Post Date:02/09/2024 12:42 PM
Mayor’s Office of Communications
55 Trinity Avenue, Suite 2500 • Atlanta, Georgia 30303
City Partners with National Center for Civil and Human Rights to Launch Community Engagement for Former Chattahoochee Brick Co. Site
ATLANTA–The City of Atlanta announced community involvement plans for the former Chattahoochee Brick Company site in collaboration with the National Center for Civil and Human Rights (NCCHR). This joint effort will foster discussions and awareness about the history of the property in Northwest Atlanta, and goals for its redevelopment.
The first phase of involvement begins with a series of informative seminars on the background of the site and its influence on the city. Attendees will also learn about long-term plans for community engagement. Monthly seminars will take place February through June at The Carter Presidential Center.
Seminar I: Project Update & Talk about the Importance of Memorialization
Date: February 17, 2024
Time: 1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Seminar II: Before Atlanta: Native Peoples, the Piedmont Region, and the Chattahoochee River
Date: March 16, 2024
Time: 1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Seminar III: When the Way Wasn’t Clear: African Americans Before and After the War
Date: April 20, 2024
Time: 1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Seminar IV: Nineteenth-Century Industry, Labor, and Environmental Degradation
Date: May 11, 2024
Time: 1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Seminar V: Brick by Brick: Building Atlanta, Criminal Justice, and Race
Date: June 15, 2024
Time: 1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Historical Context: Convict Leasing in Atlanta
Convict leasing was established across the south in the post-Civil War period, lasting until 1909 in Georgia. Southern states arrested thousands of Black Americans for minor offenses and leased these prisoners to private white-owned industry, in which the prisoners were subject to brutal, often deadly conditions. Atlanta industries relied heavily on convict leasing to supply materials to rebuild the city after the Civil War, the Chattahoochee Brick Company being a prominent example.
For more details on the seminar series and information on the Chattahoochee Brick Company site, please visit: https://www.atlcitydesign.com/chattahoochee-brick and https://www.civilandhumanrights.org/truth-and-transformation-initiative/
About:
The City of Atlanta acquired the 75-acre site of the former Chattahoochee Brick Company in 2022. Over the next several years, the City will conduct a public process to repurpose the site for protecting and memorializing the site’s historic significance. The City established the Chattahoochee Brick Company Memorial, Greenspace, and Park Board consisting of 11 community members with the sole mission to promote public trust and engage in a transparent, thoughtful, inclusive, and collaborative process for the visioning, planning, designing, and redevelopment of the site.
The National Center for Civil and Human Rights is a museum and cultural organization in Atlanta that inspires the changemaker in each person. The Center’s Truth & Transformation Initiative is dedicated to helping our community engage critically with Atlanta’s history of racial terror and forced labor through memorialization, commemoration, public education, and civic engagement. It takes as its premise that an honest engagement with history is critical to shaping a more equitable future. As the City works with the community to plan the Chattahoochee Brick site, NCCHR’s Truth & Transformation team will research and identify descendants of forced laborers and people who worked for the company, and develop educational content about the historical impact of forced labor.
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For more information about the City of Atlanta, please visit www.atlantaga.gov or watch City Channel 26. Follow the City of Atlanta on Facebook and Twitter @CityofAtlanta.
Last modified: February 11, 2024
