Linnentown was a
Black neighborhood in
Athens, Georgia
Athens, officially Athens–Clarke County, is a consolidated city-county and college town in the U.S. state of Georgia. Athens lies about northeast of downtown Atlanta, and is a satellite city of the capital. The University of Georgia, the sta ...
that was destroyed in the 1960s by an
urban renewal
Urban renewal (also called urban regeneration in the United Kingdom and urban redevelopment in the United States) is a program of land redevelopment often used to address urban decay in cities. Urban renewal involves the clearing out of blighte ...
project of the
University of Georgia
, mottoeng = "To teach, to serve, and to inquire into the nature of things.""To serve" was later added to the motto without changing the seal; the Latin motto directly translates as "To teach and to inquire into the nature of things."
, establ ...
(UGA) and the city government of Athens.
Comprising an area of 22 acres, the neighborhood had about fifty families who were forced out, via
eminent domain
Eminent domain (United States, Philippines), land acquisition (India, Malaysia, Singapore), compulsory purchase/acquisition (Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, United Kingdom), resumption (Hong Kong, Uganda), resumption/compulsory acquisition (Austr ...
,
to make room for student housing for UGA;
the dormitories,
Russell Hall, Creswell Hall, and Brumby Hall now stand on the site.
UGA associate professor of Geography, Jerry Shannon, estimates that the combination of undervaluing the property at the time of sale and forcing residents into areas "of the city where property values have not climbed as quickly"
has cost residents over $5 million of generational wealth.
Activism and reparations
In 2018, while doing research on wage suppression by universities, Joseph Carter found information about the "Urban Renewal Project GA. R-50", which encompassed the homes in the Linnentown neighborhood. He met Geneva Johnson and then Hattie Thomas Whitehead, two former residents of Linnentown; they along with three other former residents began The Linnentown Project in September 2019.
Project members made a resolution pushing for
reparations
Reparation(s) may refer to:
Christianity
* Restitution (theology), the Christian doctrine calling for reparation
* Acts of reparation, prayers for repairing the damages of sin
History
*War reparations
**World War I reparations, made from G ...
, including financial and a memorial on the site; there is a historical marker for
Jeruel Academy a school for Black children once located in the neighborhood, but no other signs of the community that once existed there.
In February 2021, Athens Mayor,
Kelly Girtz
Kelly Darryl Girtz (born November 12, 1971) is an American educator and politician currently serving as mayor of the unified government of Athens-Clarke County, Georgia, having succeeded Nancy Denson in January 2019. Before he was sworn in as m ...
, issued an apology for the role the city had played in destroying Linnentown. His apology was followed by a unanimous approval by the Athens-Clarke County Commission in favor of redress for Linnentown, including establishment of the Athens Justice and Memory project and creation of a memory wall.
The University of Georgia issued a statement saying that "it 'respectfully disagree
with the 'conclusions' of the Linnentown Project";
it has further blocked efforts to create a memorial mosaic on the former site of Linnentown.
References
External links
The Linnentown Project: Redress for LinnentownAthens Justice and Memory Project
{{coord missing, Georgia (U.S. state)
African-American history of Georgia (U.S. state)
University of Georgia campus
Neighborhoods in Athens, Georgia