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 intown Atlanta neighborhood from Confederate officer John DeWitt Clinton Atkins of Tennessee to Dr. Gleason.
Gleason was born in North Carolina and earned degrees from Fisk University and the University of California, Berkeley. In 1940, she became the first African American to earn a doctorate in library science. A year later, she became the first dean of the newly established School of Library Service at Atlanta University.
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 conducting research years ago, he learned Atkins Park was named for 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 endorsed 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). Her connection to Atlanta University as the first dean of the School of Library Science made her the perfect choice for the Atkins Park name rededication, Burks said.
The Atkins Park Neighborhood Association agreed with Burks after a months-long review process. The Virginia Highland Civic Association also gave necessary neighborhood approval.
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.