later controversial affiliations and remarks led to significant public criticism. Many places that bore his name in the U.S. have since been renamed due to changing public sentiments.

The Christian Methodist Episcopal, founded in 1870 in Jackson, Tennessee, was the first Protestant African American denomination established in the South. With more than 330 CME churches in Georgia alone, it has become one of the premier Christian denominations for African American worship and religious life.   

Of the approximately 75,000 Afghans evacuated to the United States when the Taliban took over Afghanistan in August 2021, more than 1,500 came here to Georgia, with the vast majority resettling in Metro Atlanta. The arrival of record numbers of new families in a short time has tested the resources of the area’s resettlement agencies. So, informal networks of people have stepped up to help the new arrivals, some of whom have first-hand experience with the challenges facing these Afghan families.

When Azhar Mehmood and his wife Farah opened Mughals in 1994, they not only invited Atlantans to experience authentic Pakistani food, but also helped lay the foundation for Pakistani cultural life in metro Atlanta.

When driving down a busy street in Atlanta, you may find yourself on a different road without making a turn. These seemingly nonsensical street name changes are due to past residential segregation practices enacted when white Atlantans did not want to share the same address as Blacks.

Seventy-one. That’s a current count on how many streets there are in Atlanta that bear the name, “Peachtree.” This is the first in a series of blog posts exploring the history behind popular Atlanta street names.