- Collection:
- Planning Atlanta - A New City in the Making, 1930s-1990s
- Title:
- William Huff oral history interview, 2014 May 9
- Creator:
- Huff, William
- Contributor to Resource:
- Williams, John
- Publisher:
- Georgia State University Library
- Date of Original:
- 2014-05-09
- Subject:
- Urban renewal
Community development, Urban
African Americans--Social conditions
Neighborhoods--Social aspects
Gentrification - Location:
- United States, Georgia, Fulton County, Atlanta, 33.749, -84.38798
- Medium:
- transcripts
digital audio formats - Type:
- Text
Sound - Format:
- application/pdf
audio/mpeg - Description:
- William Huff is an Atlanta native and a former resident of Buttermilk Bottoms. He is the cousin of the late, famed Buttermilk Bottoms artist James Malone. After enlisting in the U.S. Armed Forces, Huff left the neighborhood around 1950 to pursue a military career. After serving the country for almost four decades and rising to the rank of Master Sergeant, Huff retired and returned to his hometown. He currently resides in Decatur, Georgia under the care of his three daughters.
From his home in Decatur, Georgia, Huff tells a story of Buttermilk Bottoms in the years before 1950. He recalls the neighborhood and describes his upbringing in the community. He talks about growing up on Pine Place, attending school and church, and patronizing businesses in the community. He provides a glimpse of African-American life in Atlanta in the 1930s and 1940s, focusing on daily life in Buttermilk Bottoms. Huff also discusses myths of how the neighborhood became known as Buttermilk Bottoms. He details his departure and enlistment into the Army, along with returning and seeing the effects of urban renewal on his childhood community.
Locations: Buttermilk Bottoms -- Fulton County (Ga.) -- Atlanta (Ga.) - Metadata URL:
- http://digitalcollections.library.gsu.edu/cdm/ref/collection/PlanATL/id/2847
- IIIF manifest:
- https://digitalcollections.library.gsu.edu/iiif/2/PlanATL:2847/manifest.json
- Language:
- eng
- Additional Rights Information:
- Copyright to this item is owned by Georgia State University Library. Georgia State University Library has made this item available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. For more information see http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
- Extent:
- Audio: 00:32:42, Transcript: 22 pages
- Holding Institution:
- Georgia State University. Special Collections
- Rights:
-
