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ity Design The Atlanta C Aspiring to the Beloved CommunityPublished by City of Atlanta Department of City Planning 55 Trinity Ave. SW Suite 1450 Atlanta, GA 30303 www.atlantaga.gov/government/departments/city-planning Copyright © 2017 by the City of Atlanta, Georgia. ISBN 978-0-692-92818-9 All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher, except in the context of reviews. Printed in Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America. Second printing, 2018. Library of Congress Control Number: 2017948590City of Atlanta Department of City Planning The AtlantaThe Atlanta CCity Designity Design Aspiring to the Beloved Community CCAround the world, Atlanta is known as the home of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the cradle of the American Civil Rights Movement. Our city’s pivotal role in that era attracted a national spotlight on the fundamentals of civic and human integrity at the same time we were rapidly growing from a sleepy railroad hub into the enlightened capital of a progressive, new Southern metropolis. In many ways, Dr. King’s lasting influence changed our trajectory and made us the city we are today. His goal, however, was not to fulfill our slogan, “a city too busy to hate.” His goal was the beloved community. As early as 1957, Dr. King described the outcome of the Movement and its highest aspiration in terms aimed not at political or economic power, but at the life of communities built on human decency and nonviolence. He said, “The end is reconciliation; the end is redemption...the aftermath of nonviolence is the creation of the beloved community” (Justice Without Violence, 1957). The Beloved Community OPPOSITE The Beloved Family ( Source: Max Scheler Estate, 1964). Left to right: Reverend Martin Luther King, Sr. (father); Dexter King (son); Alberta Williams King (mother); Coretta Scott King (wife); Bernice King (daughter); Martin Luther King, III (son); Martin Luther King, Jr.; Yolanda King (daughter). Far from a utopian fantasy, Dr. King saw the beloved community as a realistic and achievable goal. ii Aspiring to the Beloved CommunityIt was his ultimate response to conflict and violence, urging us to call out injustice and discrimination while also ending the cycle of revenge. He described a moral direction for the Movement, suggesting that the beloved community would not succeed unless it was inclusive, compassionate and nonviolent, and arguing that our only sensible path forward is to make our enemies into friends — to live together as brothers [and sisters] in a community, and not continually live with bitterness and friction” ( Justice Without Violence , 1957). Dr. King’s vision of the beloved community offered a hopeful path forward for communities broken apart by segregation and racial violence. Atlanta also suffered these struggles, of course, but it mostly avoided the infamous boycotts, violence and firebombings that attracted negative attention to other Southern cities. Quite the contrary. As a direct result of its public commitment to civil rights, inclusion and racial reconciliation, Atlanta has thrived culturally and economically since the 1960s, making it an imperfect but worthy proving ground for the validation of Dr. King’s beloved community. This legacy of the Civil Rights Movement, which belongs to thousands of people and not solely to Dr. King, is also Atlanta’s lasting, and most important contribution to the world. If we accept the challenges of living up to it, its tenets become more than our legacy. They become our solemn responsibility. They set the highest standard for the design of our future, and even while we may not always live up to them, they motivate us with obligation and opportunity to continue the work of the Movement. Ultimately, they hold us accountable to the promise that Dr. King described as the beloved community. That promise is an Atlanta that continues to confront the same injustices of the 1960s, but in a newly tuned and amplified fashion: an Atlanta that is ready for a new era of urban revitalization. It’s an Atlanta that deepens its commitment to civil and human rights at a time of national political polarization, rather than simply celebrating the memory of the Movement. And in its purest manifestation, it’s an outcome for Atlanta inspired by Dr. King’s 1964 lecture to the Nobel Academy: “our end is a community at peace with itself.” With that as our goal, twenty years from now, we should be able to say that our city has grown not into a different kind of place, but into a better version of itself — an Atlanta ever more confident of its identity and committed to its voice for peace in the world. iv Aspiring to the Beloved Community“The aftermath of nonviolence is the creation of the beloved community.” Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Birth of a New Nation, 1957Next >