- Neighborhood
- Segregation
- 1906 onward; National Historic Landmark 1976
- City of Atlanta
- General area only
Sweet Auburn: Black Atlanta's business street
After the 1906 massacre and the segregation laws that followed, Black-owned businesses moved to Auburn Avenue. It became what Fortune called 'the richest Negro street in the world'.
The record
Auburn Avenue, called Wheat Street until 1893, drew Black businesses from the older downtown district after 1906, and segregation confined much of Black commercial life there (NGE; Wikipedia). Alonzo Herndon, born enslaved, founded Atlanta Life Insurance in 1905; by 1925 it held about 13 percent of the insurance in force at the eight leading Black insurers. Heman Perry's Standard Life followed, and Citizens Trust Bank extended credit to Black homeowners and businesses. The Atlanta Daily World, founded in 1928, had its offices on the avenue until the 2008 tornado, and churches, the NAACP, the Urban League, lodges and clubs such as the Royal Peacock lined the street. John Wesley Dobbs coined the name 'Sweet Auburn'.
Today: The Sweet Auburn Historic District (a National Historic Landmark since 1976) and the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park. The Downtown Connector crosses the avenue.
Where on the map: Auburn Ave from Peachtree St east past Jackson St, with the parallel Edgewood Ave blocks.