Local nonprofit Historic Athens launched a petition Tuesday to name a new downtown park after the first Black legislators to represent Athens in Atlanta.
Historic Athens organized a learning event Tuesday about the area’s first Black legislators, Alf Richardson and Madison Davis. The two men represented Clarke County at the state level in 1868 during the Reconstruction Era. Currently, no public spaces in Athens are named after the two men—which the nonprofit says is an important gap.
Matthew Pulver, a local researcher and writer, spoke at the event. He says that Richardson and Davis faced violence at the hands of the white supremacist Ku Klux Klan in order to fulfill their elected roles.
“December of 1870, Alf Richardson is at his home, and he is attacked by some number of Klansmen, but it does not stop him from going back to Atlanta,” he says.
Another local writer and 4th generation Athenian, Kimberly Davis, presented at the event. She says naming the park after Richardson and Davis would do more than just commemorate the two lawmakers, but their descendants, as well.
“It wasn’t just Alfred Richardson and Madison Davis. It was subsequent generations who made significant contributions to not just Black history but American history,” Davis says.
After the presentations, Historic Athens encouraged attendees to sign a petition to name the public park next to the newly renovated Costa Building downtown after Richardson and Madison. Historic Athens will need to collect 1,000 signatures for the official renaming application.
