Atlanta Through the Archives

Atlanta's Berlin Wall

Summary

When a black doctor attempted to purchase a house in the Peyton Forest subdivision in 1962, residents of this white development secured the aldermanic board’s approval for the closing and barricading of sections of Peyton and Harlan Roads. Both roads were used for north-south travel, and their closing was designed to maintain the white neighborhoods south of the barriers. Mayor Ivan Allen understood and approved of this undertaking and actually asked the public works committee of the aldermanic board to set up the concrete and steel barricades as racial roadblocks.