Reporting trip: Once Linnentown, now West Campus
As part of my reporting on the University of Georgia’s role in the displacement of Black people in local communities around Athens, I visited the site that Linnentown once stood on, which now holds the student dormitories Creswell, Brumby, and Russel halls. The families that once inhabited the area were forced into poverty and had to relocate to East Athens, with some going to Atlanta and Rock Springs.
The community was established in the early 1900s by several Black families. By 1962, with the support of the City of Athens, the University of Georgia succeeded in condemning the entire up and coming community through their Urban Renewal Project and displacing around 50 families. The residents of the community were pushed into lesser accommodations and not adequately compensated for their properties, due to eminent domain.
The University has refused to acknowledge its role in intentionally displacing this community in a racially motivated way. The effects of the displacement have resulted in families from a once up and coming community, that was beginning to accrue wealth, being driven into poverty that many have yet to recover from. The families that once lived in Linnentown still harbor a level of distrust and resentment to both the University of Georgia and the City of Athens due to the trauma that they inflicted.
