A City too Busy to Hate???

I spent some time on Monday with my daughter and a very talented photographer. Dear Daughter was busy getting a few of her Senior pictures taken against the backdrop of the vibrant art and culture of the Little Five Points area of Atlanta.

However, if we had suddenly been transported back to September, 1906 our Little Five Points experience would have been very different……downright scary and dangerous.

You see….Dear Daughter and I are white and our expert photographer friend is black, and if the year had been 1906 we would have been caught up with the Atlanta Race Riot of that year since many of the scenes of violence were centered in the Little Five Points area.

It began on September 22, 1906 and by the time the event ended it has been reported twelve blacks and two whites were killed though some historians argue many, many more were killed. Some advise that some families took the bodies of their loved ones and quietly buried them not wanting to have the stigma of having taken part or having been a victim of a race riot. Others were quiet about the death of a family member because they understood the effect the riot could have on the economy of the city.

Things like that just didn’t happen in Atlanta.

After all……Atlanta is the city that is too busy to hate, right? It seems to me though the city was actually too busy to remember as the details regarding the riot have been mostly forgotten and not taught in schools.

The cause of the riot is actually very convoluted basically ranging from paternalism – a feeling blacks had to be taken care of to negrophobia – where whites believed blacks were always prone to crime and violence. The 1906 governor’s race has been held up as a major cause as the two men running for office both brought race relations to the forefront stating they would do what they could to keep black men from voting. Some historians blame the changing Atlanta economy – from an agrarian society to a highly industrialized transportation hub, and others state changes in black society also contributed. By 1906, there was a definite middle class that existed in Atlanta’s black neighborhoods and there were even a few wealthy families. Another cause had to do with several saloons or “dives”, as whites referred to them, on Decatur Street where black men frequented. Whites were worried about a rise in crime that could spill over into white areas. Add in competition between the races for jobs, a tug-of-war over civil rights, and other issues left over from Reconstruction...... a powder keg was most certainly brewing.

In the days leading up to the riots there had been some unproven reports black men had been attacking white women. Mob psychology took over. At the height of the riot reports state there were as many as 10,000 whites and hundreds of blacks involved. The violence occurred for a few days before the state militia was called out.

New Georgia Encyclopedia states the after effects of the riot include retrenchment of Atlanta’s black community, statewide prohibition and black suffrage, a turning away from the leadership of Booker T. Washington to W.E.B. DuBois who wrote a poem regarding the event titled The Litany of Atlanta.

Mainly……the event was minimalized and forgotten.

A Carnegie Wish

Due to the philanthropic nature of the industrialist/Robber Baron, Andrew Carnegie (depending on your point of view), many of Georgia’s small towns and larger urban areas were the recipients of library grants in the latter years of the 1800s and the early part of the Twentieth Century. The city of Atlanta, at one time, could boast it had three Carnegie libraries. The main building was located at the corner of Forsyth and Carnegie Way. The grant was issued in 1898 with the building being finalized in 1900. It is pictured below:

The building was demolished in 1977 to be replaced with a newer and more modern facility. Fortunately part of the building lives on……It exists as a column structure at Peachtree and West Peachtree across from Suntrust Plaza. It is known as the Carnegie Arch.

Another Carnegie library found in Atlanta is located on Moreland Avenue and is in the Little Five Points district. Earlier this week I shared many pictures from an exploration of Little Five Points that I made the other day with my daughter.

The final location within Little Five Points that my daughter and I visited was the store called Wish. Wow, what a great use of space! Their website can be found here. I loved the clean surface of the plain plywood everywhere. The simple displays are refreshing. As you enter the store you see raised boxes on either side of a walkway that has a clear floor with clothing and accessories displayed underneath as seen in the picture below (snagged from the Wish website).

Dear Daughter bought one of their signature t-shirts with the Wish logo as well as the words Little Five Points, and as we made our purchase the staff members were talkative. They certainly didn’t seem to mind that they were placed in the position of having to converse with a 40-something lady who is anything but hip. In fact when one of the clerks, a 20-something, tatooed, tanned man missing most of his shirt found out I was a history teacher he admitted he was a history geek as well.

It was at this point the young man reminded me I was standing in a Carnegie library. Wow! Thank goodness the folks in Little Five Points didn’t let this gem of a building go the way of the wrecking ball. The people at Wish have done a fantastic job of preserving the building’s architecture while creating a funky space.

The name of the store also fits in with a Carnegie library since it was the wish of many communities that they would receive a Carnegie grant.

The lower level of Wish really blew me away. It is here where you can find almost many trendy yet hard-to-find footwear styles….many of them limited editions. While Dear Daughter ooed and ahhed over many different styles she had never seen before I was mesmerized by the décor.

Look at the wall above the shoes in this image (taken from the Wish site). Those are books….Carnegie library….books….get the picture? All the books in this area had plain black jackets with gold lettering on the spines which added to the interesting placement of each group of books on the shelves. So cool!

In another section of the lower level books are used again, however, they are turned with the spines facing inward. I thought it was very interesting way to cover a way....especially in an old library space. Though they probably didn't want us to take a picture I had had Dear Daughter snap the one below rather quickly.

As we left I had my daughter take some shots of the outside of the building. Earlier, when we crossed the road from The Junkman’s Daughter to return to our car I was so tired, but I’m so glad at Dear Daughter’s suggestion I ventured into Wish.

The image below shows the side of the building where the original cornerstone designates the site as a Carnegie library.

Over at History Is Elementary I’ve posted some more information regarding Carnegie libraries.

Crazy and Cool Little Five Points

So I asked Daughter Dear, “If you could explore any part of Atlanta which part would it be?”

Without hesitation she said, “Little Five Points.” Now, as far as I know she has only ridden through Little Five Points once when we were on our way over to the Carter Center to see one of the original Dunlap broadsides of the Declaration of Independence that is owned by Norman Lear, so I was little surprised at her answer.

I was also a little taken aback by her answer because I had never walked the streets of Moreland and Euclid even though I was born in Atlanta (a Piedmont baby, thank you very much). I had driven through many times…..As I mentioned yesterday, Little Five Points is one of those places I’ve always driven through to get to somewhere else.

Little Five Points was originally formed by the interesections of Moreland Avenue, Euclid Avenue, and Seminole Aveue. Today, many consider the fifth point to be where McClendon Avenue crosses Moreland since Seminole was incorporated into Davis Plaza.

Well, last Thursday Dear Daughter and I threw caution to the wind and we went explorin’.

It was a glorious day of art in your face, funky clothes, crazy shoes, insense and some other smells I recognized :). We also met lots of folks with various lengths of hair, interesting clothing choices, body art, and folks full of hellos and how are yous.

We started out by parking in the lot across the street from The Junkman’s Daughter and we walked down Moreland Avenue, crossed Euclid, and then down past Zestos we discovered we had an interesting choice of lunch at Front Page News or Sabroso. Dear Daughter felt like Mexican was the cuisine for the day, and we soon found ourselves sitting on their patio enjoying their fountain and interesting metal sculptures. I like the picture of Dear Daughter hidden behind the menu…..The service at Sabroso was excellent, and the our soft tacos were perfect.

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After lunch we headed across Moreland and began the trek down Euclid with Dear Daughter snapping pictures as we went. Art is everywhere….from the buildings themselves, to the items inside the store windows, to the sides of buildings where murals are displayed, back fences behind buildings, and yes, even the street signs and telephone poles contain someone’s idea of art. It’s great!

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The insides of the stores were just as great. It was interesting just to see how each store used their space…..Dear Daughter bought a pair of earrings at Envy…..she found a really cool white sundress, but I nixed the $80 price tag. Maybe if I go back in a few days the price will be lower. Her favorite store was Rag-O-Rama where they sell gently used clothing. I loved all the retro stuff, and Dear Daughter got a little tired of me showing her clothing items I had as a teen. She chose a Pepe Le Pew t-shirt that had been slashed down the front, back, and sleeves. We decided she could wear it over her swimsuit. I did relive some high school moments by putting on a few pairs of platform shoes and extreme high heels just to see if they still felt the same. They were worse. :) I’m soooo over THAT fashion trend.

Soon we found ourselves back up to the point where Euclid and Moreland cross so we Dear Daughter snapped some pictures of the goings-on in Findley Plaza. It was here where we tried on old hats at Stefan's Vintage Clothing

Then we had a quick sojourn in Findley Plaza and backdown Moreland towards The Vortex and The Junkman’s Daughter…..with a quick look around Davis Plaza as seen in these pictures:

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The Junkman's Daughter was one of my daughter’s most favorite stores. Lots and lots of quirky stuff to look at, and we kept finding article after article of “must-have” clothing. She finally settled on a couple of tops that left with her as she journeyed to Panama City Beach this morning with her youth group. I mean, really….how can you go on a trip without a new article of clothing….or two….or three…..you get the picture. Luckily she has a job, so…..Daddy isn’t footing the whole bill. :)

We can now truthfully say that Little Five Points is one our favorite Atlanta must-see and must-experience districts. BUT OUR MOST FAVORITE PART of Little Five Points……well, I will share that tomorrow. Be sure to tune in.

Little Five points information and history can be obtained here and here.