As Atlanta continues to forge a way into the future, the only way it can succeed is to learn from its past. That notion is front and center for Beltline visitors in a new exhibit that shows photos of the area’s history on select trails.
Art on the Atlanta BeltLine is hosting the photo exhibition “Atlanta and the Civil Rights Movement, 1944-1968,” curated by historian and author Karcheik Sims-Alvarado, Ph.D.
An opening ceremony was held on July 7 on the Westside Trail across from Gordon White Park.
The photography is sourced from Dr. Sims-Alvarado’s book Images of America: Atlanta and the Civil Rights Movement, 1944-1968 (Arcadia Publishing, 2017).
“The photographs tell a beautiful narrative of the struggle, fortitude, and organizational strength of a people determined to eradicate Jim Crow segregation once and for all,” Sims-Alvarado said in a press release.
“Atlanta and the Civil Rights Movement, 1944-1968” will be presented across four miles of the Eastside and Westside Trails, making it the longest outdoor exhibition on civil and human rights in the United States.
“Honoring the nation’s civil rights leadership right here on the Atlanta BeltLine is so fitting considering that many of the movement’s leaders lived in BeltLine neighborhoods,” said Brian P. McGowan, President and CEO of the Atlanta Beltline, Inc. “We are committed to using our public art program to celebrate and highlight the history and unique culture of our neighborhoods – it is this culture that makes Atlanta great.”
Dr. Karcheik Sims-Alvarado is the CEO of Preserve Black Atlanta, a non-profit 501(c)(3) dedicated to identifying, recording, and preserving African-American history and culture.
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