tea houses, restaurants, crafts (e.g., seamstress), and the trades (e.g. barbering, masonry, contracting) which allowed households to increase their material resources. In those same areas, gambling and bootlegging was also common. Accordingly, people who grew up in Buttermilk Bottom recall memories with fondness. It is impossible to separate the lived experiences from the impacts of policy decisions and it is necessary to understand how Black communities were formed in the formulation of the repair for the area. “Bedford Pine will be Atlanta’s premier downtown neighborhood! ...It will be an integrated neighborhood in every sense–economically, racially, and architecturally…providing the finest in urban living.” ~ Dan E. Sweat, Jr., President of Central Atlanta Progress 68
THE BEGINNINGS OF BUTTERMILK BOTTOM, 1911- 1917
Figure B-7: Regulations from Georgia State Board of Entomology (1918)
The Atlanta Daily World described Buttermilk Bottom as “the starting place for most of the city’s pioneering citizens of the Negro race.” As a landing pad and starting point, Buttermilk Bottom served as an “acculturation settlement” to urban life for Black folks coming out of rural Georgia into the urban center of the state, as described by Joan
68 Wood, “The Bedford Pine Neighborhood.” p. 4
B-17
Made with FlippingBook Ebook Creator