Book shows civil-rights walking tours in Atlanta

A new book lays out walking tours with maps of well-known civil rights sites in Atlanta as well as obscure places where significant progress toward desegregation occurred in the 1950s and 1960s.

“Sacred Places” by Spelman College professor emeritus Harry G. Lefever and Michael C. Page, geospatial librarian for Emory University’s Robert W. Woodruff Library, also offers insights into the other side of the story. Sites that impeded progress such as Peyton and Harlan roads in Southwest Atlanta — where the “Atlanta Wall” was erected — also are included.

The city constructed a barricade across the roads in December 1962, as a symbolic barrier to the integration of white neighborhoods. The wall stood until March 1963, when a Fulton County Superior Court judge declared it unconstitutional.

Here’s what Lefever had to say about the book:

Q How did you and co-author Michael Page get together?

A I knew I couldn’t do the maps. I knew Georgia State had a cartography department. I called the department and was referred to Michael who, at the time, was teaching at Georgia State. We hit it off very well… I did all the text. He did the maps. He did the g.p.s. coordinates for all 37 sites, and he constructed and maintains the Web site.

Q How did you decide what would be included?

A It grew. I started with the Atlanta University Center. That’s what I was most familiar with. But it didn’t take long to figure out that where tourists were concerned, Auburn Avenue was the place. Hopefully they will get interested in other places after they see what’s on Auburn.

Q What surprised you when you were doing your research?

A I think I was surprised by how much is here — how many sites of different meanings and qualities. In terms of who was involved, sometimes it was the older generation of African-Americans. Others were mainly students. Sometimes they did their action together. There was tension. The older generation — Daddy King, William Holmes Borders and their generation were trying to go slowly and work with the white establishment, whereas the younger generation, the student generation, were willing to do civil disobedience, turn to direct action in the street. Martin Luther King, Jr., who was 10 years older than the students but was 10 to 20 years younger than his father’s generation, often became a mediator.