Stumbled upon Facebook page of John B Gordon alumni.

[Eurotrash]

Some interesting comments and photos.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=50612214700&v=wall

[Cap'n Ken]

That's pretty cool. I like the comments from people saying where they lived. It might be interesting to try to connect the people who grew up here but left with White Flight with the people who've moved back in to their old houses.

[SteveD]

Wow...that's fascinating to read through those comments...it's like stepping back in time. 

[Big Larry]

It might be interesting to try to connect the people who grew up here but left with White Flight with the people who've moved back in to their old houses.

I think Shivers met the people who used to used live in their house. They are still active members at Martha Brown.

[Flower Lady]

I've met several folks who grew up here and went to Gordon and surrounding schools, but they have not posted on the FB page.
Robert T Argoe seems to have lived in the house that eventually became a personal care home and burned to the ground right when I moved here. The Sherrif lived in that house.

[Big Larry]

A guy I work worth withs mother grew up on Braeburn. Also, have met several people who went to school at JBG at a few different homecomeings at Martha Brown. A few of them had some good stories about find Civil War items in their yard and jumping barriers into the I-20 conrstuction to find more stuff.

[fillelectrique]

Our house was owned from 1920 - 1975; then from 1975 - 2000-ish, which it became a "crackhouse" per our Comcast Cable installer.
I've also heard that a someone (preacher) that did bad things to children lived here.

As much as I would love to know it's previous owners, something are better left unknown.

On the flip-side... our neighbor across the street told us about a letter that he got once, from an 80 year old lady who was born/raised in his house. The family was having a birthday reunion, and wanted to visit. I saw a great photo of the woman, about age 2-3 with a Ford Model T in the driveway, and the oak tree (and had to be removed a year or so ago) as a small sapling.

[Eurotrash]

That's pretty cool. I like the comments from people saying where they lived. It might be interesting to try to connect the people who grew up here but left with White Flight with the people who've moved back in to their old houses.

I think it would be cool to see if they have any old photos of the village and the neighborhood. 

[dsnation]

That is really interesting.  Anyone know off hand when the area was integrated?  It seems from that page it was sometime after 1965, but my google-fu is failing me.

Also fascinates me that they named an elementary school after a KKK leader.

[JBB]

Also fascinates me that they named an elementary school after a KKK leader.

there's a statue of him riding a horse on the Capitol lawn

[dsnation]

Also fascinates me that they named an elementary school after a KKK leader.

there's a statue of him riding a horse on the Capitol lawn

Awesome.  Sometimes I forget how much this state has changed in a generation.

[JBB]

http://www.asanet.org/footnotes/apr03/indexthree.html

Issues of race further complicate the economic consequences of gentrification in Atlanta. Racial strife has characterized these eastern neighborhoods for decades, from white flight and blockbusting in the 1960s to gentrification today. Although Kirkwood, East Lake, and East Atlanta are predominantly black neighborhoods, whites drive gentrification. Between 1990 and 2000 the white population in these neighborhoods doubled. The most dramatic racial change was in Kirkwood, where white residents increased from 1% to 14% of the population between 1990 and 2000. This area had not experienced such a shift since the 1960s. Between 1960 and 1970, these neighborhoods changed from being almost 100% white to almost 100% black. In Kirkwood, for example, 91% of residents were white in 1960; by 1970, 97% of the population was black.

This earlier transition in Kirkwood, East Lake, and East Atlanta was not peaceful. Between 1960 and 1970, these neighborhoods experienced raw, neighbor-to-neighbor racial hostility. Real-estate agents used white anxieties about having black neighbors to blockbust, convincing white families to sell their homes at below-market prices and then reselling these same homes to black families at prime market prices, pocketing the profits. In 1969, a white Kirkwood resident told the Atlanta Journal Constitution that he sold his home to a realtor at well below market value only to have a black family buy that same house for the highest price ever recorded. Paired with racial prejudice, this economic exploitation created enmity between long-standing white residents and black newcomers. The manifestations of this antagonism ran the gamut from the arson of a black family’s home, to the incorporation of Eastern Atlanta, Inc., an organization created for the sole purpose of buying property that might fall into the hands of blacks. But the endgame of this hostility was the creation of “vanilla suburbs” as whites moved out of the city en masse. This racial tension from the 1960s set the stage for the racial tensions that undergird gentrification in Atlanta today.

[bestPBRever]

hmmm, it has always been my understanding that East Atlanta was one of the 1st integrated neighborhoods in Atlanta, then white flight happened and in the mid to late 90's people started moving back in.

[Opti1]

A guy I work worth withs mother grew up on Braeburn. Also, have met several people who went to school at JBG at a few different homecomeings at Martha Brown. A few of them had some good stories about find Civil War items in their yard and jumping barriers into the I-20 conrstuction to find more stuff.

There's a fella who attends MB, lives on Haas, who has lived in/around this neighborhood most of his life and went to JBG. I haven't seen him for some time (I think he might have gotten married?), but Larry Felton Johnson is a pretty good resource if anyone is interested.

Our handyman also went there, but I haven't sat him down to ask questions.

[WhitNerd]

I wonder where Charlie's was, several people mention that restaurant in their posts.

::EDIT:: Found this page when I googled "Charlie's East Atlanta"
http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=70746390222&topic=7108