Ashby Street School

Originally opened as a school for white children in 1910, the Ashby Street School was redesignated as a school for Black children in 1919. This development, plus the new addition of the Washington Park recreational area eventually led the few white families that remained at this time to leave the neighborhood for other areas of the city. By the end of the 1920s, the Ashby Street School was the largest school for Black students in both the city of Atlanta and the state of Georgia. The Ku Klux Klan took this development as a threat and firebombed the school in 1922 and again in 1926. 

The school was renamed for Atlanta Reverend E. R. Carter in 1944. Threatened with closure by the school board in 1975, the community successfully protested to keep the school open. Ultimately closed in 1994, the original building is now used as a nonprofit center.