What do Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, Ralph David Abernathy Boulevard and John Lewis Freedom Parkway all have in common? And the answer is: they are streets named after well-known civil rights leaders. But what about Donald Lee Hollowell Parkway, Hamilton E. Holmes Drive (and MARTA station), and John Wesley Dobbs Avenue?
They maybe not as famous but still all are important civil rights activists whose names and actions are largely forgotten or unknown except for the street. For the record, Dobbs registered more than 10,000 Black voters in the 1930s, co-founded the Atlanta Negro Voters League and worked with then-Atlanta Mayor William Hartsfield to integrate the police force. A lawyer, Hollowell sued the University of Georgia forcing them to enroll Black students. Holmes and journalist Charlayne Hunter-Gault were the first two Black students.
Credit: HANDOUT
Credit: HANDOUT
Every day thousands of natives, visitors and transplants travel on our streets with no idea why they were so named. “There needs to be more information about the people whose names are on the signs and buildings. People come into Atlanta from all over the world and they don’t know the history or the significance of the names,” says Clarissa Myrick-Harris, professor of Africana Studies at Morehouse College and Co-founder and PI Cultural Heritage Preservation and Digital Humanities Initiative. “People have short memories and we need to remind people — well, inform them first — about these icons being honored. We need markers and kiosks with bar codes so people can use their phones and get some information.”
She also points out that few women are honored. “We have Xernona Clayton, but where is Evelyn Lowery, Coretta Scott King and others?”
Tom Houck operates the Civil Rights Tour (civilrightstour.com), a three-hour bus tour that takes guests to pivotal landmarks beyond Auburn Avenue including the Atlanta University campus, home to the Atlanta Student Movement, the Rush Memorial Church, historic Hunter Street (now MLK Jr. Drive), and South-View Cemetery. He agrees more signage is needed to inform and give a historical perspective. “I had a tour the other day and I was talking about Andy Young and one of the people said ‘Isn’t there a street named for him? Who is he?’ It’s really sad.”
Credit: Via Explore Georgia
Credit: Via Explore Georgia
Not only are many streets named for civil rights leaders but other streets tell the story of segregation to indicate one was a “white” neighborhood and the other Black. “These names and locations have a meaning and help to understand how Atlanta was really defined; it was planned with a racial consciousness, and not in a positive way,” she says. “The naming of streets was meant to reinforce boundaries of segregation of the races. So you might have a Black neighborhood with a street named after a Confederate soldier running through the Black section.”
Credit: John Spink
Credit: John Spink
An example of this is where Briarcliff Road, where whites lived, crosses Ponce de Leon Avenue, and becomes Moreland Avenue, a Black neighborhood named after Confederate Major Asbury Fletcher Moreland.
Atlanta, like many other cities, faces the challenge of removing the street names of Confederate or segregationist leaders. Former Mayor Kasim Reed recommended that at least 25 streets named for Confederate soldiers or noted segregationist be changed. Ironically, one of them, Confederate Avenue wasn’t directly named for the Confederacy, but for an old soldiers’ home that cared for aging Confederate veterans. Today, it is United Avenue.
Many streets have already been renamed over the decades. Ralph David Abernathy Boulevard was formerly Gordon Street, named for Civil War general John Brown Gordon. Mayor Maynard Jackson changed Forrest Avenue to Ralph McGill Boulevard when he learned that Nathan Bedford Forrest was a Civil War lieutenant general and the first Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan.
Myrick-Harris notes that changing a name may be a challenge for both sides. When it was suggested to rename Bankhead Highway, which was developing a dangerous reputation, to Donald Lee Hollowell Parkway, many Black residents were opposed. The area was the former home to entertainers such as T.I., Young Dro, Shop Boyz and Dem Franchize Boyz.
“Bankhead was synonymous with hip-hop and rap, but people didn’t understand that it was named after John H. Bankhead, a Confederate officer and segregationist from Alabama,” Myrick-Harris says. “Sometimes people are protesting name changes and not understanding that many of those streets were named after segregationists or members of the Klan. I knew Donald Hollowell. He helped get MLK out of jail. He was a good man. Sometimes people don’t understand the history of the name and the significant struggle people faced for basic human rights. It’s imperative that everyone knows that history.”
The best way to discover the names behind the signs is to let your feet do the walking and Google as you go along. Of course, start at Auburn Avenue with stops at the Apex Museum, the John Wesley Dobbs Monument, Prince Hall Masonic Temple, Madam C.J. Walker Museum and the King Center. Many of the buildings have plaques on them, including the Royal Peacock and the former home of the Atlanta Daily World.
Credit: File
Credit: File
There is a lot of history to discover over at the Atlanta University Center and Hunter Street, now MLK Jr. Drive. “When you go on that campus you get a sense of history and there are some historical markers around. There will be a marker up soon honoring Lugenia Burns Hope [a founding member of the National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs] and already there is one for John Hope [first African-descended president of Morehouse College and Atlanta University],” she says.
Look for other notables around the campus including Gaines Hall (originally North Hall, named after a chemistry professor). A fire at Gaines Hall in 2015 further damaged a building already in disrepair, but there are efforts to save and restore the historic structure. Nearby is Fairchild-Stone Hall, which was a focal point of student activities and a National Historic Landmark. There also are several plaques noting other actions of the Atlanta Student Movement.
Credit: Johnny Crawford
Credit: Johnny Crawford
Other ways to explore civil rights history include:
- International Civil Rights Walk of Fame, a promenade located at the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Park in 2004, honors civil rights activists, not only in Atlanta, but globally. Among those include Juanita J. Abernathy, Julian Bond, Rev. William Holmes Borders, Sr. and the Rev. C.T. Vivian.
- The U.S. Civil Rights Trail lists more 100 churches, courthouses, schools, museums and other landmarks across the country that played a pivotal role in advancing social justice in the 1950s and 60s. Among those in Atlanta are the Elbert P. Tuttle United States Court of Appeals Building, Ebenezer Baptist Church and the Martin Luther King Jr. Birth Home.
- Mozley Park is the home to four bronze sculptures honoring civil rights leaders Dr. Rita Samuels, Dorothy Lee Bolden, Rev. Hosea Williams and William Alexander Scott II. Next to the statutes are short biographies so that visitors know, for instance, that Bolden founded the National Domestic Workers Union of America, which also helped domestic workers register to vote.
- Artwork. Throughout the city are sculptures of civil rights leaders including two at the State Capital. One, by Martin Dawe, is of King, while the second “Expelled Because of Color” pays tribute to the 33 African American legislators who were expelled from the Georgia General Assembly during Reconstruction. Other statutes include: Andrew Young by Andrew Young International Boulevard and Spring Street, John Wesley Dobbs on Auburn and Fort Street, and Charles Lincoln Harper (the first principal of Booker T. Washington High School) in Ashby Garden Park. There are murals throughout the city honoring notable people including one of John Lewis at Auburn Avenue and Jessie Hill Jr., Stacey Abrams has a mural a block from the King Center and civil rights activist Evelyn G. Lowery has a mural a few blocks away on Auburn Avenue and Bell Street. Along MLK Drive there is a statute of King entitled “Hope Moving Forward,” while there is a mural on Joseph E. Boone Boulevard depicting Abernathy, Williams, the Rev. and Mrs. King and John Lewis. Women leaders get their own mural in the West End with “Herstory: Heroines of the West End,” by Ashley Dopson that honors several women including Lottie Watkins, who reportedly was the city’s first licensed Black real estate broker and Irene Dobbs Jackson, who helped desegregate the city’s public libraries.
IF YOU GO
Mozley Park, 1565 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive SW, Atlanta. friendsofmozleypark.org.
The King Center, 449 Auburn Ave. NE, Atlanta. thekingcenter.org.
Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park, 450 Auburn Ave. NE, Atlanta. nps.gov/malu.
Ebenezer Baptist Church, 101 Jackson St. NE, Atlanta. ebenezeratl.org.
Gaines Hall, 643 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive NW, Atlanta.
Clark Atlanta University, 223 James P. Brawley Drive S.W., Atlanta. cau.edu.
Spelman College, 350 Spelman Lane SW, Atlanta. spelman.edu.
Morehouse College, 830 Westview Drive SW, Atlanta. morehouse.edu.
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