Black Neighborhoods | Day 11 | Have you been to Sweet Auburn Ave?

Day 11

Before T.I., before Jeezy, and before Lil Baby…

For a city that thrives on “started from the bottom now I’m here” storylines, it makes sense that Atlanta’s first Black millionaire was a barber named Alonzo.

He didn’t have a Morehouse degree, or an Alpha Phi Alpha pedigree like Sweet Auburn Avenue's favorite son, Martin Luther King Jr. What Alonzo lacked in formality, he made up for with a hustler’s spirit.

This is the story you didn’t know.

The story of the real A. The Story of Auburn Ave. The story of Alonzo who left his small town in Georgia on foot with $11 of savings and about a year of schooling. He emerged to help make Sweet Auburn Avenue “the richest Negro Street in the world.”