Peoplestown, one of the six neighborhoods comprising Atlanta’s urban core, has a rich history of community-based organizing and deep social networks. The Peoplestown Revitalization Corporation has facilitated the building of affordable housing and fostered economic development in the neighborhood since its founding in 1991. Emmaus House, formed in 1967, historically served as an incubator for neighborhood-based organizing and empowerment, and gave birth to tenant unions as well as Atlanta’s first welfare rights organization.
Peoplestown: The Place
Related Documents
David Morath Papers
David Morath worked on staff at Emmaus House from September 1970 until August 1972. The letters in this collection — from David to his parents in Westminster, Maryland — were saved by his mother. Rich with descriptions of neighborhood conditions, welfare rights meetings, and staff activities, the Morath letters provide a glimpse in to the day-to-day experience of working for social change in the urban South. Read more
Oral Histories
Judge Clinton E. Deveaux
Emmaus House was what that was about. There was a food bank that was based here, the Welfare Rights program was based here, the Poverty Rights office was based here, the school programs, after-school programs, there was a daycare program here for kids. Read more
Charles “Tony” Foster
Some of them just relocated. Some of them moved, where I don’t know. There were a lot of elderly people back then so lot of them just passed on and their family just went their way. They basically took people’s houses. I’m just being honest with you. Read more
Margaret Griggs
See I don’t know what Father gets me into, get me into something. And he the one got me into that running for the [Atlanta] School Board. I was sitting here tending to my own business, the phone rang, he on the other end and says, “Margaret.” I said, “Father, yes, what do you want?” Because I know there’s something up. He said, “Oh, don’t you want to run for the school board?” I said, “Do what?” He said, “Don’t you want to run for the school board?” I said, “Not necessarily.” Read more
Photographs
Interpretive Projects
A person’s hand print (part 1)
Columbus Ward was the one that said, “That bus stop out there, that wall is atrocious.” Well, he didn’t use the word atrocious, but he said it’s really awful—something needs to be done to help clean that up. Read more
The History of The Peoplestown Project
We are particularly interested in the “storied” experience of Peoplestown and its community-based organizations. We know that stories help bind many people to this place and to each other. Stories are told and re-told, creating a local lore that links people over time and space. We’ve already heard many: the strength and tenacity of a welfare rights leader, vans breaking down at Zesto’s, sleep-ins at the Model Cities offices, singing hymns in the visitor gallery during a General Assembly session. Read more
Photographing MyPLACE
With the children enrolled in Emmaus Houses’s Summer Arts Camp, we studied visual composition and used digital photography to document and interpret our lives and the Peoplestown community. Read more
