Sweet Auburn: Echoes of Prosperity

Lyrics

My grandfather told me what John Wesley Dobbs used to say.
He'd stand right here, look down this street, and say it loud.
"Sweet Auburn."
He called it the richest Negro street in the world.
Not in gold, not in diamonds.
In us.

They drew a line in the dirt of this city.
Said "this far, and no further."
So we built a world on our side of that line.
Alonzo Herndon, born with nothing, not even his own name...
He built a tower of brick and promise right here.
Atlanta Life.
A promise that we would care for our own.
That our lives had value.
That our futures were worth insuring.

And this street, this Auburn Avenue, it was the bloodstream.
The sound of shop doors opening, the smell of bakeries.
The hum of a thousand deals being made on a handshake.
The richest street.
Not in their ledgers.
In our own.

From the Prince Hall Masonic Building, Jesse Blayton sent our voices out into the air.
WERD. Nineteen forty-nine.
The first sound on the radio that was entirely ours.
Down the block, the Royal Peacock was shaking the floorboards with James Brown, with Ray Charles.
And at Ebenezer, Daddy King was preaching a foundation of stone.
While just a few doors down, at 501, a new voice was learning to speak.
A voice that would change the world.

And this street, this Auburn Avenue, it was the bloodstream.
The sound of shop doors opening, the smell of bakeries.
The hum of a thousand deals being made on a handshake.
The richest street.
Not in their ledgers.
In our own.

Then came the rumble.
A different kind of iron vein.
They called it progress.
I-75. I-85.
A concrete river that cut the heart from the body.
Storefronts went quiet.
The dust of demolition settled on everything we built.
They tried to sever the connection.
Tried to make this place a memory.

But you can't erase an echo.
The bricks remember.
The name remains. Sweet Auburn.
The insurance building still stands.
Ebenezer's doors are still open.
My grandfather told me... it's still the richest street.
The richness is just quieter now.
It's in the telling.
It's in the remembering.
It's in us.