Safely Talk about Race & Racism

East Lake Meadows: A public housing story

This month’s virtual documentary is Ken Burns' "East Lake Meadows: A public housing story." Discussion will follow led by La’Ron Williams, local storyteller and peace activist.

This series screens films that provide the needed opportunity to safely engage and understand the ways racism has functioned historically and continues to work in the present. This month’s documentary will be Ken Burns' East Lake Meadows: A public housing story. After the film, La’Ron Williams, local storyteller and peace activist, will facilitate an open and honest discussion about race and racism. Light refreshments served.

Film description: In October of 1970, the Atlanta Housing Authority opened a public housing community on the edge of Atlanta called East Lake Meadows. Over the next 25 years, many thousands of low-income Atlantans, mostly African-American, would call it home.

Residents moved in for hundreds of different reasons and created strong bonds despite the many challenges they faced. But as public housing in America was abandoned and stigmatized, and a crack wave swept through the neighborhood, East Lake Meadows became nearly uninhabitable. In the mid-1990s, Atlanta bulldozed the housing project to make way for new mixed-income housing, as government and philanthropic funds poured into the area in an effort to create a thriving community.

Through the stories of former residents, East Lake Meadows: A public housing story gives voice to some of the most marginalized people in our society and raises critical questions about how we, as a nation, have created concentrated poverty and limited housing opportunity for African Americans, and what can be done to address it.

Join us through Zoom at: 

https://zoom.us/j/95986811441?pwd=eVNOR1J4T0ltZ3Blaks0RklKL1ZiZz09

Meeting ID: 959 8681 1441
Passcode: 898330
One tap mobile: +13126266799,,95986811441#,,,,*898330# US (Chicago)
Dial by your location: +1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)

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