Cascade Heights is an affluent predominantly African-American neighborhood in southwest Atlanta. Along with Sandtown and other portions of unincorporated South Fulton County, the area has a reputation as having a high concentration of the African-American elite in the city.

Cascade Heights, or simply Cascade, can refer to a large area that is bound by I-20, on the north, I-285 on the west, South Utoy Creek on the south, and the Adams Park and Beecher Hills neighborhoods to the east. By this definition, this area also includes neighborhoods such as Peyton Forest, West Manor, and Mangum Manor to name a few. This situation can be paralleled to Midtown's role in Northeast Atlanta; each neighborhood is separate and distinct but the area is still known by one generic name.

[edit] History

In the early 1960s the area was a predominantly white neighborhood. During the integration movement however, a practice called blockbusting occurred. Property in the neighborhood was purchased, and multiple families of African-Americans would move in, lowering the property values. Realtors stirred up the racial tension by calling residents of the area, scaring them about lowered property values, and offering to list their property. Sunday afternoons became a traffic jam of cars full of African-Americans shopping for homes. In 1962 Mayor Ivan Allen, urged by whites in southwest Atlanta (in particular, one of his high-level employees who lived right off Peyton Road), authorized the construction of a concrete barrier that closed Cascade Heights from the Peyton Road access for black home seekers from nearby Gordon Road. The incident, later known as the Peyton Road affair, drew national attention and caused newspapers around the country to question Atlanta's motto, "the City Too Busy to Hate." The "Atlanta wall," as some newspapers called it, was ruled unconstitutional by the courts and was torn down. This event is also credited in part for helping to spur the growth and prominence of Collier Heights, which is the first affluent community in the nation built by and for African-Americans. Collier Heights, founded in 1948, was recently entered onto the National Registry of Historic Places by the United States Department of the Interior.

After that incident, by the late 60's the neighborhood transitioned into an affluent predominantly African-American neighborhood located on the southwest side of Atlanta, Georgia. It is adjacent to the Historic Collier Heights neighborhood, another affluent predominately African American community in the Northwest side of Atlanta, along with West End. For the past decade, Atlanta’s Cascade community has been expanding westward with new subdivisions and shopping centers. It resembles any other upper-middle-class suburb, with the exception being that nearly all of its residents are African-American. Notable residents of Cascade Heights include: former Atlanta mayor Shirley Franklin, baseball legend Hank Aaron, former UN Ambassador and mayor of Atlanta Andrew Young, and past national president of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity and founding member of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children Ozell Sutton, and Dr. Howard W. Grant,current Executive Director/Administrator of the Atlanta Board of Education