Atlanta's Vine City neighborhood remembers MLK - KMSP-TV

While most Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday celebrations were centered along historic Auburn Avenue, another section of Atlanta also played an important role in the Civil Rights Movement and in Dr. King's life.

There are no visitor centers, no signs or anything else to indicate the significance the home located at 234 Sunset Avenue in Vine City. That's where Dr. King raised his family back in the 1960s.

"A lot of people don't even realize that this is Dr. King's house," said Reginald Hall.

Just a few doors, Julian Bond, Maynard Jackson Sr. and many other Atlanta African-America leaders lived.

Hall chose to clean up around the King home on the day of service in honor of Dr. King.

"We're looking at how to sustain the neighborhood and the community," said Hall.

John Carter lives two doors down from the King home. He said he's lived in Vine City all of his life. He said he met Dr. King many years ago.

It's a neighborhood that's been through hard times, but people here are working to build it back up.

J.R. Murphy started a community garden at a once-dangerous apartment building.

"It was drug-infested, all kind of that things happening over here, but we've turned all that positive now," Murphy said.

For people who've lived in the neighborhood all their lives who knew the King family, MLK served as a very personal inspiration.

"The year I graduated from Washington High was the year they were saying somebody from my high school was up in Washington touching the conscience of this nation," said one neighbor.

Blocks of Vine City had to be bulldozed a few years ago. That area could be turned into a park, which some neighbors think could be party of revitalizing the community.