Dr. John Hope (1868-1936)
Civil Rights Activist and Champion of Decent Housing
Dr. John Hope, appointed Chairman of the University Advisory Board, traveled often to Washington to advocate for housing for low income families. He also provided invaluable assistance and mentorship to Charles F. Palmer who was spearheading University Home's sister project, Techwood Homes for white families.
Dr. John Hope was one of the most influential African American educators in Atlanta's history and a pivotal leader for the Civil Rights movement. He was steadfast in his support of public education, adequate housing, health care, and job opportunities for African Americans in Atlanta. Hope was born of a biracial union on June 2, 1868 in Augusta, Georgia. His father, Scottish-born James Hope, and his mother, Mary Frances Butts a freed African-American woman born in Hancock County, lived openly as husband and wife although Georgia law prohibited interracial marriages. Hope attended Worchester Academy in Massachusetts and graduated in 1890. He continued his studies at Brown University. After graduating in 1894, Hope spent four years teaching science at Roger Williams University in Nashville, Tennessee, before accepting a position at Atlanta Baptist College (later Morehouse University). In 1897 Hope married Lugenia Burns whom he had met in Chicago. Burns dovetailed his pursuits, herself a highly educated social leader and community activist.
In 1906 Hope became the first black President of Morehouse University and then the President of Atlanta University in 1929 when Morehouse merged with it. His presidency at each institution signaled a shift from white-led to black-led institutions. Hope remained President of Atlanta University until his death in 1936. Throughout his career, Hope was steadfast in his support of public education, adequate housing, health care, and job opportunities for African-Americans.
Dr. John Hope envisioned a public housing project on the site of the Beaver Slide, the slum area next to the university campus. With the help of O. I. Freeman, civil engineer and W. J. Sayward, architect, Hope drafted a plan for clearance and redevelopment of the community. During his last few years of life, Hope worked closely with Charles F. Palmer to come up with a solution to end Atlanta’s festering slums and rid the area near Morehouse College of blight and despair. Dr. Hope contacted Palmer who helped to apply the Techwood Homes model to the planning of University Homes, which would become the public housing project for black families on the site of Beaver Slide slum. Dr. Hope became chairman of the Board of Trustees and was dedicated to this project until his death. He died on February 20, 1936, in Atlanta due to pneumonia and was buried at Clark Atlanta University. He was 67 at the time of his death and he never had the opportunity to see the housing project completed in the year to follow.
When Charles F. Palmer became Atlanta Housing's first chairman and constructed Atlanta Housings first housing project, an adjacent project to University Homes (both Techwood and University Homes had been constructed under the federal government and then turned over to Atlanta Housing in 1940) he named it the John Hope Homes. From this time on, the pair of housing projects became the University-John Hope Homes.
UNIV_2020_doc_00002.pdf"Hope Here Today: Dr. Hope made Housing Project a Possibility." Sunday, Feb. 23, 1936
Newspaper clipping.
Sources:
John and Lugenia Hope Papers, 1888-1947. Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library.