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On our tour of the Auburn Avenue archives it was interesting to see the effort that had been put into preserving historical documents, artifacts and information of the Black American experience.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.