Stories of Lynwood Park Veronica Menezes Holmes
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Georgia State University ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University History Dissertations Department of History 10-8-2008 Stories of Lynwood Park Veronica Menezes Holmes Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/history_diss Part of the History Commons Recommended Citation Holmes, Veronica Menezes, "Stories of Lynwood Park." Dissertation, Georgia State University, 2008. https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/history_diss/11 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of History at ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in History Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. STORIES OF LYNWOOD PARK by VERONICA MENEZES HOLMES Under the direction of Dr. Clifford M. Kuhn ABSTRACT History of African American underclass community in northwestern DeKalb County, Georgia, from its settling in the late-1920s to its present displacement through gentrification. Thesis is that black underclass communities are the result of America’s historic racism and subordination of blacks, whose members are left little choice but to engage in illegality as survival strategies. The work reveals the hard-work routines of people relegated to the bottom of American society, as well as their fun-loving leisure activities and embracing of vice as pleasurable. Established during Jim Crow segregation, Lynwood Park cultivated a reputation for danger and toughness to keep out outsiders, so that its children could have some semblance of a “normal” upbringing. The community’s color line was then patrolled by dangerous men who created somebodiness for themselves as tough protectors, which ensured that they would be emulated as heroes. The work records the social and cultural history of the community as recalled and interpreted by residents in an oral interview project. Covers community organization and institutions, such as churches and schools, as well as tensions within the community and tensions against both the white and black outside. Records social life of partying, hog killings, barbecues, baseball, drag racing. Includes culture of illegality and vice, school desegregation, racism, and the community’s relationship to DeKalb County, its affluent white neighbors, and the various dynamics that eventually led to the displacement of the traditional black residents. The work challenges the golden-age-of-the-ghetto argument and demonstrates that Lynwood Park suffered from intragroup tensions and was not a safe cocoon for all its residents. The interviews also reveal that many children were left behind in the community’s school during segregation because institutional caring generally rallied around only those children who demonstrated academic potential and a desire to eschew the negative dynamics of the enclave’s street life. The work also demonstrates the ways in which whites were implicated in promoting, and profiting from, the community’s illegality, which led to the eventual displacement of the traditional black residents. INDEX WORDS: Underclass black community, Jim Crow, Segregation, Racism, Self- help institutions, Boundary, Bootlegging, Juke joint, Hog killings, Drag racing, Baseball, Spirituality, Churches, Illegality, Drug trafficking, DeKalb County, Gentrification. STORIES OF LYNWOOD PARK by VERONICA MENEZES HOLMES A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the College of Arts and Sciences Georgia State University 2008 Copyright by Veronica Menezes Holmes 2008 STORIES OF LYNWOOD PARK by VERONICA MENEZES HOLMES Committee Chair: Clifford M. Kuhn Committee: Ian C. Fletcher Charles G. Steffen Electronic Version Approved: Office of Graduate Studies College of Arts and Sciences Georgia State University December 2008 iv DEDICATION For the people of Lynwood Park—past and present—and all the other Third World people of the United States of America—the black underclass—who have had access to opportunities eclipsed and lives stunted by the nation’s historic practice of racism. And for my grandmother Mohadai, and my grandfather Mangal, two indentured servants from India who were worked to death far from their homeland by the exploitive mechanisms of First World British colonialism, but who were never forgotten. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This work could not have been possible without the generous sharing of their knowledge of all my teachers, beginning with my first-grade teacher, Mrs. Simon Green, who recognized that I could read at age three. At Oglethorpe University I was trained in philosophy and the liberal arts by brilliant scholars such as Philip Neujahr, Jason Wirth, Douglas MacFarland, and Alan Woolfolk. Oglethorpe’s faculty and administration were always supportive, especially president Lawrence Schall and his wife Betty, provost William Shropshire and his wife Patricia, Stephen Herschler, Bradford Smith, Robert Steen, William Brightman, Jay Lutz, John Cramer, and Michael Rulison. At Georgia State University I owe a deep debt to all my professors, especially Jared Poley, James Heitzman, Andrew Altman, and Christopher White. Clifford Kuhn was a dissertation director who knew exactly when to reel me in when I leaped too far beyond the edge, and he, along with committee members Ian Fletcher and Charles Steffen, always asked pertinent questions and probed my ideas, yet allowed my voice to emerge. My graduate colleagues offered friendship and an exchange of ideas over the years. It was Andrew Reisinger, Rebecca Huskey, Clif Stratton, Jennifer Dykman, Laurel Koonz, Jodie Talley, and Fakhri Haggani who kept me sane when the power of ideas were bombarding and torturing me. And ex-husband Malcolm Holmes generously financed my academic career and research project. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS v LIST OF MAPS vii CHAPTERS Introduction 1 1 The Development of Lynwood Park 36 2 The Revival and Destruction of Lynwood Park 75 3 The Dangerous Boundary and Life Behind its Veil 112 4 Social Life Beyond the White Gaze 158 5 Churches and Spirituality 210 6 Illegality: From Survival Strategy to Career of Choice 273 7 Schools and Education 342 Conclusion 412 References 432 vii LIST OF MAPS 1 Geographic Locale of Lynwood Park 36 2 Lynwood Park Street Map 37 3 Expanded Lynwood Park 55 1 Introduction Lynwood Park is an underclass African-American community that was settled in the late-1920s in the then heavily wooded and rural northwestern DeKalb County, Georgia. The enclave provided safety from white racism during the Jim Crow era, and was in close proximity to Oglethorpe University, and two exclusive golf clubs, which provided employment within walking distance of the community. The founding residents were mostly rural sharecroppers born at the turn of the century, who had little schooling. Using their innate intelligence, they built their homes and churches themselves, established a vibrant community beyond the white gaze, and eked out a living performing manual labor. Many residents were housekeepers and laundresses, cooks and dishwashers, and many of the men worked for decades as groundskeepers and caddies at the golf clubs. In Lynwood Park, the residents planted gardens, raised chickens and hogs, hunted in the woods, and engaged in illegality to supplement the household economy. The community was a warren of dirt roads two wagons wide, since mules and wagons were the common form of transportation when the enclave was settled. With no county services, the residents established self-help institutions, tried to keep their children safe from racism, and rallied around to educate them. Beginning with moonshine, the community’s pursuit of illegality added products over time: marijuana in the 1970s and crack cocaine after the mid-1980s, whose addictive qualities added greatly to the enclave’s demise. White neighborhoods began surrounding Lynwood Park after World War II, and provided domestic jobs close to home for the enclave’s residents. The community became highly desirable real estate as DeKalb County developed, since Lynwood Park is located within easy access to highways and public transportation, upscale shopping centers, and a medical network of hospitals and other health care facilities. And while surrounding land 2 values escalated steadily after the 1980s, Lynwood Park’s land remained a fraction of their cost, since it was seen by the outside as a black slum that had fallen into dereliction and decay. Moreover, the enclave had become increasingly dangerous after many residents joined the crack cocaine industry that began sweeping across the United States in the mid- 1980s. As crime radiated from Lynwood Park into affluent residential communities and business sectors, the enclave was targeted for police crackdowns and revitalization by the county. This program made Lynwood Park increasingly safe, and real estate developers began building mini-mansions on tiny lots on the community’s boundary.1 In 2002 many Lynwood Park homeowners were senior citizens living on social security, and many had lived in the community for as long as fifty years. After efforts to have Lynwood Park designated as an historic district failed, many residents were happy to sell their properties to developers and realize some wealth for the first time in their lives.2 However, many others were forced to relocate, since they could not afford the increasing property taxes caused by mini-mansion development. The displacement of the traditional