Once residents, property owners, and the Black elite civic leaders—including religious and business figures—understood the totality of destruction of urban renewal on their neighborhoods, they began engaging in various forms of resistance. When the remaining section of Buttermilk Bottom was designated for redevelopment, collective advocacy organization were formed and campaigns were led to resist displacement and the annihilation of the community. U RESCUE—Urban Renewal Emergency Stop Consider, Understand, Evaluate and The CRISIS House were the main community-led groups in the mid-1960s. U RESCUE mobilized to challenge the urban renewal plans and demand better treatment. After seeing the Philadelphia and Johnston communities refuse to follow the slum clearance laws until “adequate sewer systems” were installed, residents, increased their resolved to demand justice before agreeing to their own displacement. 204 The CRISIS House was led by Rev. Edward Ducree, offered critical support by advocating for housing rights and better living conditions for Buttermilk Bottom residents. Both groups were instrumental in bringing attention to the plight of displaced residents, empowering residents to demand justice, and pushing for more equitable urban renewal policies. Open housing policies also made buying homes complicated. For example, Atlanta’s “Berlin Wall”, was constructed in the Peyton Forest neighborhood, at Peyton and Harlan Roads to prevent Black people from crossing the color line. 205 Black people made up one-third of the city’s population and yet were only allowed to live on 18 percent of the land within the city limits. 206 Federal desegregation laws contrasted with local resistance to desegregating housing patterns and making land available for housing development for Atlanta’s Black population.
204 Milz, “War on Slums.” 205 Kevin M. Kruse, “White Flight: Atlanta and the Making of Modern Conservatism”, Princeton University Press: Princeton, 2005, p.3. 206 Stanley S. Scott, “Blocks of Slums in Summerhill, Vine City, Buttermilk Bottom, House Minority”, The Atlanta Daily World, March 6, 1963.
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