Older than most of the city

The West End is one of the oldest neighborhoods outside downtown Atlanta. Its street grid predates most of the city's growth, which is why it reads as a distinct district rather than a subdivision, and why it holds a place on the National Register of Historic Places.

How it became Black Atlanta

By the late 1960s, the West End had become a primarily African American community as most white families relocated to north Atlanta. What followed was the familiar Atlanta pattern in reverse: the neighborhood gained a Black middle class, a Black commercial corridor, and a set of institutions — schools, churches, businesses — that made it a destination in its own right rather than a pass-through.

What it is now

Like a lot of intown Atlanta, the West End now sits in the path of reinvestment, which makes it the center of the city's most honest argument about who gets to keep a neighborhood they built. Its historic designation is one of the few protections already in place.