Introduction
Indian Removal Act
Prior to the arrival of the Europeans to what is now known as the Southeastern United States (including the State of Georgia) lived a union of Native American tribes known as the Muscogee (labeled Creeks by English traders). Tribes included the Alabama, Koasati, Hitchi, Natchez, Shawnee, and Yuchi (The Muscogee (Creek) Nation.
The Muscogee people lived prosperously, farming, hunting, and trading, with their own systems of society that allowed their communities to thrive and enjoy healthy living in the lushness of this region.
The Muscogee people were actively engaged in the seventeenth and the eighteenth centuries in various negotiations with European colonizers to preserve their lands, interests, and lifestyles. However, after the American Revolution (1776-1783) and the founding of the United States of America, this era of trade and negotiation deteriorated. With the escalation in the southern states of a plantation economy and the complex entwining of slavery within this system, there was a growing need for land.
In Georgia, under intense pressure, the Creeks began ceding millions of acres of land to the new state. By 1813, factions within the Creek nations and tensions between the Creeks and the Americans escalated, and war erupted. Over 1813 and 1814, the Creeks suffered devastating losses of life. They experienced relentless violence and extreme poverty, and increasingly through various treaties, they were dispossessed of all of their lands in Georgia.
"How the Indians are to subsist the year, I cannot imagine. Some of them are sustaining themselves upon roots. They have, apparently, very little corn, and scarcely any stock. The game is gone, and what they are to do, God only knows. Nothing can preserve their property, or their existence, other than their immediate removal to the country designed for them."
Letter from Enoch Parsons to Lewis Cass, January 13th, 1833. U.S. Senate Document No. 512, v. IV, 23rd Congress, 1st Session, "Indian Removal," 75.
"Being ripped from that land is very much like being ripped from a mother's womb [...] your ancestors bones are in that soil, you are being torn away from your family."
Video Credits: Interview with Justin Giles, Muscogee tribe member. Created by the National Museum of the American Indian. Designed and developed by Informated Software Solutions.
On January 8, 1821, The State of Georgia signed the First Treaty of Indian Springs. Also known as the Treaty with the Creeks, it stated that the Creeks surrendered “their remaining land east of the Flint River in Georgia to the United States” (Little Prince)” (Christopher Maloney, Encyclopedia of Alabama).
The talks regarding these treaties included “Lower Creek headman William McIntosh, involved representatives from the federal government, Georgia, and more than 20 Creeks led by McIntosh and Tustunnugee Hopoie
“The tract was estimated at more than 6,700 square miles, or approximately 4.3 million acres. Although the cession was large, it was not considered important by the Creeks, as game had been largely driven away by white settlement. In return for the land, the United States agreed to pay the Creeks $10,000 outright at the signing and $40,000 after the accord was ratified. In addition, the federal government agreed to pay $5,000 a year for the following two years, $16,000 annually for five years thereafter, and $10,000 annually for six years after that. The sum totaled $200,000 and the treaty stated it would be paid over 14 years in cash, or goods and farm implements, at the discretion of the Creeks. Also, the various parties agreed upon a sum of $250,000 in Creek debt, which the federal government agreed to pay under a separate document also known as "Treaty with the Creeks, 1821," signed that day. However, ultimately only about $100,000 was reportedly paid out to Georgia claimants.” (Maloney).
European settlers began moving into the area in larger numbers in 1822, and there was an intense push for the acquisition of more land. The Treaty of Indian Springs was concluded with what is known as the Second Treaty of Indian Springs and the Treaty with the Creeks, was signed on February 12, 1825. The closing of this treaty entailed the loss of all the remaining land of the Creeks, because "Georgia agents bribed Creek leader William McIntosh to sign a document that would give them their remaining territory in return for plantation land along the Chattahoochee River"
William Mcintosh, a significant figure in the treaty negotiations, as he served as a supposed ally to the Creeks, received $40,000 for his involvement. However, he was later sentenced to death by the Creek National Council due to his role in “illegal treaty negotiations” and essentially being the one who signed off the treaty, ceding the remaining Creek lands in Georgia, in contrast to the Creeks’ interests to keep their lands ” (Maloney, “Treaty of Cusseta, 1832”).
After 1821, Creeks in Georgia and Alabama were moved west of the Mississippi River to Indian Territory (later named the State of Oklahoma). Their fate exemplifies the fates of the southeastern Native Americans generally, and particularly in the State of Georgia. Occasioned by the rise of the southern plantation economy with slavery at the heart of operations and by the discovery of gold in North Georgia, not only were the Creeks pushed out of Georgia, so were the Cherokees, who had been pushing the United States government for several decades to recognize their ancestral lands as a sovereign nation whose borders needed to be honored and respected. They were not successful.
In 1830 the US Congress passed the Indian Removal Act, to remove all native peoples in the Southeast west of the Mississippi, a policy that resulted in the infamous Trail of Tears and the removal of the Cherokees and Creeks to Indian Territory.
Left behind on former Creek lands was an area that marked a convergence of trade routes in the northern sector of Georgia, known now as Five Points. In 1837, this spot became the end of state-sponsored railroad lines around which a new town emerged, Terminus. By 1847, Terminus became the City of Atlanta.
Atlanta University Center
On September 19, 1865, James Tate and Grandison Daniels, two former slaves who were literate, were determined to raise the horizons of African Americans in the City of Atlanta. On the eastside of Atlanta, they founded the first school for African Americans in the city, laying the foundation for Atlanta to rise as a crucial site for academic and intellectual development and for the emergence of a strong African American middle class
Shortly after this self-help effort was set in motion, Reverend Frederick Ayers, a seasoned missionary of the American Missionary Association (AMA), was assigned to the Atlanta area to provide leadership in bringing aid to the African American community, including schools. Tate and Daniels relinquished the leadership of their school to Ayers whom they determined was professionally prepared to continue the work. Ayers developed collaborative relationships with the Freedmen’s Aid Society of the Methodist Church, the American Baptist Home Mission Society, and the Freedmen’s Bureau and began securing an educational infrastructure for African American progress and development.
By 1866, Ayers’s health was failing, and the AMA appointed Edmund Asa Ware (a graduate of Yale University) who had been providing statewide leadership for educational enterprises as superintendent of schools for this area. Ware continued to grow the African American educational base. Thus, a vibrant core of educational opportunities began to flourish, and, quite soon, there was an evident need for African Americans to have opportunities for higher education.
As documented by Clarence A. Bacote (The Story of Atlanta University: A Century of Service, 1865-1965, 1969), eleven men submitted a petition to Fulton County Superior Court to charter Atlanta University. They were: Edmund A Ware, George Whipple, Edward P. Smith, and E.M. Cravath (officers of the AMA); James Atkins, James L. Dunning and William Jennings, white businessmen in Atlanta; Jacob B. Fuller and the Reverend Joseph Wood, pastor of Big Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, prominent leaders in the African American community; John A. Rockwell, a friend of Ware; and Frederick Ayer, who died before the process was completed. The petition was granted on October 16, 1867, and fifty acres of land was acquired on the westside of Atlanta for the institutional site between Hunter and Parsons and Walnut and Chestnut Streets.
The Atlanta University was the first historically African American academic institution in the southeast and the first university in the City of Atlanta. It was also the first graduate institution to serve a predominantly African-American student body. Over the next few years, this anchor academic institution became the lynchpin around which other colleges would gather on the westside of Atlanta. The first cluster included: Morehouse College, founded in 1867 in Augusta, Georgia, as the Augusta Institute, and moved to Atlanta’s westside in 1879; and Spelman College, founded in 1881 as the Atlanta Baptist Female Seminary in the basement of Friendship Baptist Church on Mitchell Street (moving ultimately to the original site of Fort McPherson on Greensferry Avenue in 1883). These three were joined later by: Clark College, founded in 1869 (now Clark Atlanta University) and Morris Brown College, founded in 1881. In subsequent decades, the cluster included also: the Interdenominational Theological Center (1958); and the Morehouse School of Medicine (1975).
This cluster of academic institutions anchored a distinctive environment. On the westside of Atlanta, African Americans had the opportunity to be educated from kindergarten through university in one neighborhood. In addition, three business districts emerged, known ultimately as: the Bankhead Corridor, the Martin Luther King, Jr., Corridor, and ultimately the Ashby Street Corridor—each of which over the generations has provided much needed services to the African American community.
With the founding of Washington Park in 1919 and the establishing of a beautiful park and recreation green space, there was a distinctive value added. This area of the city became home to African American residents—a place to live, become well-educated, work, and play—all within walking distance.
Atlanta Race Riots
Following Emancipation and the ending of the Civil War, the United States went through a period known as Reconstruction. It was a time of unprecedented success for African American hopes and dreams. After generations of being subjugated by chattel slavery, systemic oppression, and dehumanization, African Americans were inspired to take full advantage of their new rights as free citizens.
Image Credit: Library Company of Philadelphia - https://www.flickr.com/photos/library-company-of-philadelphia/20186657008/, No restrictions, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=52887260
Concurrently, the United States expanded economically with the construction of various railways and more industrialized cities. Atlanta was very much a part of this trajectory of growth. It grew rapidly and with growth came racial tensions.
Photo Credit: Collection: Atlanta History Photograph Collection, Kenan Research Center, Atlanta History Center
During this time, the African American population in Atlanta grew from 9,000 in 1900 to 35,000 in 1910. Atlanta became a city that proved to be rich ground for the development of an African American middle class, much to the dismay of white residents.
The competition for jobs combined with the newfound political power of African American citizens incited violent rhetoric from Atlanta’s mayoral candidates and violent action from white citizens.
In late 1905, the stage production of Thomas Dixon's book The Clansman: A Historical Romance of the Ku Klux Klan was brought to Atlanta. This production presented the Klan as heroes protecting white women from the dangers of African American men. The Clansman was later made into a film by D. W. Griffith, The Birth of a Nation.
Some local leaders decried the production, worried about the safety of both African American and white residents of Atlanta.
"I call for a halt in all this wild and foolish talk about the negro. Let the white man go on and rule this country as he is doing it now, but for God's sake, the negro's sake, and our sake, give the negro a rest from abuse and incendiarism! Here are office seeking politicians, theater pyrotechnics, newspapers and some preachers, all yelling and yelping, 'N-----! N-----,' like a hound dog upon the track of a rabbit. Is there any Christianity in our statesmanship? It is unAmerican; it is unchristian; it is unsound, and it is unsafe"
Dr. Len G. Broughton, founder of Tabernacle Baptist Church in Atlanta, describing the scene at the Grand Theater during a performance of The Clansman.
After the Atlanta performances, cities across the south, including Macon, Montgomery, and Birmingham, pushed to ban the production.
Historians cite the stage production in Atlanta as a contributing factor to Atlanta’s 1906 race riots.
The riots began on the evening of September 22, 1906, and continued until September 24, 1906. Sparked by unconfirmed rumors of African American men sexually assaulting four white women on separate occasions, thousands of white people mobbed and terrorized African American residents, establishments, and communities.
Senseless in nature, African American people were assaulted at random, some even being pulled from trolley cars. There was little intervention on behalf of victimized African American people until the National Guard was called in.
A torrential rainstorm also aided the National Guard’s effort to quell the violence. When the smoke cleared, most of the African American-owned businesses on and around Decatur Street on the eastside of Atlanta were ravaged.
Photo Credit: Collection: Atlanta History Photograph Collection, Kenan Research Center, Atlanta History Center
The reported death toll was 25 African American Atlantans and 2 white Atlantans, one of whom was a woman who had a heart attack upon seeing the mob coming down her street. The death toll for African American citizens is thought to be significantly underreported with some reports counting as many as 100 casualties.
Image Source: The incident was reported in the October 7, 1906, issue of the French publication Le Petit Journal. The original caption translates as "Lynchings in the United States."
Following the riots, Atlanta experienced an economic decline and increased its socialized segregation. By 1908 the entire state enacted restrictions on African American voting rights.
The riots demonstrated that race mattered when dealing with white Atlantans. The horrors of the riots pushed many African American residents from the eastside of Atlanta to the westside. They exhibited a desire to be within a more hospitable community, one that included opportunities for education and for entrepreneurship.
Image Source: Headlines in local newspapers, such as the one appearing in the September 21, 1906, issue of the Atlanta Journal, provoked white men to begin a riot in the city on September 22, 1906.
Great Atlanta Fire
Another key moment for Atlanta’s African American residents was a fire that began at noon on May 21, 1917, on the eastside of Atlanta, in the Old Fourth Ward, in a neighborhood known as "Darktown." Wind and wood roofs spread the fire quickly from Edgewood Avenue through Sweet Auburn towards Inman Park.
Firefighters used dynamite to destroy a line of homes which created a fire break and helped slow the destruction. Fire trucks came from Macon, Augusta, Chattanooga, and Knoxville to assist.
In all, the fire lasted 10 hours, destroyed 300 acres, 1900 structures, and displaced 10,000 residents.
Picture citation:
In the aftermath of the fire, despair spread throughout the Black community as residents feared more fires. Many resorted to sleeping on the streets because shelters were for white residents only. Moreover, the soldiers brought in to "keep the peace" in African American neighborhoods were also the source of violence and oppression. For example, the African American community was stunned when a soldier killed the son of prominent African American leader.
While white community members received funds to rebuild their homes, African American residents did not. African American churches stepped in to assist even as they too needed funds to rebuild their own structures. A striking example was that the Wheat Street Baptist Church burned down, and 1,200 of its members lost their homes. To raise money to help, churches engaged in collective action, organizing, for example, fundraisers at the Southeastern Fairgrounds at Lakewood.
City officials saw the destruction of the great fire as an opportunity to re-design the area. On one hand, they widened streets to accommodate parking for future automobiles and upgraded public parks. On another hand, however, they institutionalized racial divisions between historically African American and white settlements by creating a different name for the white sections of a street and for the African American sections of the same street, and they used public parks as segregating barriers. Jim Crow practices were fully in motion.
"This resolution, which was unanimously carried, aims at separating the negro settlements in the fourth ward from those of the whites by wide parks and in this way settling for all time the embarrassing problem of the "fourth warders" of negroes living on the same streets as whites in the districts where the two settlements come together"
Atlanta Journal Constitution "Rebuilding of Burned Area Planned" May 23, 1917
The destruction of many African America homes in combination with the city's push to orchestrate both the literal and symbolic segregation of residents along racial lines became yet another occasion for many African American residents to move to West Atlanta.
Creation of Washington Park
In the meantime, African American leaders were working on behalf of their own communities. In 1908, two years after the race riots, Heman E. Perry arrived in Atlanta from Houston Texas. He started Standard Life Insurance and expanded his business enterprises under the umbrella of the Service Company, which included: realty, engineering and construction, pharmacies, laundries, printing, philanthropy, and more. He was also an organizer of Citizens Trust Bank, a key asset for progress and development. By the 1920s, Perry’s business enterprises constituted the nation's first million-dollar African American conglomerate.
Perry’s vision for the development of the African American community had at its core creating the opportunity to own good quality, affordable homes. His Service Company purchased 300 acres of land on the Westside. This venture became the foundation for Atlanta's first planned African American subdivision. In addition, Perry contributed land for a public park for these residents, and ultimately for a high school as well.
Interestingly, during the late 1800s, all Atlanta residents were able to access parks through segregated activities. By the early 1900s, however, much of the city's park space was officially segregated, and African American residents no longer had access to public recreational green spaces. Again, Jim Crow practices were fully in motion.
The Neighborhood Union was a group of African American women leaders, community advocates, and activists who were active members of the national Black Clubwomen’s Movement. In Atlanta, they established a robust community development agenda for the African American community in support of a sparkling array of critical needs. The creation of high quality park and recreation spaces was among their priorities.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), founded in 1909, to ensure equal rights and to counter racial hatred and discrimination, has maintained a network of branches across the State of Georgia since 1917. The membership included: physicians, dentists, businessmen, teachers, ministers, and many others.
Both of these organizations pushed for the establishment of a public park in West Atlanta for African American residents.
On November 3, 1919, the Atlanta Council of Aldermen ratified the creation of Washington Park, named in tribute to African American leader Booker T. Washington who had died on November 14, 1915. The park included an outdoor swimming pool, tennis center, dance hall, and pavilions, and over the decades it has continued to evolve as a green recreational space.
Completing the circle of good quality housing, top quality green space and recreational space, vibrant areas for businesses and services, and a distinctive center for higher education was the opening in 1924 of the first public high school in the State of Georgia for African American students, also named for Booker T. Washington, just a few blocks away from the park. Three years later, the school's principal commissioned a replica of the Tuskegee University statue of Booker T. Washington. The inscription reads: "He lifted the veil of ignorance from his people and pointed the way to progress through education and industry."
This high school remained the only one for African American students in the City of Atlanta until 1947.
Current Priorities
Since the creation of Washington Park in 1919, the neighborhood continues to be home to a strong African American community.
“The mission of The Conservancy of Historic Washington Park has a two-fold effect: To improve and uplift the quality of life for the entire neighborhood through advocacy efforts; and to promote its historical, residential, business and public transportation assets, working to promote a public park that improves the quality of life through safe, clean and well-maintained green space and high-quality facilities”
On February 28, 2000, Washington Park was recognized with a listing on the National Registry of Historic Places.
Selected References
Bacote, Clarence A. The Story of Atlanta University: A Century of Service, 1865-1965. Atlanta: Atlanta University, 1969.
Booker T. Washington High School: Education Flagship for the People.” Building Memories. https://leading-edge.iac.gatech.edu/building-memories/booker-t-washington-high-school-education-flagship-for-the-people/ .
The Conservancy at Historic Washington Park. https://conservancyathwp.org/ .
“Letter from Enoch Parsons to Lewis Cass,” 13 January 1833. U.S. Senate Document No. 512, v. IV, 23rd Congress, 1st Session, "Indian Removal," 75.
Maloney, Christopher. “Treaty of Cusseta (1932).” 30 January 2017. Encyclopedia of Alabama. http://encyclopediaofalabama.org/ .
The Muscogee (Creek) Nation. https://www.mcn-nsn.gov/culturehistory/ .
Neighborhood Union Collection, Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library. https://www.auctr.edu/archives/ .
"Rebuilding of Burned Area Planned," Atlanta Journal Constitution, 23 May 1917.
The Removal of the Muscogee Nation. National Museum of the American Indian. https://americanindian.si.edu/nk360/removal-muscogee/index.html .
Saunt, Claudio. “Creek Indians.” New Georgia Encyclopedia. 7 July 2018. https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/.
