The Morton Theatre
Built by Monroe Bowers “Pink” Morton in 1910 in Athens, the Morton Theatre was one of the first Black-owned vaudeville theaters in the country. The theater saw acts such as Butterbeans and Susie, Curley Weaver and Bessie Smith.
In 1914, traveling shows like the New York Follies and the Smart Set Company stopped by the theater on their national tours. Many of Morton Theatre’s past performances and events were lost to time, leaving only traces of ticket stubs and fading photographs.
The Morton Building, which houses the Morton Theatre, was a center of Black businesses and professionals. Dr. Ida Mae Johnson Hiram, the first Black woman to be a licensed dentist in Georgia, had her clinic inside the building. It was also home to the first Black-owned drug story in Athens, owned by Dr. E.D. Harris. Other businesses included barbershops, pool halls, beauty salons and even a bakery.
After a fire in the theater’s project booth, the Morton Theatre was abandoned over the next decades. In 1980, the building was purchased by the Morton Theatre Corporation, who aimed to revitalize the building and theater. Using a SPLOST grant, the Morton Theatre’s damages, including its caved-in roof, were fixed.
In 1991, ownership of the Morton Theatre and Building was handed to the Athens-Clarke County Government. Since then, the building has again opened, hosting shows and renting out to the public.
Hot Corner
At the intersection of Hull Street and Washington Street, Hot Corner is the center of the Black community and businesses in downtown Athens. Hot Corner is home to The Morton Theatre, Manhattan Cafe and Wilson’s Styling Shop. Economic activity in Hot Corner peaked in the mid-20th century with 66 businesses located there.
Homer Wilson is the owner of Wilson’s Styling Shop and founder of the Hot Corner Association. The barbershop was his father’s and he began working there as a teenager in the 1960s. In that time, he has seen Athens grow and change from his view in the middle of downtown.
Hot Corner played a part in the Civil Rights Movement in Athens. During marches they would hand out food and drinks to those demonstrating, Wilson said. It was a place where protestors could “chill out” before heading back out on the marches, according to Wilson.
The Hot Corner Association organizes a yearly Hot Corner festival in the summer where they let people showcase their businesses and the different products they sell and celebrate the Black community.
Wilson’s Styling Shop shows the history of what went on in the area and Hot Corner needs the community support to continue, Wilson said.
“Hot Corner is a part of history now whether I’m here or not,” Wilson said. “People might change and different people might start running the businesses, but Hot Corner is here to be there for them.”
First African Methodist Episcopal Church
Athens First African Methodist Episcopal Church and sign seen on Tuesday, March 11, 2025, in Athens, Georgia. Established in 1866, the First African Methodist Episcopal Church was Athens’ first African American church. (Photo/Forest X. Dynes)
Up the street from Hot Corner is First African Methodist Episcopal Church, one of the first Black churches in Athens.
First AME’s origins can be traced back to the 1840s when enslaved people asked for their own pastor to preach, according to Carl E. Britton.
The church was founded in 1866 on Foundry Street as Pierce Chapel for a congregation of Black Athenians looking for their own place to worship.
Britton is the church’s lead historian and an active member in the congregation since he joined in 1969. He has worked, almost independently, to preserve the history of the church for future generations.
In 1865, when the end of the Civil War freed all enslaved people, church attendance swelled and outgrew the chapel. Throughout the late 1800s, services were held in buildings that could hold the size of the crowd, with most meetings held at Union Hall.
In 1912, Rev. J.W. Dore pioneered a campaign for a new church building. Members donated to raise funds for the new building. On Sunday, May 1, 1917, a procession singing “How Firm A Foundation” marched from Union Hall to their new chapel where the congregation still meets today.
Notable members of the First AME include Hall Johnson, a world famous composer and musician, and Juliette Derricotte, an educator and political activist who died from a car accident after being refused from a white-only hospital, according to Britton. Dr. Hiram was also an active member of the church.
The church played a role in the Civil Right Movement. Several of its members marched to the Varsity on Broad Street to partake in sit-ins in protest of the restaurant’s segregation policy.
Britton and the church have seen tremendous changes to the area around the building. Black neighborhoods, especially Lickskillet and The Bottoms, that surrounded the church were cleared out for redevelopment under the Model Cities program in the 1960s. The development of downtown over the last several years has been creeping in on First AME.
“The Bottoms pretty well got wiped out… I would say a good number were members of the church,” Britton said. Those erased communities are known as “The Lost Neighborhoods.”
“We’re going to all get squeezed out at one point or another,” Britton said. “May not happen in my lifetime, but it’s coming.”
The congregation today is led by pastor Rev. Chekibe Holman and Rev. Syreeta Holman, husband and wife.
Historic Black Cemeteries
The legacy of Black Athenians lives on, but many of their resting places were lost to neglect. The Athens Death Project, along with restoration groups, Friends of the Brooklyn Cemetery and Friends of Gospel Pilgrim Cemetery, have worked to share the stories of these cemeteries and return them to their former glory.
Even in death, Black Athenians were segregated from their white neighbors under Jim Crow laws, with their graves in separate, poorly maintained sections. This led Black residents to establish their own cemeteries and societies that provided for their wellbeing.
Founded in 1882 by the Gospel Pilgrim Society, Gospel Pilgrim Cemetery was one of the first cemeteries for Black residents in Athens. In the peak of the Jim Crow South, many former enslaved people and freed people were buried here. The builder and owner of the Morton Theatre, Monroe Bowers “Pink” Morton and Harriet Powers, a formerly enslaved person who was a famous quilt maker that weaved popular Bible stories, are buried there.
With the last funeral held in the early 2000s, the cemetery was neglected for years until restoration groups and students from the University of Georgia cleared the area of clutter and cleaned and recorded the remaining headstones.
Brooklyn Cemetery, originally called Bethlehem Cemetery, is another historic Black cemeteries. Formed in 1880, many working class men and women were buried here. Like many of Athens’ Black cemeteries, Brooklyn fell into disrepair in the latter half of the 20th century.
