Collier Heights
A National Register historic district, one of America's first suburbs built by and for Black families. Martin Luther King Sr. and Herman J. Russell called it home.
1962
The wall that came down
In December 1962, the City of Atlanta erected wood-and-steel barricades across Peyton Road to stop Black families from buying homes in Peyton Forest. The press called it "Atlanta's Berlin Wall," and the photographs went around the world.
Neighbors, students, and civil-rights leaders fought it in the streets and in the courts. On March 1, 1963, a judge ruled the barricades unconstitutional, and the city tore them down within the hour.
The families who crossed Peyton Road built the neighborhoods we steward today. That's the inheritance behind every vote NPU‑I takes: the people who live here decide what happens here.
1948
Built by and for Black Atlantans
A few minutes north, Collier Heights was developed starting in 1948 as one of the first American suburbs created by and for Black homeowners: planned by Black civic leaders, financed by Black-owned banks, and built largely by Black contractors.
Its mid-century ranches and split-levels earned a place on the National Register of Historic Places in 2009, and the neighborhood remains a touchstone of Black achievement in American city-building.