page_title: Sweet Auburn
section_title: Historic structures and businesses
hierarchical_section_title: Sweet Auburn / Historic structures and businesses
caption_attribution_description: English: Just past noon on January 15, 1929, a son was born to the Reverend and Mrs. Martin Luther King, Sr., in an upstairs bedroom of 501 Auburn Avenue, in Atlanta, Georgia. &#160;It was in these surroundings of home, church (Ebenezer Baptist Church), and neighborhood (Sweet Auburn) that "M.L." experienced family and Christian love, segregation in the days of "Jim Crow" laws, diligence and tolerance.
context_page_description: The Sweet Auburn Historic District is a historic African-American neighborhood along and surrounding Auburn Avenue, east of downtown Atlanta, Georgia, United States. The name Sweet Auburn was coined by John Wesley Dobbs, referring to the "richest Negro street in the world," one of the largest concentrations of African-American businesses in the United States. A National Historic Landmark District was designated in 1976, covering 19 acres of the neighborhood, significant for its history and development as a segregated area under the state's Jim Crow laws.
context_section_description: Several churches located along the avenue, such as Big Bethel AME and First Congregational, helped build and maintain the heritage of the street.  The Royal Peacock Club provided an elegant setting where many African Americans could perform and bring the changing styles of black popular music to Atlanta.  Originally called the Top Hat Club when it opened in 1938, the club hosted local talent and national acts such as B.B. King, the Four Tops, the Tams and Atlanta's own Gladys Knight.  One of the many significant commercial buildings within the district is the Atlanta Life Insurance Company.  The second-largest black insurance company in the United States, Atlanta Life Insurance was founded in 1905 by Alonzo Herndon, a former slave from Walton County, Georgia.  The central building of the Atlanta Life Insurance Company complex is a Beaux Arts building facing Auburn Avenue.  The district also includes the Rucker Building, Atlanta's first black-owned office building, constructed in 1904 by businessman and politician Henry A. Rucker. For more information about the less well known Henry Allen Rucker, visit The Atlanta History Center Archives and access Terminus, one of the center's databases.  (These collections contain data and images of nearly every notable African American in Atlanta and beyond dating from Reconstruction into the late 1970s.) Also located on Auburn Avenue was The Atlanta Daily World, the first black-owned daily newspaper, which was founded here in 1928. (The Atlanta Daily World is still the nation's longest running African American newspaper.)  In 1948, the Atlanta Police Department was integrated, hiring eight black police officers, all of whom were assigned to Auburn Avenue.
caption: Visitors at the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site
exif: {"Image ImageWidth": "1037", "Image ImageLength": "1536", "Image BitsPerSample": "[8, 8, 8]", "Image PhotometricInterpretation": "2", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image SamplesPerPixel": "3", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop Elements 14.0 (Windows)", "Image DateTime": "2018:01:02 01:23:48", "Image ExifOffset": "240", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "390", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "6193", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1037", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1536"}