AA 4950 Blog #2 – Atlanta : The Great Black Hope

The Second Great Migration of Blacks from the south to the north, east coast and the midwest took place between 1940 and 1970. Blacks were seeking WWII industrial jobs during this era. The film industry took cues as well producing black films with back drops such as Chicago, Harlem and New York. Blaxploitation films began to emerge in 1971 and continued showing a theme of Blacks in midwestern and east coast cities.

After 1945 soldiers returned home from the war and in turn produced the baby boom. The GI bill passed allowing for new educational opportunities and this in turn developed the black middle class. A fair amount of children of this population of baby boomers would go on to attend HBCU's that are primarily located in the southern states. Around the 1980's a Black Reverse Migration began where Black families in high volume returned to their southern roots. With the advancement of education for Blacks and development of industries in Atlanta specifically a birth of young black professionals puts a spotlight on Atlanta.

Media and film often follows the cues of politics and socio-economics, therefore directors, producers and film companies alike started to see the benefit of having Atlanta which is viewed as this urban, progressive city full of opportunities for Black people as a backdrop for movies, television series and award shows.

The 1996 hosting of the Olympics in Atlanta brought a surplus of attention, focus and economic boom to the city of Atlanta as well, adding to the buzz. It was all of sudden was viewed as the place to be for any young Black, educated professional. I myself, moved to Atlanta in 2001 with the hopes of being a part of this progression of Black professionals excelling in various industries. Whether we believe art imitates life or that life imitates art, there some negative aspects to the relationship between the way Atlanta is perceived and the unedited and sometimes grotesque content of Atlanta based films, specifically reality shows. Currently, if you talk to people about the idea of Atlanta, it is often diluted by ideas of Blacks living above their means, exaggerated caricatures of Black men and women and the pie in the sky Hollywood aspirations of so many whom can't keep real jobs.

­Hopefully Atlanta can continue to move forward with the rich legacy and history it has and better leverage the film and media industry to promote a much more positive and enlightened view of the city and its residents.

AA 4950 Blog #1 - Preservation of Sweet Auburn Avenue

I thoroughly enjoyed my tour of Sweet Auburn Avenue. It was amazing to me the amount of rich history that is packed and hidden away in those few blocks. After the tour I found myself reflecting mostly on the Odd Fellows Building. Historically this space was used as theater for blacks as we were not welcome in other white owned theaters. In present day it still has a great charismatic charm, sitting on a corner barely noticeable to the average person walking or driving by.

Why hasn't Atlanta done more to preserve this space? That can be argued both ways. On one hand you can easily see the building has been preserved somewhat and can even still be rented out for space and leased for business. Maybe the obligation is on the black community to patronize these historic black areas more and therefore bring in additional revenues so that these businesses can thrive, reinvent themselves and make improvements if necessary.

I personally feel if the city gets too involved with a project such as this you are inevitable going to have a wealthy contractor or business owner put in a bid to buy out places such as Odd Fellows. They will quickly tear it down along with several other buildings and begin what they call enhancing and upgrading an area which is what we call gentrification. Other black businesses will be bought out and forced to move out of the area. Most of these businesses will become displaced and will not rebuild.

I don't think the goal of the city was to ever preserve Sweet Auburn Avenue and a black-owned business mecca but rather preserve the historical elements which are now housed in the Auburn Avenue archives.

On our tour of the Auburn Avenue archives it was interesting to see the effort that had been put into preserving historical documents, artifacts and information of the Black American experience. It was explained that nearly $10M went into building the Auburn Avenue Library. I find this to be a substantial contribution towards preserving black history. Perhaps the city of Atlanta has decided this is the extent to which they feel obligated. They may feel like black business owners, black consumers and black tourists should make it a priority to keep spaces like Odd Fellows and other businesses alike thriving so that they are preserved for future generations.