East Lake Meadows

Learn the history of East Lake Meadows, a former public housing community in Atlanta. Stories from residents reveal hardship and resilience, and raise critical questions about race, poverty, and who is deserving of public assistance.

White residents were told by local real estate agents, banks, and politicians that African Americans moving into their neighborhood would destroy their property values. By the end of the decade, East Lake went from being predominantly white to 90% African American.

In 1956, the government further enabled the middle-class movement to the suburbs through the rise of new infrastructure – the interstate highway system. For many cities across the country, highways were used as a way to overpass and “erase” areas considered “black slums.”

Tenants in East Lake Meadows can’t get things fixed; the trash doesn’t get picked up, the grass doesn’t get cut, and raw sewage seeps into houses and playgrounds from open pits.

Lawrence and Elgin Lightfoot describe how their family ended up with a piano while living in East Lake Meadows. "We were the only people in the projects with a piano. The neighbor would have parties and play records all night, and since the walls were so thin, I would play along with the records. I learned to play a lot of songs off her music."