In Sweet Auburn, a birthday party fit for a King

As we near Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s 100th birthday, a look at how Atlanta celebrates

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Martin Luther King Jr.'s Atlanta home
Martin Luther King Jr.’s birth home

Photograph by NPS Photo

It’s January, the coldest month in Atlanta. Despite the chill, the streets of the Sweet Auburn Historic District come alive every year on the third Monday of the month, when the city celebrates the birthday and legacy of iconic Atlantan Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Though the federal holiday is honored nationwide, it holds special significance in the Sweet Auburn neighborhood, where King was born and raised, and where he and his father both served as preachers for the Ebenezer Baptist Church. King’s early environs are today the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park & Preservation District, which welcomes as many as 500 visitors for the holiday celebration each year.

“It’s a labor of love months in the making, and a collaboration of community,” says Reginald Chapple, National Park Service superintendent for this site. His team spends 84 calendar days planning for the five-hour festivities, headlined by a birthday block party for the late leader, who was born January 15. Across the street, the King Center for Nonviolent Social Change, a separate organization led by King’s youngest daughter, Dr. Bernice A. King, hosts its own suite of events.

The hundreds of visitors engage in annual traditions, such as eating vanilla sheet cake made by a nearby Black-owned bakery. They dance and serenade Dr. King’s memory with Stevie Wonder’s version of “Happy Birthday.” Children gather for the annual storytelling event, where a member of the King family delivers a selected reading about their legendary ancestor.

Generally, visitors take advantage of the holiday to visit the rest of the MLK Historic Site, which includes the original Ebenezer Baptist Church, the historic Fire Station No. 6, and other preserved buildings that reflect Sweet Auburn’s heyday as a Black middle-class neighborhood. But this year, one stop will have to be skipped: King’s birth home, which shuttered last January for a $7 million renovation expected to be completed in November. Access to the home’s interior is closed during the overhaul, though free interpretive presentations about the house are available at the bookstore next door.

“As an older house, it takes time to upgrade power lines, restabilize the foundation, repair wood rot, and send out to third parties to match delicate materials no longer in production,” Chapple says. “We’re putting in new flooring and using new museum techniques to cover and protect it.” The renovation will improve ventilation in the house and make the site accessible for visitors with disabilities.

While most of the restoration is behind the scenes, some elements will be plain to see from the street, from refinished windows and eaves to a fresh coat of paint. From a creaky-floored room in the tidy bookstore, Chapple gazes over the fence at the renovation of King’s birth home next door. “Look out the window,” he points. “There’s change happening every day.”

This article appears in our January 2025 issue.

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