Macon Magazine

August/September 2025 | maconmagazine.com 59 Across the Southeast, other communities share similar stories of public spaces shuttered to avoid integration. Public spaces, including parks and pools in cities across Georgia, faced closure or disinvestment. From Atlanta to Savannah, white community leaders made the choice to close or abandon public facilities rather than see them integrated. As publicly available recreational facilities closed, pay-to-play amusement parks and private pools began to appear. The decision to close and disinvest in public spaces continues to have negative rami cations for our community – and for communities across the country. Americans are reporting concerningly high levels of loneliness, with a 2024 Gallup poll showing nearly 20% of Americans report feeling lonely on a daily basis. Additionally, we have seen a dramatic decrease over the past decades in the trust that Americans have in one another. The Pew Research Center reports that only 34% of Americans believe that most people can be trusted in 2025, down from 46% in 1972. So what gives? With Americans feeling lonely and wary, what role does investment in public space play in bridging social capital in our community? Our public spaces are critical to creating the the city of Macon to be by them forever used and enjoyed as a park and pleasure ground." While the city funded the operation of the park, the land remained under private ownership, governed by a board of trustees. The park operated as a segregated, whites-only recreation facility from its founding in 1920 until 1963, when it was initially desegregated in compliance with state and federal law. After this initial desegregation, segregationists and some trustees of the park fought to resegregate the park. As civil rights activists won hard-fought victories across the Deep South, advocates in Macon pressed to allow the continued integration of Bacons eld Park as required by federal civil rights legislation and state law. Their calls for equal access were met with marked resistance from white community leaders. Civil rights activists and the NAACP fought to support integration and prevent the closure of the park. As some trustees and white community leaders pressured to keep the park segregated in accordance with Bacon's will, and civil rights leaders and other community members pressured the park to remain integrated, the con ict culminated in the Evans v. Abney lawsuit. The case wound its way through the legal system, making it all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. The court ruled 5–2 that the city must return the land to Bacon's heirs and that those heirs had the right to enforce segregation on private property. Despite the lengthy legal battle brought against the city, the park was closed to the public in 1972, sold o on the private market, and later developed into the commercial center it is today. ABOVE The area that was the park as it looks today, part of a Kroger shopping center. ABOVE RIGHT Postcard of a colorful corner of Bacons eld Park, 1930-1945, courtesy of Boston Public Library. A Tichnor Brothers Collection.

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