A canopy of 100-year-old oak trees shades Myrtle Street in Midtown Atlanta from the broiling summer sun. To many people, the genteel mansions of Myrtle Street suggest a romantic story of the old South. Margaret Mitchell wrote Gone With the Wind in a house nearby. But for others, these houses were on the frontline of change–change wrought by streetcars, black artisans, and the civil rights movement.
Midtown was developed after the Civil War and soon became a streetcar suburb. White men rode downtown to work. Black women rode in the back of the streetcar to Midtown, where they changed diapers and served iced tea for generations of white Atlantans.
Black artisans laid the brick, plastered the walls, and painted the columns of Midtown. After the Civil War, craftsmanship gave artisans of color economic independence that often led to civic leadership. As the daughter of an Atlanta bricklayer Mary Beale said in 1920, “My daddy was not afraid of any white man that walked.” This fearlessness would be invaluable in confronting racism.
The deep porches, dusky colors, and shady streets of Midtown Atlanta are often highlighted in lifestyle magazines, such as Southern Living. Their social history is left in shadow.
An excellent book on the subject is Crafting Lives: African American Artisans in New Bern, North Carolina, 1770-1900 by Catherine Bishir.
