Roswell Black historian reflects on personal history

By DELANEY TARR delaney@appenmedia.com

ROSWELL, Ga. — Charles Grogan has spent the past 40 years working on a comprehensive book of his family’s history. The massive binder is packed with pages of research and documents on his family and the Black community in Roswell, stretching back to the 1800s.

Grogan is Roswell’s “Black Historian,” but he doesn’t see himself that way.

“More so this is my lived experience, this is the story of my life,” Grogan said.

He has worked with the Roswell Historical Society since 2001 and is on the board of the Pleasant Hill Cemetery Committee, a committee dedicated to preserving the historically Black cemetery.

Grogan is not credentialed, but he’s dedicated years of his life to learning Roswell’s Black history. He sees himself as more of a “living historian.”

The work paid off. Grogan has found long-lost information about his family. He learned his great-grandmother owned property in 1896, a rarity for the time. She is now buried in the Pleasant Hill Cemetery.

Grogan also found a lot of information about his own life. He was born in the late 1940s and his mother was unmarried. In 1948, his mother’s father encouraged her to give Grogan up.

His aunt on his father’s side came and took him to her house one day, and Grogan said, “that was it, she kept me.”

In his research, Grogan found his name in the 1950 census. It was the first mention of him in any official document. He was listed as adopted by his aunt.

Grogan was close with his mother growing up, and with the rest of his father’s family on Willow Street. Grogan’s bonds also stretched into the greater Roswell community.

The Black community in Roswell was small, according to Grogan. It made it easier for him to find the history of everyone around him.

“It’s interesting to have (the history) since I have a relationship with a lot of people,” Grogan said. “They felt like family, they even were family,”

Grogan left his community behind when he graduated from school in

1965. As a young man, he was drafted into the United States Army in 1966. Grogan said Roswell officially integrated in 1967, so he wasn’t around for the change.

“That portion of Roswell I kind of missed,” Grogan said.

It was an easy adjustment for him. He grew up with white friends, playing basketball and throwing rocks as children.

“We didn’t get the learned behavior that had been before me,” Grogan said. “You have to be taught to hate.”

Grogan made more white friends in the military. When they all came back to Roswell, they joined an integrated basketball league in Alpharetta.

Soon after returning home, Grogan was hired in the mailroom for an electric company. Once he started, they hired more Black men to fill positions.

“When I got out of the army, they started hiring more Black people,” Grogan said.

He started playing softball with his coworkers, where he was the only Black man on the team. Grogan said his time in the mailroom was relatively “smooth going,” which he credits to his coworkers and his laid-back attitude.

Now, years removed from the early days of desegregation Grogan reflects on Roswell’s Black History. He said the city is doing a “decent job” respecting their history. He said Roswell Roots is one of the “cool things” the city does that he appreciates.

It’s not all perfect, though.

Years ago, Grogan talked to people who wanted to have different historically Black locations people could visit in Roswell. Grogan pointed out that there were not very many places Black “Roswellians” could gather.

“There weren’t that many locations,” Grogan said. “The café, that’s the only place we could go back in the day.”

Grogan also remembers more recent historical struggles. Many of the people he grew up with no longer live in Roswell, pushed out by housing restrictions and costs. In the 1970s, his cousin tried to buy a house. The realtors said there weren’t any vacant homes in Roswell.

Now, his family lives in Minnesota and Michigan.

“They don’t care about coming here,” Grogan said.

He knows other people who live in Atlanta and avoid Roswell because of the bad experiences they had. But Grogan disagrees with their decisions.

“You probably offended somebody once, and you don’t want them to take that for 50 years and carry it,” he said.

Instead, he encourages people to return to Roswell and enjoy the memories.

“When I got to Willow Street, I sit on the porch and still see myself riding down street on the tricycle,” Grogan said. “This is where I grew up and this is where my story goes.”

Code: Parking deck approved for The Gathering approved a change of conditions for the multi-use development The Gathering on Haynes Bridge Road.

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Councilmembers unanimously

The approved changes will add four detached single-family homes, increase the commercial area more than 8,000 square feet, add green spaces and change the parking layout from two levels to a four-level parking deck.

Hipes and Gilvin shared concerns about the appearance of a parking deck at the entrance to the city.

Developer Adam Brock said commercial businesses that are interested in the property had demanded more parking, and he said the previous two-story deck, which was half underground, could no longer meet the parking demands.

The change of conditions passed 6-0, and the developer Brock Built agreed to plant 6-inch caliper trees to help obscure the deck from the street view.