ATLANTA — Channel 2 Action News is getting real about the Chattahoochee Brick Company.
[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]
The Brick Company has a history as a labor camp where hundreds of Black inmates were forced to work.
Channel 2′s Brian Mims tells us there’s an official plan to use that land to remember those who died there.
A procession of drummers opened the ceremony on the sacred piece of Atlanta real estate.
A great shame happened there in the decades after the Civil War.
Laborers, mostly African Americans who were convicted of minor crimes, worked at the Chattahoochee Brick Company in brutal conditions.
They were men, women and children. Many of them were worked to death.
TRENDING STORIES:
- Georgia mayor dies in motorcycle accident, officials say
- 4-year-old stabbed by 19-year-old uncle in Gwinnett County, police say
- Metro Atlanta couple loses out on attending comedy event, purchased resold tickets
Now, the City of Atlanta owns the land. And the land is filled with promise.
“It’s taken us twists and turns to get to this point, but finally, this day has arrived,” Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens said.
Dickens paid homage to the workers who gave their blood, sweat, tears and lives.
“What happened to the men, women and children who made up the Chattahoochee Brick Company is what the devil meant for bad. A good line of good will come from it.”
[SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]
The city envisions a memorial, along with trails and green space with access to the Chattahoochee River.
“Here we are. This land is now thankfully in safe hands, but the work has just begun,” Atlanta city council Dustin Hillis said.
The city bought the land for about $27 million. They have not given a timeline for when the park could open but plans to include a memorial for the men, women, and children who toiled at the Chattahoochee Brick Company all those years ago.
IN OTHER NEWS:
©2022 Cox Media Group
