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TRAILER PARKS
Through an inquiry by the Mayor, the Commission was asked to investigate the
Situation regarding the difficulty of Negroes attempting to rent space in Atlanta
trailer parks. Two Negro families, Mr. and Mrs. Frame and Mr. and Mrs. Wheat,
have attempted to rent places to park their trailers and have been unable to
find any trailer park in Atlanta that will rent to them. Mr. Frame, an Army
veteran, is presently employed with a local paper company, and Mr. Wheat is
now on active duty with the U. S. Army. Both families believe that they are
being denied access to the trailer parks because they are Negro. They related
several instances in which they had called parks, been told that there was a
vacancy, and upon arriving at the park been told that the vacancy had just been
filled, Several parks had allowed the families to fill out application forms
but, from all indications, these applications were never given any serious consider-
ation.
The staff of the Community Relations Commission has been able to gain the
following information in regards to this issue:
1, The District Attorney's office has informed us that trailer parks are
not covered under the Civil Rights Act of 1964. At present, certain
agencies have written to Washington in an attempt to find out if
trailer parks within a 34 mile radius of Ft. McPherson are included
in Secretary McNamara's recent Federal Order concerning military
housing.
2. A number of organizations in Atlanta have worked with the Frames and
the Wheats in attempting to get them located in a trailer park. These
include the Red Cross, The NAACP, and certain military personnel at
Ft. McPherson. The Reverend Amos Holmes of the NAACP stated that he
had personally contacted 24 different trailer parks for Mr. and Mrs,
Wheat, but was unable to find one that would accept a Negro family.
Only 2 of the 24 were willing to let the Wheats fill out an application,
None of the trailer parks contacted, including those in predominately
Negro neighborhoods, had any Negroes in residence.
3. Most of the trailer park owners claim that they are filled to capacity
and thus unable to provide accamodations for any new applicants, either
Negro or white. A survey of some of the trailer parks on Stewart
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Avenue showed that there were some vacant spaces in these parks.
One owner stated that the vacant spaces in his park “were reserved for
people who bought trailers from him",
4. A small group of trailer park owners have expressed thir willingness
to meet with the Mayor, Board of Aldermen, or the Zoning Commission
ta discuss the problem of zoning in regards to the building of new
trailer parks. They claim that present zoning restrictions have made
it almost impossible to construct any new trailer parks in Atlanta.
They also said that if zoning regulations could be changed, they would
be willing to build a new trailer park which would uphold a policy
Of open occupancy.
In conclusion, we can simply say that presently, there is no Negro living in
any trailer park in Atlanta. Mr. and Mrs, Frame have spent two years looking
for rental space in any Atlanta trailer park and have been unsuccessful in all
of their attempts. Both the Frames and the Wheats feel that the trailer parks
are discriminating against them on racial grounds and both are looking for any
sort of solution in the near future that will remedy their housing problem.