Auburn’s Black Neighborhoods: Community Building and People with a Story to Tell

Abstract

Enslavement had a lasting impact on both the town of Auburn, Alabama and Auburn University as seen in the treatment of local Black residents. This thesis explores Auburn’s Black history with a focus on Black neighborhoods and their residents, jobs held by Black community members, and Black legacies tied to Auburn University beginning with this town’s founding in 1836 through the 1960s. It examines these topics by utilizing genealogical sources such as newspapers, census data, and oral histories alongside other primary and secondary sources. This thesis also works to introduce Auburn as a lens, or case study, into the experiences of Black residents and how they were treated and impacted by urban development in the South; more specifically, from the viewpoint of a small southern town rather than a larger city with the inclusion of economics derived from 1930 and 1940 census records. This perspective demonstrates how a richer understanding of Black peoples’ lived experiences in the segregated South can come from researching small towns. Additionally, through acknowledging Black legacies tied to Auburn University, which have been ignored, this thesis addresses those enslaved and/or hired out to the university, its Black mascots, and others who labored for it post-Emancipation. By tracing their legacies, this thesis serves as an example of and a starting point for the exploration of slavery’s legacy at Auburn as well as addressing Black workers post-Emancipation.