Atlanta neighborhood rededicates name to honor pioneer in library science

Caption

Historic Atkins Park is a century-old intown Atlanta neighborhood.

Credit: Photo by Dyana Bagby

Atkins Park has been rededicated to honor Dr. Eliza Atkins Gleason, the first African American to earn a PhD in library science, after originally being named for a Confederate colonel.

The Atlanta City Council approved at its Sept. 16 meeting an ordinance to rededicate the namesake of the century-old Atkins Park neighborhood from Confederate Colonel John Dewitt Clinton Atkins to Dr. Eliza Atkins Gleason, the first African American to earn a PhD in library science.

Paul Burks, a longtime resident of Atkins Park, led the effort to rededicate the name of the neighborhood that includes about 120 households on three streets – St. Charles Place, St. Augustine Place, and St. Louis Place.

He said when researching the neighborhood’s history, he learned the developer named Atkins Park in the early 1900s for his friend the Confederate colonel from Tennessee who also served in the Confederate Congress. 

“I thought, ‘Well, that’s interesting,'” Burks said. “But Atlanta, of course, has lots of names that relate back to the Civil War.”

Then in recent years, Burks said he noticed Atlanta officials and residents making an effort to remove Confederate monuments and rename streets, buildings and parks tied to the Confederacy and Jim Crow era of racial segregation.

In 2018, the Atlanta City Council approved legislation to change the name of Grant Park’s Confederate Avenue to United Avenue, and East Confederate Avenue to United Avenue S.E. 

In 2021, the Atlanta Board of Education approved changing the name of Grady High School to Midtown High School at the request of students and residents. The school was originally named for Henry W. Grady, the managing editor for the Atlanta Constitution in the 1880s who used his position to endorse white supremacy. 

“These examples got me thinking and I knew this Colonel Atkins is not somebody we’d want to name our neighborhood for today,” Burks said.

Originally, Burks thought about proposing changing the name of Atkins Park, but decided that would be too difficult. Also, he and his neighbors like the name Atkins Park. 

Burks decided on another route and searched online for an Atkins “that would be a person that we would admire today to be known for,” he said.

That search brought up Dr. Eliza Atkins Gleason (born Atkins), who, in 1940, attended the University of Chicago where she became the first African American to earn a PhD in library science.

In 1941, she was invited to set up the School of Library Science at Atlanta University and was its first dean. She stayed at Atlanta University until 1946. 

The connection to Atlanta made her the perfect choice to rededicate the name of Atkins Park, Burks said. He first pitched the idea to members of the Atkins Park Neighborhood Association in 2021.

An APNA committee conducted research over the summer. In August the group voted to rededicate Atkins Park for Dr. Eliza Atkins Gleason. The name rededication also got the necessary approval from the Virginia Highland Civic Association.

Councilmember Alex Wan, whose district includes Atkins Park, sponsored the name rededication ordinance that is now waiting for the mayor’s signature. 

Burks said it was important to get official recognition by the city of the Atkins Park name rededication.

“In that way, it can be in perpetuity, that people know that we have done this. So when they go to look at the record about our neighborhood, they know we have done this,” he said.

This story comes to GPB through a reporting partnership with Rough Draft Atlanta.