IN THE ALBERT Atlanta, 1963 <strong>and</strong> the Legacy of Dr. <strong>Martin</strong> Luther King Jr. By Tanya Palmer 2
OPPOSITE: Photo of Dr. <strong>Martin</strong> Luther King Jr. in the Vine City neighborhood in Atlanta, Georgia, while residents protested their living conditions. Courtesy of the Atlanta History Center, Bill Wilson Collection. RIGHT: Photo of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, courtesy of photographer Stu Jenks. Photo of Peachtree Street <strong>and</strong> Auburn Avenue courtesy of Geographic Places, Lane Brothers Photographers Collection <strong>and</strong> Tracy O’Neill Collection, Special Collections Department, Georgia State University Library. Set in Atlanta, Georgia, in early 1963, <strong>Magnolia</strong> captures a place <strong>and</strong> time when all assumptions were being reexamined <strong>and</strong> the earth was shifting under people’s feet. The impetus for the play came from playwright Regina Taylor’s desire to honor the legacy of Dr. <strong>Martin</strong> Luther King Jr. She began her journey by studying the people <strong>and</strong> history of King’s birthplace. Born on January 15, 1929, King was the eldest son of Alberta King (née Williams) <strong>and</strong> the Reverend Mike King, who later changed both his <strong>and</strong> his son’s name to <strong>Martin</strong> Luther in honor of the 16th century theologian. King’s maternal gr<strong>and</strong>father, A.D. Williams, was a former slave preacher who had worked his way up in Atlanta’s black community to become the preacher at Ebenezer Baptist Church. It was this pulpit that King’s father would assume in due time. The Atlanta of King’s childhood suffered from the same racist acrimony <strong>and</strong> violence as the rest of the South, but what set the city apart from its region was its thriving black community. Auburn Avenue, the street where King grew up <strong>and</strong> Ebenezer Baptist Church stood, was a lively strip of restaurants, offices, small businesses <strong>and</strong> nightspots that came to be known as Sweet Auburn. In his historical narrative Where Peachtree Meets Sweet Auburn journalist Gary M. Pomerantz charts the parallel histories of two Atlantas—one black <strong>and</strong> centered around Sweet Auburn, the other white, wealthy <strong>and</strong> centered around Peachtree Street. In a telling episode, Pomerantz describes a <strong>dr</strong>ive he took with Maynard Jackson—the former mayor of Atlanta <strong>and</strong> the first black mayor of a <strong>Magnolia</strong> Synopsis Atlanta, 1963. Even as <strong>Martin</strong> Luther King Jr. inspires Atlanta’s black citizens to fight passionately for their civil rights, the new mayor erects “Peyton Wall” to restrict where they can live. Amid these churning social currents, the <strong>Magnolia</strong> Estate faces foreclosure, pitting the sensual, free-spirited heiress Lily Forrest against Thomas, a strong-willed businessman who lays claim to the estate where his ancestors were slaves. As we welcome the first African American president into the White House, this poignant <strong>and</strong> timely world premiere by Regina Taylor reminds us how much of Dr. King’s <strong>dr</strong>eam has been realized— <strong>and</strong> how much is yet to be achieved. Directed by Anna D. Shapiro, the Tony Awardwinning director of August: Osage County. major southern city—around Jackson’s gr<strong>and</strong>parents’ old neighborhood. Jackson pointed to a street sign <strong>and</strong> said, ‘What’s it say?’ ‘Glen Iris.’ Across the street, the street sign said ‘R<strong>and</strong>olph.’ You know why? Racial living patterns. Whites didn’t want to live on the same street as blacks. So blacks lived on ‘R<strong>and</strong>olph Street’ <strong>and</strong> whites lived on ‘Glen Iris.’ In 1895, Atlanta had played host to the Cotton States <strong>and</strong> International Exposition where Booker T. Washington delivered a famous speech known as the “Atlanta Compromise.” In this speech Washington said, “In all things that are purely social, we can be as separate as the fingers, yet one as the h<strong>and</strong> in all things essential to mutual progress.” This pragmatic, measured approach to race relations became central to Atlanta’s character <strong>and</strong> is represented in <strong>Magnolia</strong> on both sides of the racial divide. The character Thomas, 3
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