The Decatur Plan: Folklore, Historic Preservation, and the Black Experience in Gentrifying Spaces

This article explores the connections between oral traditions, belief, and material culture in the context of gentrification and historic preservation policy in African American communities, using Decatur, Georgia, as a case study. The Decatur example illustrates how history and historic preservation are produced in North American communities of color, framed by the communities within the contemporary legend known as "The Plan." The Plan offers people living in gentrifying communities a means to make sense of the unexplainable: the loss of familiar people, buildings, ways of life, and history to gentrification.