 My name is Hattie Thomas Whitehead And my name is Geneva Jones And we're first to send this from Lennon Town Okay, and So, so this house is from Lennon Town, sir Yes, this house right here is from Lennon Town on Peabody. This is not the house We was raised in they wouldn't let dad and move our house that we was raised in because it was too big and Bucking so this house right here was a smaller house Which is one of the first Jim Walter homes that dad and my head moved from Peabody over here on 1550 East Broad Street So why was this house moved? They was gonna tear it down anyway, and they said this all the houses that was in Lennon Town They said they were shacks and shambles They were just but they were not this house is solid She gonna tell you about her daddy's house what he built But this house was solid what daddy brought from over there Our house that we was raised in was very solid But the city of Athens told him it was too big so they told him he had to go after they took our house Gave him a small amount of money 2000 plus and change forever or either acre land in a full-room house With a carport running back porch and They told him he had to go we owned it and he worked for the fine arts building over there Find us building mama work for Snelling Hall and This is all the universe of Georgia and they told us we had to just leave our homes well basically going back to Geneva's father he had the The wherewithal he had to know how and the financial wherewithal to move This house from Lennon Town to here and to buy a lot to move it on here a lot of the residents didn't have that Money to do that or the wherewithal to know how to do it, but her father did So he became he still was a homeowner a Number of the residents that lived over there that moved were not home owners anymore Because it had taken them a great deal of time and years to accumulate enough money To buy land and to put a home on it For both of the residents. It was not like they had a whole lot of money Most of them had made how much money Geneva are weak mama made over to Snelling Hall Mom and Baldwin Hall mama made $7 a week now the men's were more than like they think men's are more now The men made $8 a week from Balden Hall to the finals building So they made a big chunk more than the ladies did, you know some being sarcastic But you know you can take it and run with it That's the way they did them working from early in the morning. Mom and dad would leave home Going to the universe or working late at night So with that you can tell that it just took a long time to accumulate of enough money to purchase a home and That was before integration. So it's not like you could walk in a bank and fill out a loan for a home I mean people would get Long companies and they would get money put money together from family members or people from the community in order to buy But it was over a long period of time So after urban renewal and the University of Georgia when the houses in the neighborhood was condemned as slum houses and The survey that was done from HUD housing They were allowed to just pay what they wanted to for the property Yeah, it doesn't look like it's falling apart to me and now that was a long time ago That wasn't that was in the 60s 55 years ago So they had brought this out a number we found out that a number of homes were moved and one lady that moved her home It's still living and she's 99 and she's still living in the home She was a homeowner So if it was not if it was a slum area the homes could not have been moved But it was not a slum area Basically our neighborhood was targeted Basically our neighborhood was targeted because it was like 22 acres of land and it was prime property From the University of Georgia I don't know I don't know what it will be worth today but what we're gonna have to do is look at researchers and To see what it will be worth today, but they were not paid fairly back in the day when this happened Some people maybe got $1,600 some people got $2,000 some people got $4,000 they could not move and Get another home in that short period of time With no help no assistance no one helping nobody meeting with the community to let them know that What the needs were what options they had we didn't have options Basically, they just kicked us out and if we didn't move fast enough we had to pay rent They charge rent so even with this small amount of money That was given they wanted some of that back And they got it. I got her. I have the receipt. I have a receipt my daddy paid $15 a month until he could get this house Stabled over here. They didn't give him enough money to get it stabilized He had to borrow money from my loan company Joe Cooper finance and I have that evidence that he had to bother from them borrow From them to get things stabilized set up properly so him and mom and my sister and brothers to move in here I had left and got married had a baby or whatever and then I came back thought I was going This little baby I had in my hand. I thought that's well We're gonna stay there or you know great big rooms. I could put your crib here We can do this and do that we came back. It was dead. I said dad. That's what's going on Never thought they was gonna carry it through they started before I left I said I ain't think they was gonna carry it through and but they did when I came back Mr. Abe her father had built that house up there on Peabody. I went up there and visit and you know It was nice house very nice house and you know, I so well They got their house. Maybe we had to move up here on Peabody just stay in Linnertown But then they say I know they had to make them move they bring houses That was a scare tactic. Just like the Klamman used to bring thing That was a scare tactic for us to get away from over there And when they got enough of us with more that he started bringing bulldozers Inside the house. It was hard. It was The University of Georgia's responsibility is to get us to move out of the community. All right now, so once They acquired a property What they don't what they did was stop cutting off exits and entrances of the community and Later on they started working at 12 o'clock at night the bulldozers will come at 12 o'clock at night I work through the night They would push houses down of people that we knew and then some houses were burned and we saw you know Some houses were burned down. So it was traumatizing so in With the families not knowing where they were going and where they were going Those that were left had to see this and in some instances they start digging ditches in front of the houses and When we got it from school every day, we had to jump across the open ditch ditches to get home So we tell this we want people to know what happened how we were traumatized and through through a lot of pain and we hope it doesn't come through pain and suffering that That we saw this occur and We talk about it because we want people that know what happened And through pain and aggregate in at a man I had you know through pain and suffering that we tell our story and and we don't want it to come through That we are angry, but we're we wanted to come through that what happened and that we're disappointed At what happened since we found the data Um And you also want a resolution to be passed. Yes once we found the data. Okay once we found the data and the data was Archived under a number It was not archived on the Lennon town, which what we called it And there's nothing in the city of Athens records About a community called Lennon town We were targeted because the university and Athens Somehow made a decision that that Particular area was needed Because it was prime property for dormitories for students And if the the city of Athens Had if we had been paid properly properly then we would not been here today talking about this But they were not paid right Some of the families had to go to public housing Some went to stay with people and were janitors and maids some Never did live as a families again Because they had nowhere to go and they had no help Now they did have a committee called a minority committee that was made up of so-called black Upstanding people from the community, but they didn't live in Lennon town No, they didn't and they were what I call yes people. That's what they were They were like yes people whatever they were asked to do man told them to do yes so they did that and Not realizing the impact that it would have made on us so once we got the data Joe Joey Carter came to town and we got the data and We saw the data and then we said okay, we got the data now so we have gone to the city of Athens with the data and and resolutions that we think are really Simple resolutions not you know something that's outlandish for simple resolutions that we think that we need as a result of what happened in Lennon town So as a result of that we met with council people we've met now with the mayor and We had a Show a demonstration I would say at the mayor and council meeting this past Tuesday So the mayor has decided that he's going to put a committed together Later on this month to work on these resolutions But what we seem like a fair Fair resolutions. We're willing to work with any any committee that's put up Put together We're not dug our heels on anything any words or anything. We're just trying to say this need to be fair How do you want to say anything else if you do you go right ahead? I don't mind sharing this time with you But you know, we're we're family no matter where we are Whoever lived in Lennon town when we see one other we see a family and there's no division at all She go ahead on baby. I just want to the everyone to know that We don't dislike Athens. We love Athens. We love a University of Georgia of the University, but we want we want Athens and the council and the University all know that It's time to step up and do what's right because we were treated our Our relatives and the guy was community was not treated fairly and It's time to To make it right You know what I I think about a lot for my daddy came home and mama said when my dad and her uncle Mr. Dave Brown, I remember them two going to this meeting that they had you know a little mean they had and when it came back I remember mama asking daddy. She said daddy. That's what they call one of the mom and dad So what did they say and mom daddy said we say I told him I didn't want to move them fixing up the house and You know, that's what I want to live at in here That's why I want to die when them and say they told him snowball Which they had given him that nickname over there at the fine arts building. There's a snowball You don't have a choice. You gotta go Don't even come here thinking y'all got a choice y'all gonna go. That's it. We And that's what happened and Chris will haul with the first one They start building when do little got rid of them She was the first one she owned all those house on that side and she and she sold out So they booed those those down quick do little how they didn't burn them But when they got to us the one homeowners and thing who they was afraid of that gave up That's where the fear tactic came in started burning and when that's enough of us left the rest of they start bulldozing it down That was crucial slavery the Atlanta Journal called me. So what's that slavery? I quickly said no But then I got thinking about it. That's we about five feet from being slavery Because they told us what to do when they go when they come back. How much to pay us What what we can grow and when the people the 40% White people around clover herds and from people are always the millage they talking about not the we didn't have no white people in our Community they had running water. They had public they had facilities We had out those toilets to it couldn't do it no more and then they told us y'all got to build this and got To build a bathroom that it went right on the bill And then they built a room and a back porch and it was stood in the state. Wasn't that the wrong? They was doing good. It worked hard and they thought the University of Georgia gonna stand by them and instead of after her daddy really loved it We loved it too, but we went to school now It was eight of us in my house We went to school restreet Her daddy took us to east Athens and then we went to Athens hide and address the school Bernie Harris for her they took my dad took us to east Athens because the school Thomas the school Resowned this could our community, but they forgot to send the school buses Oh So my my daddy had to take the kids to school really didn't we just love him to the he was and and when When they finally signed to send the school buses My daddy applied for the job, but they told him he wasn't qualified Now we saw the school bus go by us and sometime when we was walking the restreet We had to hurry up and get out of there. They smashed water us little children walking Y'all need to picture yourself. So that was the y'all little children, but they was white We were um We had carpenters. We had electricians. We had plumbers We had Yeah mechanics. We had beauticians. Yes. It was a self Supporting neighborhood. That's right. It's like we if we needed somebody to To do something we knew who to go to and they would come down and repair it We had everything that was um the building of a middle class neighborhood It was just only three streets Two was not paved Bentley and Lyndon wrote right. They were not paid only peabody was paved. It was peabody were paved because I think there was is Addendum to The peabody that go from peabody to a middle street now back. Yeah But see right now if you go over there, you won't see no part of Linnertown Unless you take us and we'll show you we can show you why our houses were yeah They may have taken away on ground, but they haven't taken away here It's like right under those big tire ices, right? Basically it was the yeah crest well crest well Bromby and it was one Russell Russell and then the parking lot parking deck. Oh, Jesus Our house is right there where the um the parking the parking lot And over there Well, we worked out a gardening thing There the tennis court they have over there. That's where they build you got to move because we need a tennis court Which don't want to have nobody on it. They even move the creek Well, we should bring from there that water our garden with Bring from that creek up there. So mama could wash clothes with That's gone. They have put it on the ground They they erased everything they could but they couldn't erase our memory We are not dead. We are here and we are not gardening where Joey Carter is not either so basically, um Like I say we tell our story Because we want to know people what happened because it happened in plain view. That's right. It did happen in plain view But the things that happened Back then in the 60s our parents and the adults in the community Didn't know how to didn't have anybody to go to for help They couldn't go to the city They couldn't go to university and they couldn't go to the legislature to senators because they had already leveraged to senators So once Once we get this Together we meet with the mayor and the team. We'll see how things work. Hopefully With us continuing to meet with small groups. I've been meeting with small groups in the community I've been taking people on tours of Lennon town. So once we um Meet with the mayor in this in this committee. We will see how things turn out. Hopefully That things will turn out differently than it did for our parents in the 60s. It will