decisions and actions, the City of Atlanta must take decided actions. First, acknowledging past injustices instituted by exclusionary laws, land use regulations, and the urban renewal program in the creation of unfair and unsafe housing for Black communities. Second, addressing the experiences and ongoing losses had by former residents and their descendants that precipitated loss of wealth, health, and access to opportunity. And third, a strategy for inclusive development to remediate the past. To effectuate reparative development and land use policies, the Stitch will foster a more equitable and connected community for all. The Introduction provides a general overview of the history of the area renamed Bedford Pines. It discusses the Black Bottom as a Black cultural landscape indicating the “bottom” as one example of landscape typologies of Black identity. During the area’s most vibrant period, media coverage was biased and often contradicted the historical recollections of residents in the close-knit community. This section also outlines the transfer of land from property owners to the Atlanta Housing Authority, with the aid of funding from the federal Department of Urban Renewal. Early Urban Renewal in Atlanta seeks to pinpoint a first instance of using land use and the development of a city park for White Atlantans only as a model for the removal of the presence Black Atlantans from the landscape and recasting the character of a place and who the place is for. The Beginning of Buttermilk Bottom explores the migration of Black people from rural Georgia to Atlanta in search of opportunities following the cotton crop failure of 1915. It examines how this area got its name (Buttermilk Bottom and the main street, Forrest Avenue), and how The Great Fire of 1917 impacted the community. It goes on to describe the business development along Forrest and Auburn Avenues, as well as the blossoming of the local economy and cultural life of the community that emerged following the fire. Community Life describes a rich picture of life in Buttermilk Bottom under segregation, including the interactions and relationships between the Black community and Jewish shop owners and their families. This section concludes with a discussion of the activism and advocacy initiatives organized to support residents’ rights to housing, highlighting both the significant reduction in the number of Black community residents during that period and the drastic loss of housing. The Spatial Realities of Buttermilk Bottom exemplifies the level of disregard and extent of neglect experienced by this community from the city of Atlanta. Buttermilk Bottom was not developed for over 50 years despite the promise to build standardized, safe housing, and offering former residents the right of return.
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