Tuesday, February 16, 2010
News Atlanta's forgotten black history
Posted by Scott Henry @ScottTheHenry on Tue, Feb 16, 2010 at 5:22 PM
During the '40s and '50s, John Wesley Dobbs was known as the "mayor of Sweet Auburn," the most politically influential black man in Atlanta and a pillar of the African-American business community that thrived on the eastern edge of downtown. After his death in 1961, the Dobbs family home -- a modest 1910 bungalow to which he added a second floor a few decades later -- was sold and became a base of operations for Mennonites involved in the Civil Rights Movement.
But by 1994, when the street out front was renamed in Dobbs' honor by his grandson, then-Mayor Maynard Jackson, the home had become a rooming house and had fallen into disrepair. A decade later, two other Dobbs grandchildren bought the house back with plans to transform it as a memorial to their family's legacy. Since then, however, the property has remained empty and its restoration has progressed slowly. Owner Benjamin Blackburn II says he's received plenty of encouragement in his efforts to fix up the Dobbs House, but little in the way of material aid.
"I'd like to honor my grandfather, but I don't know if a museum is realistic and I don't have a lot of resources," says Blackburn, who now plans to lease the finished house as a rental property.
To many, the concept of a restored Dobbs House that can serve to remind visitors of a key period in the life of black Atlanta is a dream deferred. And it's not the only one.
Continue Reading "Atlanta's forgotten black history"
(Photo by Joeff Davis)
Comments (2)
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This is a great shame. To me Dobbs is actually a greater figure than MLK. Not to detract from MLK, but he stood on the shoulders of other great men, and Dobbs was one of those me. Throughout history we forget to recognize the great men behind the famous man.
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