Decatur Day has been around for 37 years, but this one carried extra weight. The Sept. 5 gathering on the greenspace at 346 W. Trinity Place in Decatur was dedicated to Beacon Hill, the Black neighborhood that once stood there, according to Decaturish.
Beacon Hill, once called "the Bottom," was founded by formerly enslaved people after the Civil War. It grew into the center of Black life in Decatur, with its own schools, churches, and businesses. In the 1950s and 60s, ordinance changes, eminent domain, and urban renewal pushed families out and the neighborhood was torn down. "The Black Beacon Hill community was relocated by force, not by choice," organizer Doris Sims Johnson said.
This year the city is doing more than remembering. In April, Decatur designated the area part of the Beacon Hill Historic District. At the event, Mayor Tony Powers read a proclamation, telling alumni, "I want to acknowledge how much you did to open doors that never existed before." Former students of Trinity High, Decatur's historically Black school, shared memories, including Callie Flanigan of the Class of 1963: "We weren't rich ... but we were glad to have what we had."
The Beacon Hill Grassroots Coalition frames the preservation work as a form of repair, and it is worth sitting with. A lot of the downtown Decatur people love today exists on land that was taken from these families.
