Launched in January 2009, the Peoplestown Project is devoted to studying and interpreting community-based movements and organizations in the Peoplestown neighborhood (central Atlanta). The project collects oral histories and historical manuscripts, develops interpretive programs, and facilitates local examination and interpretation of place and grassroots community organizing.
Then, for maybe two or three Saturdays, I would stand out on the street and anyone who would walk by, I’d say, “Would you help me paint this wall? You can have this square.” All the squares were already painted, [but] I said, “what color square would you like to have?” They’d say, “Oh I like the blue one.” And I’d say, “Well, what color would you like your hand?” Read more
The Peoplestown Project website features the photography of Atlanta journalist Boyd Lewis in its banner. The photos shown here — of Peoplestown, its activists, and the neighborhood’s families — were taken while Lewis worked for the black newspapers, The Atlanta Voice and the Atlanta Inquirer in the 1960s and 1970s. Read more
In August 1973, three Peoplestown children drowned while swimming off the coast of Mississippi. Eva Spratling, Jimmy Spratling, and Teresa Williams had been on a trip to New Orleans with Emmaus House to observe the court proceedings related to one of the many school desegregation cases of the period. Read more
Antonio Roberts wrote and directed this archetypal story about seemingly weak actors (in this case, summer campers) defeating an oppressive regime (in this case, summer camp instructors). Read more
In Emmaus House Arts Camp, Tameesha Pate and Kierra Peterson reflect back on their summer at the Emmaus House Middle Grades Community Arts Camp. Read more
I think a part of the underlying purpose [of Emmaus House] was that we would make everything available for any citizen and available for the neighbors of Emmaus House. And to change laws, place pressure in the right places – all that was the underlying purpose. And, in the midst of all of this, were the social programs that helped to give children the idea that, “yes they could.” Read more
And so Muriel Lokey, Ann’s mom, called my mother, Johnnie Brown, and said, “There’s this new project from the Episcopal church, and we need volunteers, and I’m a volunteer. Would you like to come and volunteer?” And so Mother said yes. Read more
Tell us about this photograph! Photograph courtesy of Charlotta Bright Norby. Read more
