Could the Royal Peacock be restored to its former glory when it hosted the likes of Jackie Wilson and Little Richard? (Photo by Collin Kelley)
On Memorial Day, my wife, Sylvia, and I took an Urban Hike, accompanied by Atlanta INtown Executive Editor Susan Soper and her husband, Bo Holland.
Our walk began and ended at the Woodruff Arts Center and covered a 10.5-mile loop through Midtown and Downtown along Luckie Street, which becomes Auburn Avenue heading east from Peachtree. (See Urban Hikes, page 16). All but one mile of the route is a testament to Atlanta’s progress in recent years. However, that one mile – Auburn Avenue – is both a deplorable situation and an incredible opportunity. "Sweet Auburn," as the area is known, includes the house where Martin Luther King Jr. was born; Ebenezer Baptist Church, where he preached; the building from where he ran the Southern Christian Leadership Conference; and the tomb where he is buried. This is a National Historic District with a Visitor’s Center and, across the street, the King Center.
Auburn Avenue is more than a legacy of Dr. King. Atlanta Life Insurance and The Daily World – the first African-American-owned life insurance and newspaper companies in America – are headquartered there. It is also home to the Royal Peacock, where musical greats performed into the 1960s. The neon sign from the Auburn Rib Shack now resides in the Atlanta History Center, but the building still is in operation as Thelma’s Rib Shack, another Atlanta institution.
Yet as you walk down Auburn Avenue, you are struck by the dilapidated storefronts, the stench of urine under the bridge at the Dowtown Connector, and panhandling vagrants.
How can this be in Atlanta? After a succession of African-American mayors? And when so much of the city has prospered so greatly? If we can restore the Margaret Mitchell House where Gone With the Wind was written, why can’t we revive Sweet Auburn, where the leader of the American civil rights movement had his roots? Having done the one, isn’t it imperative we restore the other? Atlanta is known commercially worldwide for Coca-Cola and CNN, but, more importantly, visitors come looking for Tara and evidence of the life of Martin Luther King Jr. Tara was fiction; King was for real. GWTW reflected the injustices of the Old South; King led us down the path to correcting those wrongs.
Auburn Avenue should tell the story of how King and Atlanta were instrumental in civil rights. But it can be much more than that. It can draw visitors to Sweet Auburn to experience the culture – the music, the food, the businesses, the sports and entertainment celebrities – of African-Americans. Better than New Orleans Bourbon Street or Memphis’ Beale Street, it can be what sets us apart from just another metropolitan city.
Atlanta’s Congressman and King lieutenant John Lewis wrote a memoir of the civil rights movement entitled Going Against the Wind. There has even been a parody of the novel – The Wind Done Gone. Isn’t it time for Atlanta to be Going With the Wind and showing the world we can come together to honor this part of our heritage?
The Integral Group, a real estate developer, and Big Bethel AME Church have started the process with the redevelopment under way on one block of Auburn. Now Atlanta’s leadership, both black and white, should join in to get the job done.
jerryattkisson@mindsring.com
