Tag Archives: Sweet Auburn

Annotated Bibliography #3

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Hatfield, Edward A., and Chris Dobbs. “Auburn Avenue (Sweet Auburn).” New Georgia Encyclopedia. N.p., 20 Oct. 2015. Web. 06 Feb. 2016.

This website explains how commercialized Sweet Auburn was in the days of segregation. It explains all the businesses created by Black men, some who were even former slaves. It talks about the decay of the neighborhood after the Civil Rights Movement and why it happened. The authors describe Sweet Auburn as “The richest Negro Street in the world” in 1959 in Fortune Magazine. The African Americans of that generation built successful businesses for themselves and their communities and that shaped the African American life on Sweet Auburn for the period where it was alive. Looking at the main Authors other articles I can see that he has written lots of articles about historical civil rights and societal structures. This may suggest he has a bias to write from a historical standpoint instead of another. This source, like others gives a look into the life on Sweet Auburn then and now.

 

The old Atlanta Life Insurance building, pictured in 2005, is boarded up on Auburn Avenue. Established by Alonzo Herndon in 1905, Atlanta Life was one of three financial institutions, all headquartered in the Sweet Auburn district, that served the black middle class in Atlanta before the civil rights movement.

Atlanta Life Insurance Building

The Royal Peacock, a club located in Atlanta's Sweet Auburn historic district, was formerly known as the Top Hat Club, one of the city's premier African American music venues early in the twentieth century.

Former Top Hat Club (Royal  Peacock)

Annotated Bibliography #2

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Demby, Gene. “Atlanta’s Historic Auburn Ave. Again At Crossroads (PHOTOS).” The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 6 Feb. 2016. Web. 06 Apr. 2016.

This site focuses on the endangerment of the old neighborhood of Sweet Auburn. Once a thriving neighborhood in the years before the Civil Rights movement, Sweet Auburn is declining in population and it’s buildings are being abandoned. This website tells me that Auburn Avenue was once a thriving financially well off part of town where blacks were segregated into. However after the Civil Rights movement people that supported Sweet Auburn all moved to the west side of Atlanta. This exodus caused Sweet Auburn to decline in financial support enabling it to shut down businesses and become a less popular place to go, besides seeing historical sites. This tells me a once popular neighborhood town has been left in the past and neglected which is now displayed for all to see for those who go down this historical street. This website seemed credible because it’s the Huffington Post and they have been known to give reliable news to the public so I believed this source was credible to use.

 

Auburn Ave (Neighborhood section)

Atlanta Life Insurance Building (today)

Annotated Bibliography #1

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“Sweet Auburn Avenue: The Buildings Tell Their Story.” Sweet Auburn Avenue: The Buildings Tell Their Story. N.p., 6 Feb. 2016. Web. 06 Apr. 2016.

This source is about the freedom struggle for equality of Auburn Avenue, a small but powerful Mecca for blacks during the Jim Crow segregation period. The site describes how a regular day was on Auburn Avenue. It gives off an emotional appeal to blissfulness when describing the TopHat club and the smell of chicken as you walk down the street. The author explains the culture on Sweet Auburn during the nineteen forties. I chose this website because it is a historical website giving accurate insight on the life of the inner city life in Atlanta during the segregation period. Although I saw no Author, this website seems like it comes from someone who supported the Civil Rights Movement and was alive during this period or heard about how life was directly from a primary source. This source may have an African American bias since it is written from a black persons standpoint in that segregated era or someone in support of them. Like other sources I’ve researched, this one gives me an insight on the historical life of Sweet Auburn and how it shaped the built environment of Atlanta back then.

Sweet auburn