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82 ˜ A Work of Hospitality, 1982–2002
have community meetings. This room is the center of the common life of the
Open Door Community. We’ve had baptisms in this room; we’ve had funerals.
We drive down to Butler Street, and we pass Dr. King’s crypt, where his
bones lie restless in the grave, waiting for people with guts to stand up and say
again, as he said, “Let my people go!” We arrive on Butler Street, and there is
God, waiting for us. There is Jesus, standing by the gate, just above the “No Loitering”
sign. Butler Street.
I am very interested in names and love to find out their histories. So this
summer I found that Butler Street is named for William Orlando Butler. We
also have a town in South Georgia named Butler, which is the seat of Taylor
County. This won’t come as any surprise to you because you know of the struggle
in Atlanta about the names of streets and whom we honor: Butler was a
slaveholder. He was also a soldier and a lawyer. In 1861 he ran for the vice presidency
of the United States, hoping a Southern slaveholder would keep the Civil
War at bay. So we stand on the street, Butler Street. And we know by that name
that we honor a past for which we have not fully repented; nor have we restored
this nation to health and reconciliation.
Butler Street intersects some other streets of noteworthy name, for instance,
Coca-Cola Place. At the corner of Coca-Cola Place and Edgewood was the first
office of the Coca-Cola company, and in the basement (which later became a
day shelter for homeless people) was the first laboratory for the company as it
labored to find a formula, so that you could drink many Cokes and not quench
your thirst. It worked! Coca-Cola is the most successful multinational corporation
in the world, and its product is worthless. It has no food value.
In front of Grady Hospital is Gilmer Street. George Gilmer was governor of
Georgia in 1830, shortly after gold was discovered in Dahlonega. The rules of jurisdiction
changed, the state brought in the land lottery, and we took the land
from the Cherokee. So we honor his name.
It is important for us to know and remember the history of that asphalt and
the naming of that street. Whether the place is named Calvary or Golgotha,
whether it is Galilee or Butler Street, God calls us to go where there is no room
in the inn. If God is leading you and your camels somewhere spacious, you’ve
got the wrong map.
The color of Butler Street is black. Black asphalt. The color of God is black.
Most people who live on Butler Street are black. God sends us to Butler Street
so that those of us who are not black may become black, and those of us who
are already black can get blacker. There’s not enough of us in this city, or in this
society, who are black enough. We’ve got to get blacker. Not being black enough
makes it possible for the Christian Coalition to proclaim in the newspaper that
racism isn’t a problem in our society, or in this city. And it’s a lie! We’ve got to
get blacker. Not being black enough makes it possible for Atlanta newspaper
columnist Colin Campbell to blame the problems of downtown Atlanta on