Review: “Giving Voice to Linnentown”

Hattie Thomas Whitehead’s “Giving Voice to Linnentown” highlights the story of Linnentown, a Black community in Athens that thrived until the early 1960s, when the University of Georgia urban renewal project displaced it to build what is now Brumby Hall, a dormitory for students. 

The immersive “Giving Voice to Linnentown” captures what life looked like. Its first two chapters detail the important people of Whitehead’s life, the games she played with her friends as a child and even the foods she ate. These chapters humanize the families who were tragically displaced. Placing readers right in the center of life in Linnentown, the book allows them to imagine themselves growing up in the same environment and empathize with the trauma that came from having their neighborhood removed. 

The book continues to walk its audience through Whitehead’s life as the urban renewal project began. With a detailed description of how the construction project terrorized this community, readers must feel upset along with Whitehead as she recounts her experience. 

The last chapters are sure to leave readers feeling empowered, describing how the Linnentown Project brought the attention and reparations the community deserves. Reading about all of the accomplishments the Linnentown Project has made is moving, but as Whitehead states, the Linnentown Project is far from finished. 

“Giving Voice to Linnentown” is a relatively short read — only 164 pages — packed full of emotion and imagery that sets the scene for the reader along every step of Whitehead’s life. The book sets a courageous tone from the first page, its epigraph stating, “Do not be silent; there is no limit to the power that may be released through you.” The book articulates the story of a community that was forgotten for so long, but will be forgotten no longer.  Inspiring and calling readers to use their voices to speak up for the marginalized, every Athens citizen should read this book.