From a recent DeKalb History Center press release…

DECATUR – The DeKalb History Center’s Lunch and Learn Series kicks off in 2012 with a presentation by Mayor Emerita Elizabeth Wilson, who will speak about the Beacon Hill Community.  Beacon Hill was an African-American neighborhood near downtown Decatur which was bordered by Atlanta Avenue, Herring Street and Robin Street.  Elizabeth will discuss the churches, neighborhood and the schools.  She has interviewed early residents and some of their children for additional history.  The segregated schools included Herring Street School (later Herring -Trinity High School) and Beacon Elementary School.  Beacon is now home to the city’s police and recreation departments.

This area was re-developed beginning in 1949 in an effort to “clear slums in Decatur” and provide low-cost housing in a specifically segregated area.  The city followed the practices seen across the south in the 1950s where towns tore down homes and buildings in “blighted areas.”   Sometimes these areas were then redeveloped with new housing projects.

Elizabeth Wilson moved to Beacon Hill in 1949 and has played a key role in helping to end segregation in Decatur’s public institutions.  She was elected to the City Commission in 1984 and became Decatur’s first African-American mayor in 1993.

The lecture is Tuesday, January 17 at 12:00 noon at the Old Courthouse on the Square and is free of charge.  Guests are encouraged to bring a lunch to eat during the program.

The AJC had a nice story over the weekend about Decatur’s master plan to renovate the Beacon Hill Complex – once Beacon Elementary and Trinity High School for the city’s black community – to serve as the city’s arts hub and provide the Decatur Police with an upgraded facility.

Here are a couple snippets from the article that I found particularly interesting…

[Former Decatur Mayor Elizabeth Wilson] can drive around the former Beacon Hill and map out a verbal grid of the district’s halcyon days, including at least a dozen streets that no longer exist. She points out where the Ritz Movie Theater stood, and where other businesses were, including Rogers Cab Co. , Mossman’s Grocery, Kilgore and Anderson’s Barbershop, Spates Barbecue Stand, LC’s Rib Shack, the Cox Brothers Funeral Home, Tom Steel’s Cafe (known for its sausage “splits” that cost 10 cents), George Sterling’s Cafe (whose splits were 15 cents because they had lettuce, tomato and, Wilson said, “real meat”) and Thankful Baptist Church, where Jackie Robinson spoke in the early 1960s.

…No matter the cost, [architectural historian Steven] Moffson believes the project’s more than worth it.

“I’ve visited a lot of these equalization schools throughout the state,” he said. “If they haven’t been torn down, then they’ve been abandoned, or they’re in very bad shape. That’s what’s so great about this project. They’re not only saving the schools, they’re preserving the memory of an entire community.”

Kyle Williams writes in…

Would you help get the word out for Mayor Elizabeth Wilson’s Seniors Helping Seniors Annual Yardsale? The sale is Saturday, October 23 beginning at 8 am and going until everything is gone at the Big H/NAVO property in Oakhurst. The sale includes furniture, household goods, books, athletic equipment and everything in between. All proceeds go to assist Decauter seniors with taxes and home maintenance and repairs.

Yum! Mudbugs!

Carl sends along the info for the 6th Annual Low Country Boil at the Solarium on October 23rd, which benefits Decatur School’s Education Foundation…

Buy your tickets here!

Next month, former Decatur mayor Elizabeth Wilson will receive an honorary doctorate from Agnes Scott.  In honor, Decatur eLife magazine has produced a three part series telling her story.

Watch Part 1 of 3 below and hear how Wilson was one of the first African-American women to get a library card in DeKalb County.

Make sure to check out Part 2, which comes out on the eLife website tomorrow.

h/t: Bill Floyd Decatur (who incidentally opens the piece)