The End

Left: Beacon residents were taken on “relocation tours” around DeKalb County as part of urban renewal plans. Center: A pamphlet making the case for urban renewal in the Beacon community. Right: Gathering for Decatur Day in McKoy Park. 

For decades, the Beacon area was considered by city officials to be a slum. Urban renewal, the process to buy, clear, and redevelop the area, began in the late 1930s. The residential and commercial area bounded by Electric Avenue, Herring Street, Oliver Street, and Robin Street was cleared to build the Allen Wilson Terrace Homes, one of the earliest public housing efforts in the country. A pamphlet created by the Decatur Housing Authority characterized the Beacon community as “a blighted area, like a cancer [that] threatens to eat its way into [the] vital organs of our municipality.”

Urban renewal expanded in the 1960s. Families and businesses were again displaced to make way for the Swanton Heights housing project and other public developments including the new Decatur High School, and the county courthouse. 

Decatur’s African-American community faced the destruction of their homes and businesses with strength and resilience. Decatur Day and other annual events are held as a reminder of the Beacon area as it was and to reflect on how these changes came to shape Decatur as it is today.