It’s not often that tour buses roll through your neighborhood.
As a teenager, Isaac Newton Farris occasionally saw tourists peering curiously from the bus windows at the homes in Collier Heights.
``Collier Heights was ahead of its time. I didn’t appreciate what that meant at the time.``
Among the homes getting the most attention was one owned by his grandparents, organist and longtime NAACP member Alberta King and the Rev. Martin Luther “Daddy King,” a civil rights activist and pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church.
“Collier Heights was an example,” says Farris, a senior fellow at the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change in Atlanta. “Keep in mind that you usually don’t have tours through neighborhoods unless a president lived there or it’s a celebrity home. I’m saying this was a big deal for people to come to Atlanta and to see how Blacks were able to live as opposed to, maybe, where they were from. Collier Heights was ahead of its time. I didn’t appreciate what that meant at the time.”
Collier Heights is recognized as one of the first communities planned by Black people for Black families. In 2009, the community was added to the National Register of Historic Places, noted in part for its architecture, planning, and historical significance.
Farris, his sister, Angela Farris-Watkins, and their parents, Christine King Farris and Isaac Farris Sr., lived in a four-bedroom ranch-style home on Larchmont Drive. The family still owns the home.
The community “was very nice,” he remembers. “Very peaceful, and it wasn’t just well-to-do Blacks. It was mixed [incomes]. The last thing we would say to fellow Blacks was that you can’t live here because your house is not as expensive as mine—not like today’s subdivisions. The priorities and thinking were different.”
He now lives just a few minutes away, in the home that was owned by his grandparents.
Growing up and, even now, most of the lawns are well-manicured. People took pride in their homes and yards and looked out for each other.
He remembers that during Christmas, the city would block off some of the side streets so children could play with their new toys. During warmer weather, younger residents explored the wooded areas and ate ripe plums from fruit trees.
“No one seemed to mind,” Farris says. “Kids from throughout the community used to come out and play with each other. I enjoyed the times, which is one of the reasons I’m still in the community.
It’s also practical. Farris, who graduated from Frederick Douglass High School, travels a lot for his work. Collier Heights is close to the airport and convenient to get to most places in Atlanta.
As the son, nephew, and grandson of civil rights activists, Farris was aware of what was happening across the nation as Black people fought for equality and economic justice.
For his family, “there was no such thing as being insulated from what was happening in the country, but we didn’t feel insecure or uncomfortable or felt we had to tiptoe around.”
“All the adults I knew, like my parents, were hardworking people, and that contributed to me having a secure sense of myself.”
Frequent visitors to his parents’ and grandparents’ homes were his uncle and aunt, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King, the Rev. Ralph D. Abernathy, as well as Black and white community leaders, businessmen, and politicians.
Living in Collier Heights gave him a comfort level that he recognizes that African Americans in other places in metro Atlanta and the nation may not have had.
“I wasn’t confronted with racist behavior,” he said. “All the adults I knew, like my parents, were hardworking people, and that contributed to me having a secure sense of myself.”
He still lives in Collier Heights today and adds, “that’s the best endorsement that I could give you.”
Editors: Ann Hill Bond and Mariann Martin
Fact Checkers: Audrey Hamm and Ada Wood
Canopy Atlanta Reader: Stephanie Toone
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