Sweet Auburn Walk

Sweet Auburn Walk. . I call it my Auburn Avenue, the street which is known all over America as the center of activity among black people in the south. , I.P. Reynolds, letter carrier and writer, Here, in the days before desegregation, blacks could feel free from racial harassment as they went about their daily lives operating and patronizing restaurants, markets, barbershops, dry good stores, doctors' offices, theaters, and nightclubs. Here , along Auburn, the cross streets, and a few parallel streets, they established churches, banks, funeral homes, newspapers, insurance companies, fraternal organizations, and their homes, a self-contained community., The neighborhood was so sweet with opportunities for advancement that John Wesley Dobbs, inspired by an Oliver Goldsmith poem, dubbed it "Sweet Auburn.” Here, Dobbs said, existed three keys to liberation: “ballots, bucks, and books.” , (captions) , Big Bethel AME Church, The sounds of screeching trolleys punctuated Sweet Auburn's bustling scene. John Wesley Dobbs (front, left) and the Rev. William Holmes Borders at a civic demonstration, 1960, Sweet Auburn Walk , Take a walk in the Sweet Auburn business district between Jackson Street on the east and Courtland Street on the west. On the buildings shown on this map, look for exhibits interpreting their historical significance.