Where it is

Cascade Heights sits roughly six miles southwest of downtown Atlanta, near I-285, tucked into the city's southwestern quadrant rather than on a main commuter path. That geography helped give it a self-contained feel that long-time residents describe as a neighborhood that stayed a neighborhood.

How it became Black Atlanta's affluent address

By the late 1960s, Cascade Heights was predominantly African American. Through the 1970s it became home to many affluent African American families — a pattern repeated across southwest Atlanta as Black families with means moved into areas that had previously excluded them, and then built institutions around themselves.

What it means for the map

Cascade Heights is the clearest example of the "Black side of town" being a set of real choices about land and money, not just a demographic accident. It is why southwest Atlanta has its own commercial corridors, its own civic associations, and its own long-standing Black political identity.