Sweet Auburn: The Avenue of Dreams

Lyrics

[Intro]
The air smells like ambition.
And fried chicken.
And tomorrow.

[Verse 1]
After the smoke of '06 cleared,
a new city had to be built.
Not with their permission.
Alonzo Herndon, with a straight razor and steady hands,
laid the first brick.
Atlanta Life.
You can still hear the typewriters clicking inside,
the sound of policies being written,
futures being secured,
one crisp sheet of paper at a time.

[Chorus]
Oh, Sweet Auburn.
John Wesley Dobbs called you a beehive.
Said you were a black man's heaven.
Pavement humming with purpose.
Every door open was our own.
Every dollar spent, a vote of confidence.
Sweet Auburn.

[Verse 2]
Upstairs at the Odd Fellows Building,
the needle drops on a record.
WERD radio, crackling to life.
Jesse Blayton Sr. on the mic,
and his boy J.B. running down the hall,
shouting "Daddy, your song is on!"
And the sound spills out onto the street,
mixing with the horns from the Royal Peacock,
where James Brown is gonna make the floor sweat tonight.
Where Aretha will find her soul.

[Chorus]
Oh, Sweet Auburn.
John Wesley Dobbs called you a beehive.
Said you were a black man's heaven.
Pavement humming with purpose.
Every door open was our own.
Every dollar spent, a vote of confidence.
Sweet Auburn.

[Bridge]
And it wasn't just the big names.
It was the barber in his chair,
the cook at her stove,
the seamstress at her machine.
The quiet talk on the steps of the Butler Street Y.
Building a world inside a world.
A promise kept between the bricks.

[Chorus]
Oh, Sweet Auburn!
John Wesley Dobbs, you called it a beehive!
You said it was a black man's heaven!
Pavement humming with purpose!
Every door open was our own!
Every dollar spent, a revolution!
Sweet Auburn!

[Outro]
A beehive...
humming...
Sweet Auburn...