Along Georgia Avenue’s commercial blocks, the number of businesses dropped between 1960 and 1970 from 58 to 25. Fifteen groceries and supermarkets had served the local neighborhoods in 1950; that number was nearly halved to eight in 1960, and then halved again to four in 1970. Yet it remained a center of neighborhood commerce. A few longstanding businesses remained, such as Bernath’s Market. When founder Alex Bernath passed away in 1965, family members remember, the neighborhood came out to pay their respects, and his wife Dora took over briefly before renting out the space to new management.
By then, though, the Bernath family was no longer living on the Southside. Like most of Georgia Avenue’s white entrepreneurs, the Bernaths had moved to the suburbs. In a few storefronts, Jewish, Greek, and Syrian business owners were replaced by a new group of immigrant entrepreneurs from China and Korea. In Georgia Avenue’s shrinking commercial environment, however, their numbers remained fairly small: half a dozen laundries, restaurants, and groceries, over the next several decades.
White and Asian business owners found relations with their Black customers increasingly strained, sometimes erupting into outright animosity. Neighborhood residents expressed frustration with Georgia Avenue’s outpost of the Buehler’s Supermarket chain, where patrons paid high prices for inferior goods. In cities all over the country, civil rights activists accused white-owned retail businesses in Black neighborhoods of charging their customers high prices for substandard service, and only hiring local residents for low-paid and menial jobs. In 1968, Black religious and communal leaders picketed Buehler’s in protest of “poor quality merchandise” as well as “discriminatory employee practices.”
Yet there were opportunities too, as Black entrepreneurs opened establishments of their own on Georgia Avenue. Summerhill resident Will Davis opened a local branch of the Tasty Dog sandwich chain. Edward Moody, a longtime Mechanicsville civic leader, founded the Moody Neighborhood Clothing Store. Over the course of the 1960s and 1970s, Barnes Shoe Shop, Rachetta’s Flower Shop, and Thelma’s Beauty Shop were owned by Summerhill and Peoplestown residents Leon Barnes, Rachetta Montgomery, and Thelma Askew.
Click “Play” arrow to hear short interviews with several former local residents
Still, the neighborhoods around Georgia Avenue struggled economically, and local residents expressed frustration at the city’s lack of response to their concerns. Despite the thousands of parking spaces that surrounded Atlanta Stadium, and the interstate highways that promised to whisk gamegoers into and out of the area, the narrow residential streets were inundated with traffic on game days. Stadium parking proved woefully insufficient, which incentivized neighborhood homeowners to clear their properties for parking. Dozens of illegal parking lots sprung up in the blocks around the stadium. Some local residents regarded everything about the stadium, including the “gypsy” lots, as a scourge. But for others, the stadium provided jobs, as well as other opportunities to collect extra income. Joseph Stalls was a Summerhill kid when the stadium went up, and his family made money by opening their property to drivers on game days.
Click “Play” arrow to hear a short interview with Joseph Stalls
Nevertheless, increased traffic and parking burdened the neighborhood’s infrastructure. Resentment intensified when complaints from the community were ignored by city officials and the Braves’ business office.