Construction began on the Georgia Dome in November of 1989, slated to be a mega-stadium in the heart of downtown Atlanta with jobs and money promised to the residents of the surrounding areas. This theme seems to repeat itself without ever delivering on the promised outcomes. During the early days of COVID, I became interested in the history of Atlanta, how much the Jim Crow era shaped the current make up, and what remnants could be seen. I came across a large library of interviews and oral histories on the GSU library website and I spent hours listening to people describe their experiences. A local high school in the Vine City neighborhood of Atlanta had conducted interviews with residents of the apartment complex that had been demolished in preparation for the Georgia Dome construction. Many of the people echoed the same sentiment about the promise of jobs and money, and how that was never going to come to them. They spoke about having the same experience with the construction of the Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium where the Braves played after they moved to Atlanta in the 1966 season. People told stories about how the construction of the highway broke up their neighborhoods and split friends and communities with no relocation plan to keep communities from fracturing. One woman was asked what it was like after she had to move from her community after all these years and what it was like having to start over in a new neighborhood. She spoke about the relationship that she had with her old neighbors, how everyone knew everyone, and the feeling of connection that had been present in the area. She finished by speaking aobut acclimating to a new area, with new people, not knowing anyone and comparing it to her past. Contrasting her current community to her old one she stated that she sees the new neighbors sometimes, “they speak, I speak back” concluding a emotional account of her time in her new neighborhood. A harrowing response to a phenomenon that I had no concept or reference in my experience of the world. I spent the next year or so wandering the streets of Atlanta during lockdowns and attempting to grapple with this idea that profits came over everything, and still do.
