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Black lives honored at Chattahoochee Brick Company | 2nd Annual Sacred Ceremony

The brickwork company is being rebuilt to serve as a park and memorial honoring the black lives that worked there.

ATLANTA — A celebration took place on Saturday, marking the next chapter for an Atlanta non-profit working to reimagine an old brickwork company into a place that honors the black lives that worked there, a release said from the event organizer.

People were invited to what used to be the Chattahoochee Brick Company on Saturday at 1 p.m. for their 2nd Annual Sacred Ceremony held at 3195 Brick Plant Road, Atlanta.

The non-profit looks to re-design the 75-acre space into a place that honors the survivors of its past. The city of Atlanta bought the property to make it into a public park and memorial. 

The Chattahoochee Brick Company was a brickwork company located on the banks of the Chattahoochee River in Atlanta, Georgia. The company was responsible, the release said, for making 200,000 bricks a day for the use of roads, buildings and homes globally. 

Founded by former Atlanta Mayor James W. English in 1878, the brickworks is known for its extensive use of convict lease labor. The release said hundreds of African American convicts worked in conditions similar to those experienced during antebellum slavery. 

It is speculated that some workers who died at the brickworks were buried on its grounds, the release said.

The ceremony included drumming and libations, followed by invocations, African dancing, faith-based messages and a Keynote from David Banner. 

The release said performances were given by Moving Our Stories & Giwayen Mata, African Dance Company; Griot Drum Ensemble, African Drum Collective; Egun Omode Performing Arts Collective, Youth African Drum Collective; and Sheree Amore, singer and songwriter. 

For more information on Chattahoochee Brick Company Descendant Coalition and its programs, visit the website at www.cbcdescants.org, or follow on social media @cbcdescants. 

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