Black Community Responses to Urban Renewal
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Susie LaBord was a member of the Atlanta Housing Authority and President of the Grady Homes Tenant Association. In this photograph from 1973 LaBord criticizes Atlanta mayoral candidates at a Black Women's Coalition of Atlanta (BWCA) Meeting.
Courtesy of the Atlanta History Center, Boyd Lewis Photographs.
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This photograph from 1973 shows a meeting of the Black Women's Coalition of Atlanta, featuring civil rights activist Joy Thompson.
Courtesy of the Atlanta History Center, Boyd Lewis Photographs.
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The Black Panther Intercommunal News Service was a nationally distributed periodical first published in 1967. The newspaper featured current events in the Black Panther Party's fight against racial oppression and highlighted the Party's values and service to the community.
Courtesy of Kennesaw State University. Department of Archives, Rare Books and Records Management, NAACP Cobb County Branch Records, 1947 - 2018.
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This is an issue of the Brimstone Chronicle published in 1976. The publication, along with other newspapers such as the Cobb Community News, expressed the needs and viewpoints of the Black community in Cobb county and its neighboring counties during the civil rights movement.
Courtesy of Kennesaw State University. Department of Archives, Rare Books and Records Management, NAACP Cobb County Branch Records, 1947 - 2017.
While inadequate living conditions and discriminatory practices continued in public housing complexes, both residents and community activists responded by organizing for social change. In 1973 the Black Women’s Coalition of Atlanta (BWCA) was formed to help increase the socio-economic status of Black Atlantans and alleviate economic, political, and social barriers. One notable member of the BWCA, Susie LaBord, was the president of the Grady Homes Tenants Association and the first resident of an Atlanta public housing project to serve as a member of the Atlanta Housing Authority’s Board of Commissioners. LaBord worked with prominent activists such as Coretta Scott King to advocate in support of federal legislation and community action programs aimed at low income families. The Black Panther Party, under leader Huey P. Newton, played a significant role in mobilizing the Black community against displacement and unsafe housing conditions, both nationally and in Atlanta. Their official platform, the Ten-Point Program, included a commitment to fight for social justice and decent public housing. Additionally, newspapers such as The Brimstone Chronicle and Cobb News were published in the 1970s to highlight the views of the Black community in Cobb County; in several issues, public housing residents voiced their criticisms of the Marietta Housing Authority and the effects of urban redevelopment projects.