Sandy Springs DeWald’s Alley and the memories of Shirley Peters Pruitt

In February of 2023 I wrote an article for the Dunwoody Crier newspaper about DeWald’s Alley, a community of Black families who lived off Barfield Road in Sandy Springs from the 1920s until the early 1970s. I had little information to go on, but pieced enough together to acknowledge the existence of DeWald’s Alley.

Fortunately, Shirley Pruitt saw the article and contacted me to share her story. She and her family lived at DeWald’s Alley.

Pruitt was born Shirley Peters in 1941 at Grady Hospital. She left Sandy Springs for many years but returned and lives there today.

The Peters family included seven boys and one girl, Shirley. She recalled there were eight homes at DeWald’s Alley, but some of the houses were home to two families. Shirley Pruitt’s family shared one side of their home with her aunt’s family for a while before using both sides.

On the left, Ms. Pruitt's brother-in-law Clarence Pruitt, and on the right her cousin A. C. Peters stand together in this DeWald's Alley photo from the 2017 Sandy Springs Gazette.  

Residents of DeWald’s Alley rented from Clyde and Susie DeWald, who lived nearby on Spruill Road, later known as Meadow Lane Road. Susie DeWald would go door to door collecting rent each month. The houses of DeWald’s Alley had outhouses, no electricity, and well water. Pumps were eventually installed.

Ms. Pruitt’s family planted a garden each year by their house. She remembers as a child going to Burdette’s Store at Mount Vernon Road and Roswell Road to buy groceries. She also recalls going with her father to a Spruill farm where Perimeter Mall is today for butter and buttermilk.

When she was five years old, Ms. Pruitt started school at the community’s church, known as Mt. Mary’s Baptist Church. The church was a wooden building, painted white, and located on Mt. Vernon Highway. Her grandfather, Will Peters, helped build the church. There had been both a school and church, but the school building burned down.

When the church membership had decreased to only five people, it moved to Lynwood Park in Brookhaven. Then, the children of DeWald’s Alley, including Shirley Pruitt, were bused to the Alpharetta Colored School. Due to segregation, the children were not permitted to attend nearby Hammond or Morgan Falls School. They were bused to a school that would have been at least a 15-mile trip before 400 existed.

The children’s teachers, Ms. Hambrick and Ms. Jones, went to the new school also. While Pruitt was attending the school, the school’s name was changed to Bailey Johnson. Bailey Johnson was the only school for Black children in north Fulton County. The last class to graduate from the school was in 1967.

All these schools, including Mt. Mary’s, were part of the Fulton County School System. In the school archives of the county, the records indicate that Mt. Mary’s School was in a church building. Some of the other schools that Black children attended were also in churches.

Other Black children in the area, who did not live on DeWald’s Alley, attended Mt. Mary School. Those families included the Brown, Evans, Martin and Lucas families. The Evans children were cousins of Shirley Pruitt and the family lived where Glenridge and Mount Vernon Road meet. The Lucas family lived on Meadow Lane.

The Fulton County Superintendent’s Annual Report reveals the facts of the inequities of the time. There was one teacher at Mt. Mary during the 1929-1930 school year and she earned $660 for the year. Hammond School had six women teachers who earned $1434 each. (Fulton County School Archives)

During the 1948-1949 school year, Mt. Mary’s had two teachers for 51 children. Nearby Morgan Falls School had 12 teachers for 130 children.

At the age of 13, Shirley Pruitt had a terrifying experience. A white family that lived near where Johnson’s Ferry meets the Chattahoochee River was asking around for a babysitter. She went with the father of the family to their property and the man attempted to assault her. Fortunately, after a long struggle she was able to fight him off and escape.

There would have been no protection or recourse from the legal system at that time for Shirley Pruitt or her family. The family no longer felt safe and moved to Roswell. After the family moved, Pruitt needed to see a dentist for a filling, but no dentist in Roswell would take a Black patient. She ended up going to a Norcross dentist, who said she must enter through a back door. Then, when he administered Novocain, he struck a nerve causing permanent damage to her face.

Shirley Pruitt’s grandparents lived on the property of Dr. Griffith on Heard’s Ferry Road, where her grandfather worked. The couple had ten children, plus they raised a grandchild on the property.

Ms. Pruitt remembers learning to drive a Dodge straight shift on Barfield Road, which was a dirt road at the time.

Shirley Peters later married Lugene Pruitt and they had four children. After the marriage ended in divorce, Shirley Pruitt moved back to Sandy Springs.

While living in Roswell, her oldest son played basketball at Roswell High School and her youngest child Denny was the mascot. Later, after moving to Sandy Springs, Denny played basketball at North Springs High School. During his time playing on the team from 9th to 12th grade, in the mid-1980s, he was the only Black player. Ms. Pruitt went to all his games. As a Senior in 1988, Denny Pruitt was nominated to the McDonalds’s All-American Team.

I am grateful to Shirley Pruitt for reaching out to me and sharing her story of living at DeWald’s Alley in Sandy Springs. This history can be preserved thanks to Ms. Pruitt.