The Royal Peacock is one of the last third places in Atlanta

186 ½ Auburn Avenue is a landmark in itself. This small, nondescript, two-story brick building has been the center of black art, entertainment, and nightlife for nearly 90 years: the Royal Peacock, Atlanta’s oldest black music venue, has been operating continuously for the 1930s.

For decades, historic Auburn Avenue was the main street of Black Atlanta, the heart of its economic, social and political power. Once called “the richest black street in the world,” Auburn Avenue was dominated by venues like the Royal Peacock, a concert hall and lounge that has stood the test of time; constantly adapting, but never abandoning its audience.

During its nearly 90 years in business, the Royal Peacock has hosted an astonishing array of legends: Aretha Franklin, Dizzy Gillespie, Bessie Smith, Louis Armstrong, BB King and the Supremes, not to mention local Georgia stars like Ray Charles, Gladys Knight. , Little Richard and James Brown. The crowds that flocked to see them perform included notable patrons like Joe Louis and Muhammad Ali.

Then and now, the Royal Peacock is one of Atlanta’s most enduring “third places”: public and social places, outside the required domiciles of daily life, including the home (the primary place ) and work or school (the second). Third places provide a community gathering place, chosen by people who want to connect beyond required daily activities.

The great American suburbanization of the last half century has disrupted the social fabric that once linked cities together. Regional planners have traded human-scale, walkable neighborhoods filled with easily connected places for formal and informal social gatherings for retail-based transactional malls and isolationist dead-end development. The creation of Atlanta’s suburbs and outskirts came at the expense of its urban neighborhoods.

In the mid-1960s, city officials built the Downtown Connector Expressway directly across Auburn Avenue. The multi-lane highway first disrupted, then completely dismantled, the heart of black business and the strength of the community. Despite this collapse, the Royal Peacock persisted, remaining the last third place on Auburn Avenue. The concert hall, now transformed into a reggae nightclub, is one of the few venues in Atlanta permanently dedicated to black music and social gatherings. The place managed to survive Jim Crow segregation, the Auburn Avenue Freeway invasion, and the Olympics of the ’90s; Will it survive in Atlanta’s new era of rampant gentrification? Only time will tell.

This article appears in our May 2024 issue.