Most people know that Martin Luther King, Jr. Was first buried in South-View Cemetery in Southwest Atlanta and then The King Center. He was entombed into four different crypts over time.
After his murder on April 4, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee, the King family and the city of Atlanta quickly got ready for his funeral. On April 9th, his first crypt was used at South-view Cemetery. The crypt was created by the Roberts-Shields Memorial Company.
The new crypt after it was installed with Ebenezer Baptist Church in the background. (Photo is courtesy of The Atlanta Journal.)
After King’s death, Coretta Scott King immediately envisioned and founded The King Center. Land was identified and King was relocated on January 14, 1970. A new crypt was built by the same company.
The second crypt location has a fence and an eternal flame. (The photo is courtesy of the Georgia State University archives for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution).
The permanent dais was built in 1976 and the third crypt was constructed. Like the others, it was built out of Georgia marble.
The single crypt of Martin Luther King on the permanent dais. (Postcard image.)
When Coretta Scott King passed away in 2006, the Robert-Shields Memorial Company made the final double crypt.
Credit to Liz Clappin for providing the information on the Roberts-Shields Memorial Company.
Charmaine Minniefield is an artist-activist whose mission is to save Black stories “as a radical action of social justice.” Minniefield’s “The Praise House Project” celebrates the history of praise houses and ring shouts. It is a multimedia experience. When the Praise House Project is open, the inside of the house is an in-depth visual and sound experience.
Initially built on plantations, praise houses, or pray’s houses, were small one-room structures where enslaved people would gather to worship. Praise houses used to be found all along the coast, but only a few remain.
Ring shouting involves moving in a circle, shuffling and stamping feet, and clapping hands while in prayer. The earliest known example of ring shouting in the United States was in the 1840s. This practice is believed to be tied back to West African traditions. Ring shouting is a ritual celebrated when a person accepts Christianity. It is still practiced today, and the evolution of the practice can still be seen in Black congregations today, especially among the surviving Gullah Geechee communities. The McIntosh County Shouters out of the Briar Patch community in Georgia keep the practice alive today. They still use a praise house today.
So far, the Praise House Project has been displayed at Oakland Cemetery, Emory University, and downtown Decatur, Georgia. The Oakland Cemetery installation was the first exhibition. It commemorated the lives of over 800 enslaved people who were buried in the cemetery. The Emory exhibition was on the grounds of the Glenn Memorial United Methodist Church in 2023. Currently, the Praise House is located at the corner of Trinity Place and Commerce Drive to honor and remember the historic Black community of Beacon Hill. This community was settled after the Civil War and began to be erased in the 1930s as Decatur expanded. The next exhibit will be at South-view Cemetery.
To read more about The Praise Project, please visit the website.
Horace King was an accomplished builder and architect. He is known for his bridges, but he also designed other buildings.
The Albany Bridge House was built by King in 1858. King was born into slavery but was granted privileges to build around the South. Albany’s founder, Nelson Tift, hired him to build a bridge across the Flint River. The bridge was built with an adjoining bridge house to serve as the official gateway to the town where the town could collect tolls.
Over the years, the bridge house served as a smith shop and an auto parts store. It now functions as the Albany Welcome Center.
Located on W. Whitney Avenue in the southwest part of Albany, Georgia, the Mt. Zion Baptist Church and the Albany Civil Rights Institute visually connect Albany’s past with Albany’s present. Founded in 1865, Mt. Zion Baptist Church has long been a fixture in the Black community in Albany. As a freedmen’s church, it was the first African American Baptist church in Albany. On November 25, 1961, the first Albany Movement meeting occurred at the church. The church played a pivotal role during the Civil Rights Movement and galvanizing activists in Southwest Georgia. It was also the location where the Freedom Singers held their first performance. The meetings were so well attended that people would overflow into the street into Shiloh Baptist Church, serving as a meeting place for activists and a sanctuary for those seeking justice. Leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr, John Lewis, and Ralph David Abernathy attended and spoke at the meetings.
Adjacent to the church, the Albany Civil Rights Institute is dedicated to preserving the rich history of the Civil Rights Movement in Southwest Georgia. Housed in the rehabilitated Old Mt. Zion Baptist Church, the institute features exhibits, interactive displays, and a digital oral history database that bring the stories of the past to life1. Visitors can explore the struggles and triumphs of the movement through photographs, documents, and artifacts that detail the fight for voter registration, nonviolent protest, and economic boycotts. The church underwent significant restoration after the “Great Flood of 1994,” which caused extensive damage to the church.
Connected to the church, The Albany Civil Rights Institute, originally known as the Albany Civil Rights Movement Museum, opened in November 1998. Its mission is to educate about the Civil Rights Movement, especially in Southwest Georgia.
Below are images of the church from the National Register of Historic Places application before it is restored.
In this image, Shiloh Baptist Church can be seen. It would co-host Albany Movement meetings since they were so well attended that people would overflow into the street. Often, presenters would finish at one church, walk across the street, and speak to those who had gathered in the other building.
A yellow folk Victorian is located on W. Whitney Avenue in Albany, Georgia, on a historic street that stands out among the more recently built homes and apartment buildings. Whitney Avenue was the epicenter of the Albany Civil Rights Movement. The Shiloh Baptist Church, Mount Zion First Baptist Church, and the Albany Civil Rights Institute are on the same block as the house.
Always curious about the early families who lived in older homes and wanting to know more about Black history, I began researching the history because I suspected the home might connect to Albany’s Black history. At first, I had trouble unraveling the history with my normal methods, but when I used the Sanborn maps, I realized that Whitney Avenue was once South Avenue. Here, I learned that the house was once 307 South Street.
The earliest family I could trace to the home belonged to Bartow and Charlotte Powell. The Powells married in 1890 and eventually had seven children (The Crisis, September 1918). According to a news article about his death in the Americus Times-Recorder (January 25, 1918), “He was one of the largest tax peyers (sic) in Baker county, and owned considerable property in Dougherty.” Powell was born in Bainbridge, Georgia. Before the age of twenty, he started working to help dredge the Flint River and started to save money so that by the age of 20, he had saved $2,000 and was able to purchase his first five hundred acres of land (Kletzing et al., 1913). According to Powell (Kletzing, 1913, p. 265)
I started with my (work) force on the first day of January, because they say whatever you do that day you will do year round. It proved to be so in my case, for it was not until the Christmas week of the next year that I saw a day off.
His hard work paid off, and he earned $2,500 in his first year. By his fifth year, he had saved enough money to purchase a 300-acre farm. By his 9th year as a farmer, he had grown his land holdings to 1801 total acres. He eventually owned over 9,000 acres where he grew cotton, sugar cane, and corn. He also owned livestock (Kletzing, 1913).
Courtesy of the Library of Congress.
There are mentions of his nice home in Albany (The Valdosta Times, 1897; The Atlanta Journal, 1903). While it is possible that they were referring to another home Powell owned, I believe they were referring to this specific one since it was in a prominent Black neighborhood. It is clear that he has become a man with stature. In a 1914 article in The Atlanta Constitution, it is noted he provided fifteen wagons for a parade at a country fair where Booker T. Washington traveled from Atlanta to open. A 1915 article in The Valdosta Daily Times mentions a successful transaction of 500 bales of cotton earned him $20,000. At some point, he began to manage the Flint River dredging project (The Negro Farmer and Messenger, 1916; The Atlanta Constitution, 1918).
Unfortunately, Powell was murdered while driving his carriage in Albany in 1918 (Dittmer). At his death, it was estimated that his overall wealth was $300,000 (Tuskegee Institute). Most of his land was sold for $56,000 in 1920 (The Macon Telegraph). According to Census records, Charlotte and most of the children moved to either Ohio or New York after 1920.
The home was in the path of the 1994 Flint River flooding as the flooding went further west and caused significant damage to the Mt. Zion Baptist Church (Seegmueller, 2019). There was mention in 1996 that this house would be restored, but I cannot find evidence that this was ever started (Associated Press).
Note: I am still researching his family and hope to provide an update on their lives.
References
[Article about Barton Powell]. (1897, May 29). The Valdosta Times. p. 1, column 2.
Associated Press. (1996, July 22). Walkabout shows plan for Albany. The Atlanta Journal. p. 15.
Baker County Negro farmer sells 500 bales [sic] cotton. (1915, March 1). The Valdosta Daily Times. p. 3.
Bartow Powell, rich Negro farmer, is dead. (1918, January 25). The Atlanta Constitution. p. 9.
B. T. Washington opens Negro fair in South Georgia. (1914, October 23). The Atlanta Constitution. p. 3.
Gibson, J. W., Crogman, W. H., Washington, B. T. & Williams, F. B. (1912) Progress of a race; or, The remarkable advancement of the colored American. From the bondage of slavery, ignorance and poverty to the freedom of citizenship, intelligence, affluence, honor and trust. [Naperville, Ill., J. L. Nichols & company] [Pdf]. Retrieved on January 11, 2025, from https://www.loc.gov/item/12032534/.
If you are a native of Macon, Georgia, you likely have driven past one of the structures designed by local builder Bartholomew Duhart. After driving by his multi-arched entrance at the Mosley and Jesus Mission of Love Holiness Church Cemeteries, I became interested in his work. Thankfully, Historic Macon had written about him, so I was able to learn more about him and where his structures still existed. I also researched to see what else I could discover about Duhart.
Duhart trained as a mason but took additional classes through his Masonry Union to further develop his skills. A profoundly spiritual man who was civically engaged, Duhart was an ordained minister who was involved in a variety of civic organizations. He gave back to the community by helping with church restorations. He also donated land for the building of a recreation center. This donation meant one of his creations, a multi-storied restaurant was demolished.
One of his buildings and a wooden edifice still exist on Columbus Road. The first is the In Spirit Saving Bank, and the other is the Praying Tower. They are built close to each other. Tax records indicate the bank was built in 1920, and I found a record of a land transfer to Duhart in May 1980. I am uncertain if Duhart built it from scratch or heavily modified the building. Much of his work featured circles or arches, which is apparent in this building’s design. Circles are a common feature in religions, most often interpreted as symbols of eternity. The building was most recently is restaurant but is currently unused.
The second structure is the Praying Tower. According to his family, this was supposed to be one of several installations that were going to be made. (Think Howard Finster’s Paradise Garden or St. Eom’s Pasaquan.)
A feature in the September 2, 1983 issue of The Macon TelegraphA highlight on Duhart in the June 14, 1997 issue of The Macon Telegraph
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